February 18, (THEWILL) – A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun, Hon. Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, has urged President Bola Tinubu to set up a special taskforce for the distribution of the approved 42,000 metric tonnes of grains from strategic reserves to Nigerians.
Oyintiloye, while speaking with newsmen on Sunday, in Osogbo, said that setting up the taskforce was necessary in order to ensure that the grains were not diverted, but got to the targeted Nigerians.
He said for the masses to benefit from the free grains, the President must put up a taskforce to cripple the activities of saboteurs, who were desperate to make gains from the pains of Nigerians.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, on February 8, said the President had approved the release of 42,000MT of maize, millet and other commodities from the national strategic reserves to address the rising cost of food in Nigeria.
Idris, after a meeting of the Presidential Committee on Emergency Food Intervention, also said that the Rice Millers Association of Nigeria had committed to releasing about 60,000MT of rice to the markets.
Oyintiloye, a former lawmaker, however, said if the President wanted the poor Nigerians to feel the impact of the released grains, a special taskforce should be constituted to ensure its effective distribution.
He said that past experiences had shown that the Federal Government’s free grains had not been reaching the targeted Nigerians due to the activities of saboteurs.
Oyintiloye said it would be a great disservice to the country and the efforts of the President if the good gesture of the free grains is allowed to be hijacked by private individuals.
He said aside from the staff of the National Emergency Management Agency and Department of State Services that would be engaged in the distribution, a special presidential taskforce should be deployed to states to ensure effective distribution.
Oyintiloye, who commended the President for the release of the grains, said that those who were experts in sabotaging the efforts of the government to ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians must not be allowed to truncate the distribution process.
“There is no doubt that there is hunger in the land, but the efforts of the government in minimising the problems should not be allowed to be truncated by the enemies of the country.
“And that is why I appeal to the President to set up this special taskforce so as to outsmart those that are waiting to divert the grains.
“People are hungry and this free grain to be distributed by the government must get to the masses and it must not be diverted.
“With the presidential taskforce in place and with effective monitoring, it will be difficult for anyone, no matter how placed, to have access to diverting the grains,” he said.
Oyintiloye, a former member of the defunct APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), also said the President’s directive that security agencies go after those hoarding food is a welcome development and it has started yielding positive results.
He said with this presidential directive, those who were hoarding food to make unjustifiable gains would be brought to justice.
“We all know that the economy is in bad shape, but the way market men and women are using the present situation to hike prices of foods to exploit Nigerians is alarming.
“Many of them are hoarding goods to create artificial scarcity in order to force the prices up and this is not good for the development of our country.
“I commend the President for this directive and I strongly believe that it will force prices of food down and make it available in abundance.
“The President should continue to braze up against enemies of this nation, who are making life unbearable for the common man,” he said.
Oyintiloye, who noted that the President was doing everything possible to salvage the situation, said whatever the challenges the country is passing through at the moment is temporary.
He urged Nigerians to continue to support the President with prayers, adding that Nigerians will rise again.
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