Nkrumah Bankong-Obi/Lafia
The governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule on Tuesday, kickstarted the distribution of foodstuff to residents in the State. The items were received as part of the fulfilment of the promise by President Bola Tinubu to ameliorate the suffering resulting from the removal of subsidies on petrol. At the ceremony which was held at the Emir’s Palace in Lafia, Governor Sule said “What we are doing here is just a flag-off. And by the grace of God, this will be replicated in every polling unit,” the process was transparent as the committee handling the distribution was carefully constituted “we have also engaged all the various religious bodies, our royal fathers, members of Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, members of other communities, youths and all the rest of them, as well as officials of government in this sharing arrangement.”
The governor stressed that the food palliatives were Party-blind as they are meant to serve all, especially the most vulnerable people of Nasarawa State. He said the reason we choose to flag off at the palaces is because this is not an event for our Party, the APC, this is an event for all political parties, for all the people of Nasarawa State. This is an event where we are distributing food to the good people of Nasarawa State, irrespective of their political party affiliation,” hence Efforts must be made to ensure that the items reach those who are in most need of them.
Speaking earlier at an expanded meeting with stakeholders in the State, the governor told those in attendance that his administration was proactive enough to set up a committee to fashion a way of sharing the palliatives that were expected from the Federal government, even when neither figures nor material produce had not been announced. “the committee[chaired by the deputy governor] has done a wonderful job by being able to come up with various recommendations about what and what to do, at the time we didn’t know how much we were going to get or when it was going to come. But the committee was able to come up with figures about some kind of payments that will go to civil servants, and payments that will go to people all over the state, one way or the other including areas of fertilizer distribution and all other things.
Governor Sule announced that N5 billion naira in cash and food items has been partly received and part is being expected. He informed that gathering that the total sum was a contribution between the State and federal government, with the Federal government paying fifty-two per cent while the State pays the balance. In addition, he said 1 billion naira worth of grains will also be distributed to every State. and Nasarawa State will get her share in due course.