The Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibrin, yesterday said President Bola Tinubu has expressed dissatisfaction with the previous palliative distribution to the needy in the country to ease hardship, adding that this informed the President’s decision to reconstitute a committee for the distribution of the palliatives to get to the needy.
   
Barau stated this while flagging off the distribution of the Federal Government’s palliatives to the needy in the Northwest geo-political zone in Kano. He called on Nigerians to rally around the President to fix the country as this is not the time for a blame game.   He said the President is working round the clock to come up with policies to revamp the economy to bring succour to the people.
   
According to him, “the President has done well by giving out palliative. But the problem was that the palliative supports were not fairly distributed which is why the President reconstituted this distribution committee. We are here to distribute the palliative equitably, and we are out to distribute the palliative down to the grassroots level,” he stated.
 
 The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, said the Federal Government had earlier given 90 trucks of foodstuff and an additional 20 trucks to Kano but was not properly distributed. 
   
Kyari said for the current distribution, a total of 19.3 trucks amounting to 23,644 bags of rice (25kg) were given to Kano for onward distribution to the needy. Kyari further announced that Kano is expected to get 70 trucks of the Federal Government subsidised 50kg rice to be unveiled soon.

MEANWHILE, as food prices remain high across the country, a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) has urged the Federal Government to further subsidise the N40,000 per 50kg bag of rice and revisit the condition of National Identification Number (NIN) presentation, including telephone number before purchasing the commodity.
   
Speaking with newsmen yesterday, the Executive Director, Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Rev David Ugolor, said there should be serious consideration for Nigerians who are in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, and the very vulnerable groups who do not have such documents to present before buying a bag of rice and called on the government to list out and tell Nigerians the designated shops they can access to buy the subsidised rice.
   
He said: “I see the plan by the Federal Government to subsidise rice so that Nigerians can buy a bag of 50kg at N40,000 as a short-term measure. This is a good approach to address the high rate of poverty in the country as many people are no longer able to afford two meals a day.
   
“The use of identification mediums such as the NIN and phone numbers to control access seems to be a government option for ensuring that the commodity gets to the intended audience. But the truth is that the population of poor and hungry Nigerians is far more than those that have NIN.”