• Don’t incite rebellion, APC govs warn PDP colleagues
• Govt to distribute 42,000 metric tonnes of grains 

Northern traditional rulers, led by Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, have stated that with the level of hardship, poverty and insecurity in the country, they could no longer pacify the citizens, warning that the nation is sitting on a keg of gunpowder.

The Sultan expressed the concern yesterday during the sixth National Executive Committee meeting of the Northern Traditional Council in Kaduna.

As chairman of council, Abubakar told the Federal Government that monarchs, religious leaders, as well as governors have been pacifying the masses and the jobless youths from revolting against political authorities.

He added that it was getting to a level that the traditional rulers could no longer hold them back in the face of seeming failure to find solutions to their socio-economic plights.

His words: “And let’s not take it for granted; people are quiet, they are quiet for a reason, because people have been talking to them. We have been talking to them, we have been trying to tell them things will be okay, and they keep on believing. I pray to Almighty Allah that they will not one day wake up and say we no longer believe in you. That would be the biggest problem, because we can’t quieten these people as traditional, spiritual leaders and diplomats forever.”

MEANWHILE, the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) has warned their Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterparts against utterances and actions capable of inciting the masses against the Federal Government.

In a statement yesterday in Abuja, its chairman and Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma, said the economic and security challenges confronting the nation needed a collaborative approach for lasting solutions.

Reacting to the press briefing by PDP governors on Monday where they likened Nigeria to another Venezuela, Uzodimma stated that it was unpatriotic for those in leadership positions to play the ostrich when fully aware of what the President was doing to reverse the situation.

He regretted that after cataloguing what they perceived as the nation’s myriad of problems, his PDP colleagues could not proffer a single solution.

ALL of these came as the Federal Government, yesterday, said 42,000 tonnes of grain would be released from the reserves for onward distribution to Nigerians free of charge.

Government said the grains would be delivered to the neediest, adding that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Department of State Services (DSS) were working on modalities to provide the index and intelligence report on where the grains are most needed.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, made the announcement at the maiden ministerial press briefing, organised by the Ministry of Information to showcase President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda for the nation’s agricultural sector.

He attributed the current hunger in the land to low food production during the 2023 wet season farming.
“Land mass is shrinking, and access to capital is also unavailable to farmers. Not that farmers did not cultivate, but the factor of demand and supply impacted on food, which was why a state of emergency was declared,” Kyari explained.

The minister decried double taxation and harassment faced by truck drivers transporting food items to different parts of the country.

He noted: “This is a great concern to us. We have seen not only inter-state double taxation, but also within the states, like in Kebbi, where a two-hour drive was being charged N600,000. Immediately I saw that, I reached out to the governor on the development. And he told me that at that point, he had already tackled the issue, and we have to make a national policy because of the food security aspect.”

“We need to take drastic steps to avert a food crisis because when you look at it, food is now viewed as a trading commodity, not as a necessity for food security for the nation. And I think because of the situation and the challenge that we face, we have to come out to make an absolute statement that double taxation should not apply to food in transit.”

He said for the second phase of National Agriculture Growth Scheme and Agro Project (NAGS-AP) for rice, the current administration intends to produce 150,000 hectares with interventions to 300,000 farmers.

The minister revealed that six bags of fertiliser would be needed to cultivate one hectare since it is two farmers to a hectare, with the cultivators given one and behalf bags of fertiliser each.

He said through further intervention from the President, the government pays for one bag; the project pays for one and a half bags, while the farmers offset only half bag, adding that all the seeds would be provided to farmers free.

Kyari added that for the wet season, they intend to cultivate 500,000 metric tonnes of farmland and produce three million metric tonnes of rice, while about 50,000mt of maize would be produced.

As for cassava, he said they eye 30,000mt.

Earlier, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris said the media briefing was in line with the ministry’s ‘Restore Trust’ and ‘Amplify Policies and Programmes’ pillars.