In a bid to address the food crisis in the country, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu stated that he would not establish a price control board to regulate prices of food commodities or approve the importation of food. He made this known on Thursday during a strategic meeting held at the State House in Abuja, which had in attendance the Vice President, Kashim Shettima; the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume; the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu; the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Magaji Bichi; the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, the 36 state governors, amongst others.
President Tinubu said, “From Kano, we have read reports about large-scale hoarding of food in some warehouses. The National Security Adviser, the Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of the Department of State Services should coordinate very closely and ensure that security agencies in the states inspect such warehouses with follow-up action.
“We must ensure that speculators, hoarders and rent seekers are not allowed to sabotage our efforts in ensuring the wide availability of food to all Nigerians. What I will not do is set a price control board. I will also not approve the importation of food.
“We should be able to get ourselves out of the situation we found ourselves in, because importation will allow rent seekers to perpetrate fraud and mismanagement at our collective expense. We would rather support farmers with schemes that will make them go to the farm and grow more food for everyone in the country.
“We must also look at the rapid but thoughtful implementation of our livestock development and management plans, including dairy farming and others.”
Recall that last week Wednesday, a Federal High Court in Lagos directed the Federal Government to fix the prices of goods and petroleum products within 7 days.
Several protests have occurred in different states of the country over the high cost of living, food inflation etc.
