Nigeria’s President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, says he will not establish a price control board or approve the importation of food as measures to address the hardship in the country.
Tinubu made this known on Thursday after a meeting with governors of the 36 states of the federation and the minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), at the State House, Abuja.
The president said his administration is dedicated to evolving home-grown solutions to tackle food security challenges in the country.
He said such measures include setting up schemes to bolster local food production and cutting out all forms of rent-seeking tied to food importation.
“I reiterated this commitment during my emergency meeting today at the State House, with all 36 state governors, the Vice-President, Kashim Shettima, the National Security Adviser, the Inspector-General of Police, the Director-General of the DSS, and some ministers,” Tinubu said.
Tinubu said the importation of food “enables rent seekers to perpetrate fraud and mismanagement” at the expense of many Nigerians.
He said his administration would rather support farmers to cultivate more food instead of importation.
The president said he has asked security agencies to “inspect” warehouses where food items are being hoarded.
“I will not establish a price control board, nor will I approve the importation of food,” Tinubu said.
“We must extricate ourselves from this predicament because importation only enables rent seekers to perpetrate fraud and mismanagement at our collective expense.
“Instead, we will support our farmers with schemes that encourage them to cultivate more food for the nation.
“We must also rapidly but thoughtfully implement our livestock development and management plans, including dairy farming and others.”
On Wednesday, Vice-President Kashim Shettima said the federal government was planning to set up a commodity board to regulate the soaring prices of food in the country.
Last Wednesday, the federal high court in Lagos ordered the federal government to fix the prices of goods and petroleum products within seven days.
