The rising cost of food items, among others in Nigeria, has continued to generate protests simultaneously across the country, with the recent one being residents of Kogi, another neighbouring state to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
ASHENEWS recalls that on Monday, residents of Niger and Kano states started the protests, with thousands taking to the streets to protest what they described as severe hunger and rising living costs in the country.
Similarly on Tuesday, residents of Niger state’s commercial nerve center, Suleja, also followed suit to protest against the hardship.
On Wednesday, residents of Kogi state, trooped to the streets in Lokoja, the state capital, to, in the same vein, protest against the high cost of living.
Some of the protesting women expressed their dissatisfaction with the increasing prices of essential commodities, which has cut down the number of patronages, thereby affecting their businesses.
The women protesters pleaded with the government to reduce the cost of food items, adding that the rise in commodity prices has almost eroded their profit.
On Wednesday, the minister of information and national orientation, Mohammed Idris, reacting to the ongoing situation, said the federal government is planning to unlock the national food reserves to ease the effect of food inflation on the citizenry.
Idris spoke concerning the emergency meeting set up by the federal government on Tuesday to salvage the high cost of food items in the county and ameliorate the hardship Nigerians are facing
The minister stated that the federal government has begun communicating with significant millers and commodity traders because it has observed that there is enough food in the nation, which is being hoarded due to the naira’s depreciation.
“Of course, this meeting is not by itself exhaustive. It is going to continue tomorrow and the day after,” he said. Now, some of these will involve unlocking the food that is available in most of the storage facilities around the country.
“You know that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture has some food reserves. That is going to be made available to Nigerians.
“The government is also talking to major millers and major commodity traders, to also see what is available in their stores, to open it up, so that government will provide some intervention and make this food available to Nigerians.”
“Government will not fold its arms and see the way Nigerians are suffering in terms of the availability of these food items,” he said.
So I want to plead with you to understand the government. By the time these meetings are concluded, we’ll be able to issue a definite statement on what the position of government is in this regard. But all I can say is that discussions are ongoing, and very soon a solution is in sight for Nigerians.”
With additional report by NDR
