The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio has revealed plans by the federal government to distribute about 60 fertiliser trucks to each of the 36 states of the federation through their governors before the weekend. This was disclosed during the plenary on Tuesday. Akpabio expressed the belief that the gesture will address the country’s impending food insecurity.
According to Senate president, serving senators will receive two trucks of fertiliser each while members of the House of Representatives will receive one each from the distribution to address the food emergency declaration by Mr President in May 2023.
Hear him, “All states of the federation are being provided with 60 trucks of fertiliser outside what is being given to the senators.” He said the information was relayed to him by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Saliu Mustapha.
The Senate president clarified that senators and House of Representatives members were being considered for fertiliser distribution because of the disparity in political affiliation between some of the lawmakers and their governors. He said the federal government wanted to avoid a situation where such occurrence may generate a crisis between them.
Akpabio warned against being misquoted by anyone over the issue, saying, “I don’t want tomorrow the governors will come and tell me that I made a statement, …irrespective of political parties. They like misquoting me; they will say, ‘Akpabio again’. This is from the Senate Committee Chairman on Agriculture, not from Senator Akpabio, that irrespective of political party, each state governor will get at least 60 trucks, and the reason they are giving the senators two trucks is because some of the senators and the House of Rep members are not in the same party.
“For some of you, it is important that you also have something to share with your constituents. Your own will be two trucks -1,200 (bags of fertilisers), and the House of Reps members will be one truck – 600 (bags of fertilisers).”
He emphasised, “This information is from the Senate Committee on Agriculture chairman and then backed up by the deputy senate president. This information is not from the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio. So, I don’t want tomorrow that I will see headlines that governors blast Akpabio. I have not said anything about governors; I have only re-echoed the word of the chairman on agriculture. I have said nothing against governors.”
And as if that was not clear enough, he faced the media and said, “Gentlemen of the press in the gallery, it is not Senator Godswill Akpabio who gave this information. I am re-echoing the voices of the chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and the deputy senate president that irrespective of political parties, all the states through their governors are getting 60 trucks (each), the senators are getting two trucks (each), and (each member of) the House of Representatives is getting one”.
Corroborating the Senate president, Senator Mustapha noted that the trucks ought to have arrived in the States earlier but were delayed because of the advice from the Office of the National Security Adviser, due to security reasons.
According to him, “It is unfortunate that the fertiliser distribution had to be delayed but I have at every point in time briefed the senate president on the current status of what has been happening. They stopped every truck of fertiliser from moving out because of the security implications. They had to certify clearly before they would allow the trucks to move out, and as of today (Tuesday), I just showed the senate president the trucks are being loaded; they will be moved to various states.”
Senator Mustapha assured that “most states will receive the trucks this weekend”.
Insecurity has been the major challenge of production of food, as farmers have consistently called for government intervention to end the menace. Recall that the National President of the Cocoa and Plantain Farmers Association of Nigeria (CPFAN) Ayodele Ojo had earlier lamented the incessant killing of farmers and destruction of their farmlands.
