Bauchi State Government on Monday took a giant leap in ensuring food availability and security by constituting and inaugurating the State Strategic Grains Reserve Committee.
While inaugurating the Committee at the EXCO Chambers of the Governor’s Office, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir said that the development is a swift response to alleviate the current hardship facing the country, particularly on the basic necessities of life, especially food availability.
The Governor announced that the Committee will be given the sum of N3b to use in purchasing the assorted grains from farmers across the state.
He stressed that it will check the arbitrary selling of food stuffs away from the State to other States of the country describing the trend as an unacceptable issue though he added that government cannot stop the marketers from selling to whoever comes to buy.
Bala Mohammed also said that his administration will not fold its arms and watch how things, particularly foodstuffs are leaving the State while the residents are lacking what to eat.
He stressed that “We too will buy and keep them in our stores and silos across the state and at the appropriate time when they are needed, we will bring them out and sell to the people at very very subsidised rates that they can afford.”
The Governor directed the Committee to take an adequate survey of the current hike in foodstuffs across the State to enable Government make the foodstuffs available to the common man.
Bala Mohammed stressed that the Committee is part of his administration’s agricultural framework aimed at making agriculture the mainstay of the economy saying that, that informed the farm holidays granted to Civil Servants in the State in the past four months.
He further charged the Committee to see how it will influence and improve economic growth and development of the state through agriculture and agricultural inputs.
According to him, “What we are giving as palliation is not enough, we must go back to the farm and that is why we released Civil Servants on Grade Levels 01 – 12 during the rainy season to go back to farm.”
He also charged members of the Committee as experts in their respective fields to make the best of the opportunity given to them to contribute towards the success of the Committee in the assignment.
The Governor warned his Commissioners and other top Government officials not to interfere with the assignment of the Committee saying that the Committee is directly answerable to him through the office of the SSG.
Responding on behalf of the Committee members, its Chairman, immediate past Chairman of the PDP, Bauchi State, Hon Hamza Koshe Akuyam thanked Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed for finding them worthy to serve in the Committee, pledging to be just and fair in the discharge of the onerous but very important assignment.
According to him, “Your Excellency, we thank you so very much, we assure you that we will do our very best not to disappoint you and the people of the state. We know that we will give account of our deeds to Allah in the hereafter.”
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