The assurance by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Mohammad Abubakar, that Nigeria has enough food for its citizens and blamed the rising cost of food and other items on inflation and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Guardian reports that the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Mohammad Abubakar, has blamed the rising cost of food and other items on inflation and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The minister spoke, yesterday, at a media briefing series to highlight the achievements of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, otherwise known as ‘Scorecard 2015-2023’.
He said inflation is not limited to Nigeria, describing it as a global trend occasioned by the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Abubakar, the hike in the price of fertilizer and challenges facing producers of raw materials, due to the effect of the pandemic, impacted negatively the cost of food items.
Even as Nigerians groan under the burden of the high cost of food, especially rice, Abubakar tried to allay fears, noting that the country has enough to feed its citizens.
He said: “We have enough food to take care of Nigerians. We are producing food across the country and we will continue to do so to feed Nigerians, in line with our mandate, and expedite the transformation of rural communities.
“The fact that some categories of food are imported by Nigeria is not an indication that we have a food shortage. The high cost of food that we experience in the country is as a result of rising inflation, which is not peculiar to Nigeria, but is due to the COVID-19 pandemic that forced many sectors of economic production to be shut down for many months.
“As it is, today, many parts of the world, including our own country, are yet to fully recover from the negative effects of the pandemic, which has triggered inflation and high food cost across the world.”
The newspaper says that despite the repeated attacks on the facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Commission has assured Nigerians that the frenzied attacks won’t deter it from conducting free, fair and credible polls in 2023.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, gave the assurance, yesterday, during the visit of the African Union (AU) Special Pre-Electoral Political Mission to the Commission in Abuja.
While expressing concern over the incessant attacks on its local government offices across the states, Yakubu said INEC would recover its losses.
Recall that within the space of three weeks, three attacks were carried out on INEC local government facilities in Ogun, Osun and Ebonyi states, with the latest occurring on Sunday.
Yakubu said: “In the three attacks, though there are no casualties, quite a number of the materials acquired and delivered for the 2023 elections have been lost.
“The good thing is that, so far, we can recover from all the losses, but it is a source of concern, which should not be allowed to continue.
“We will continue to engage security agencies to make sure our offices, personnel and facilities are protected ahead of the election. We may express some concern about the attack on these facilities but it will not deter the Commission from conducting the election as scheduled.
“I want to assure you that yes, we may suffer little hitches here and there but overall, the Commission is ready to proceed with the election in the manner that the law requires us to do, using the deployment of technology for the purpose of accreditation and uploading of polling units results.”
Also speaking in Lagos State yesterday, Yakubu, who was represented by INEC National Commissioner, Election and Party Monitoring Committee (EPMC), Sam Olumekun, at the induction retreat for administrative secretaries of the Commission, said it has reached assurances from security agencies to ensure a secured election. The retreat is sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The Punch reports that the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors has said the number of medical doctors in the country decreases daily, adding that only about 10,000 resident doctors are left.
The President of the association, Dr Emeka Orji, stated this during an interview with The PUNCH on Monday.
According to Orji, about 100 resident doctors leave the country monthly to seek greener pastures.
He said, “I know that as of now, we have just about 24,000 doctors, including the consultants, resident doctors, house officers, and medical officers. Out of the over 80,000 doctors registered, about 64 per cent are not in service; some have emigrated out of the country, some have retired, others have changed to other professions and others have died.
“The resident doctors used to be 16,000 but currently, we are doing around 9,000 to 10,000. We cannot put an absolute figure to that because every day, people leave. So, we have an average of about 9,000 to 10,000 resident doctors across the country.
“In total, we have 24,000 doctors including consultants, resident doctors, medical officers, and house officers. The World Health Organisation recommended one doctor to 600 patients but right now in Nigeria, we are doing one doctor to 10,000 patients.”
The NARD president also noted that the major causes of the emigration were poor remuneration, poor welfare, and lack of housing schemes.
The newspaper says that the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, on Monday, launched the Nigeria Trade Information Portal in fulfilment of the World Trade Organisation Trade Facilitation Agreement.
In his remark at the launching, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Chief Adeniyi Adebayo, said the NTIP was outcome of a collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development with support from the European Union and German Technical Cooperation.
“As you are aware, UNCTAD commenced the establishment of trade Information portals in three West African countries namely Nigeria, Benin and Mali as a pilot phase in 2016, with a view to assisting developing WTO member countries in complying easily with the WTO-Trade Facilitation Agreement.
“Today, it is with great satisfaction that we acknowledge the success of the collaboration between UNCTAD, GIZ, EU and the Federal Government. Our ties have indeed become stronger over the years,” he said.
In a press release issued by the Special Assistant to the Minister on Media, Ifedayo Sayo, the minister said the establishment of an online information portal was step towards the enhancement of transparency, predictability and a mechanism for trade facilitation reforms in Nigeria.
“NITP is not only a tool to enhance transparency (in accordance with Article 1of the WTO-TFA) but also to identify bottlenecks and unnecessary administrative constraints and also to drive the expected reforms for trade facilitation.
“Establishment of NITP is a major breakthrough for automation of trade procedures in Nigeria. It is important to state that Trade Information Portals in some pioneer countries have contributed in building trust between various stakeholders,” he added.
GIK/APA