Mohammed Idris, minister of information and national orientation, says the federal government is taking additional measures to ensure that the hardship experienced by Nigerians is drastically ameliorated.

The minister said this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, on Monday.

He said the council deliberated on the state of affairs of the country, especially the shortage of food.

He said the council took note of some of the complaints by Nigerians in terms of transportation, food prices or food shortages in many homes around the country.

“After exhaustive deliberation, the Minister of Agriculture was directed to ensure that food is made available to Nigerians.

“And the understanding is that about 20 trucks of rice have already been supplied to each of the states of the federation including the federal capital territory.

“Each of the trucks of course is carrying about 1,200 25kg bags of rice,” said Mr Idris.

He explained this was part of the measures the government was taking, in addition to so many others, to ensure that the hardship experienced by Nigerians was drastically reduced.

“This is a first step and the federal government will continue to support all the state governors and local governments, so that the hardship being experienced by most Nigerians in terms of shortage of food supply is reduced.

“It is expected that the state governors will distribute the food items to the most vulnerable so that the hardship will be brought down significantly,” he said.

The minister said the distribution of food items was in addition to the effort that the government was making in terms of fertiliser supply.

“Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria had earlier made available over 2.1 million bags of assorted fertiliser to the Ministry of Agriculture for onward distribution to the states. So that is also in progress,” he said.

On transportation, the minister said the council directed the presidential committee on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), to expedite its activities to supply buses and make conversion kits available at affordable costs to Nigerians.

“Already they have started but the council asked them to redouble their efforts so that conversion kits that we need for the CNG initiative will be made available.

“Also the conversion centres that have earlier been approved will also be significantly upgraded so that Nigerians will have more conversion centres,” said the minister.

According to him, the federal government has directed that the compliance level of CNG should go up to reduce over reliance of Nigerians on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

He said this would in turn aid the transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy.

“Now, you are also aware that last week, the National Labour Congress met the president. This of course was part of the consultation that the President has agreed to carry out.

“Recall that he had met the Organised Private Sector (OPS). He had also met subnationals after the tripartite committee on minimum wage had submitted its report,” he said.

He explained that the consultation was to ensure that there was a thorough analysis of the situation, so that the government would come up with a minimum wage that worked for all Nigerians.

Mr Idris said the federal government had also directed the ministry of budgets to come up with additional support for the 2024 budget.

He said this was to cover any differential or gaps in the 2024 budget that was approved. 

(NAN)