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High Cost Of Food, Cooking Gas Angers S’South Residents
Residents in the South-South have sought Federal Government’s intervention in the ever-increasing cost of food items and cooking gas in the region.
The analysts, who made the call in separate interviews, said government should stem the rising cost of the items through proper economic recovery plan and implementation.
They added that Nigerians should assist government in minimising the excesses of middlemen and market associations in hiking the prices of commodities.
The residents also identified the major factors contributing to cooking gas price hike in the nation to include lack of functional refineries and off-takers for gas distribution.
On prices of food, they identified market forces, insecurity, farmer/headers clashes, insurgency, banditry, poor storage facilities and Covid-19 outbreak as causes of food price hike in the country.
Although the analysts appreciated current government’s efforts in solving the problem, they advised that the intervention should be urgent as food was one of the basic necessities of life.
A civil servant in Asaba, Mr Vincent Adeoye, said: ‘’Our challenge has become double in the sense that the cost of food items is high likewise that of cooking gas.
“How do we survive in this present situation when we buy a cup of beans for N150 and one kilogramme of cooking gas for N700?
“Our salaries cannot even feed our families, not to talk of paying school fees and rent. It is only God who helps us to survive.
“The present economy is making things too difficult for us and I will appeal to the government to come to our rescue.”
Also, a civil servant, Mrs Deborah Diai, said she had resorted to using charcoal for cooking since ‘’the price of domestic gas is now within the reach of the rich.
“Three kilogrammes of gas do not last up to five days for me, because we are family of six,” she said.
The Chairman, Ika Liquefied Petroleum Gas Dealers Association, Mr Onyeka Eze, said the increase in the price of domestic gas had affected the consumption of the product in the area.
According to him, before now, a kilogramme of gas sold for between N300 and N320, but in the last six months, the price had gone up to N650 a kilogramme.
“Before this increment, we dispense as much as 100kilogrammes daily, but as at today, it takes us almost three days to sell 50kilogrammes of it”.
Eze urged the Federal Government to intervene in the continual increase of the price of domestic gas.
In Rivers State, a civil rights crusader, Mr Livingston Wechie, urged the government to tackle the situation, saying, ‘’basically, there’s a tremendous hike in cost of living.
“While commodity prices are on the increase, wages and remunerations have remained static even when only a few percentage of the country’s population earn salaries.”
Wechie urged government to reconsider a proper economic recovery plan to ensure that basic commodities for daily survival took precedence over any other infrastructure.
He lamented that the price of domestic cooking gas had gone up from N3,500 to almost N10,000 for 12.5kilogrammes.
He also attributed the high cost of foodstuffs in the country to the challenge of insecurity, farmer/headers clashes, insurgence and banditry.
Similarly, the President, Etche Farmers’ Cooperative Union, Mr Godwin Akandu, urged government to reinvigorate the economy by ensuring direct funding of farmers and strengthening security.
A Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) mini-tank farm operator, Mr Sunil Umar, attributed the current hike in prices of cooking gas to lack of functional refineries.
Umar said the situation was compounded because of lack of off-takers, to effectively distribute the huge quantity of gas produced by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).
According to him, the NLNG has always allocated to the Nigerian market as much as 450,000MPTA quantity of gas from 2015 till date.
Also speaking on the high cost of cooking gas, Operations Controller, Department Petroleum Resources (DPR), Uyo, Mr Victor Ohwodiasa, attributed the increase to deregulation of the sector and market forces.
“The gas market is deregulated and is driven by market forces; so the issue of demand and supply comes into play.
‘’Another reason is that there are some tariffs that were imputed by government recently; so that is why the price has jumped up.
‘’If we talk of gas penetration, gas availability and gas reliability, then, something should be done about the price,” he said.
Ohwodiasa, however, said that government was working hard to intervene and stabilise the price of cooking gas.
A housewife in Uyo, Mrs Glory Inyang, said that the high cost of cooking gas had affected the feeding allowance given to her by her husband.
“I used to buy 12.5kg of cooking gas for N3,750, but today I have just bought the same quantity for N10, 000; this is on the high side,” she said.
Another housewife, Mrs Margaret Joseph, lamented that both the cooking gas and food items had become exorbitant at the same time, causing lot a lot of hardship to Nigerians.
Similarly, the Edo Chairman of the Grassroots Farmers Association of Niger Delta, Chief Emmanuel Odigie, identified insecurity, activities of market associations and bad roads as reasons for high cost of foodstuffs.
Odigie claimed that the farmers/herders clashes had made it almost impossible for most farmers to access their farms for fear of being killed or kidnapped.
He also attributed the high cost of food and other commodities to the lack of interest in agriculture on the part the youths.
‘’The youths in our state are not interested in agriculture. All they do is travel abroad for greener pasture wh8those left behind hunt for white-collar jobs.
“The Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is also a major factor and as long as market associations exist, prices of foodstuffs and other agricultural commodities will continue to rise,” he said .
Contributing, Agricultural Extension Officer, Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI), Sapele, Dr Samuel Agoda, attributed the hike in prices of food to post harvest losses experienced by farmers.
“For the few farmers that are producing this period of insecurity, storage facilities are a major problem.
“Most of these crops go bad easily after harvest because of lack of storage facilities,” he said.
Agoda, however, noted that the federal government, through NSPRI, had developed series of post-harvest technologies for farmers to store produce in the post-harvest value chain.
Rivers State Head of Service, Dr (Mrs) Inyingi Brown, has called on rural communities in the State to embrace the Rural Access and Agricultural marketing project (RAAMP) with a view to improving their living conditions.
This follows the ongoing sensitization campaign by the State Project Implementation Unit (SPIU) visits to Degema, Abonnema, Afam headquarters of Degema, Akuku Toru and Oyigbo Etche and Omuma local government areas respectively.
Dr Brown who was represented by the Deputy Director, Special Duties in her office, Mrs Dein Akpanah, said RAAMP was initiated by the Federal Government and World Bank to economically empower rural dwellers.s
She said the World Bank understands the plights of rural farmers and traders in the State, and therefore came up with the programme to address them.
According to her, RAAMP will improve the conditions of farmers, traders and fishermen, and therefore, behoves on every rural communities in the State to embrace the programme.
The Head of Service also said the programme would support the youths to be gainfully employed while bridges and roads will be built to link farms and fishing settlements.
Also speaking, the State project coordinator, Mr Joshua Kpakol, said the programme has the potential of creating millionaires among farmers and fishermen in the State.
Kpakol who was represented by Engr. Sam Tombari, said RAAMP would help farmers and fishermen to preserve their produce.
According to him, the project will build cold rooms and Silos for preservation of crops and fishes while access roads will also be created to link farmers and fishermen to the market.
He, however, warned them against any act that will lead to the suspension of the projects by the World Bank.
Kpakol particularly warned against acts such as kidnapping, marching ground, gender based violence and child labour, adding that such acts if they occur may lead to the cancellation of the project by the World Bank.
During the visit to Oyigbo local government area, Mr Joshua Kpakol, said the team was there to let them know how they will benefit from the Raamp.
The coordinator who was personally at Oyigbo said the World Bank introduced the project to check food insecurity in the State.
He said already 19 states in Nigeria are already benefitting from the project and called on them to embrace the project.
Meanwhile, stakeholders in the three local government areas have commended the World Bank for including their areas in the project.
They, however, complained over the incessant attacks by pirates on their waterways.
At Degema, King Agolia of Ke kingdom said land was a major problem in the kingdom.
King Agolia represented by High Chief Alpheus Damiebi said many indigenes of the kingdom are willing to go into farming but are handicapped by lack of land.
Also at Degema, the representative of the Omu Onyam Ekeim of Usokun Degema kingdom, Osoabo Isaac, said Degema has embraced the programme but needed more information on the implementation of the programme.
Similarly, while High Chief Precious Abadi advised that the project should not be narrowed to only crop farming, a community women leader, Mrs Orikinge Eremabo Otto, called for the construction of cold rooms in all fishing settlements in the area.
At Abonnema, Mr Diamond Kio linked the problem of the area to incessant piracy along waterways.
He also expressed fears over the possibility of the project being hijacked by politicians.
Also at Abonnema, a stakeholder, Ikiriko Kelvin, called on the World Bank to design an agricultural project that will suit the riverine environment, while at Oyigbo, HRH Eze Boniface Akawo expressed satisfaction with the project.
John Bibor
The political mudslinging between the Senate leadership and Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan continued yesterday as the Senate named Senator Aniekan Bassey as the new Chairman of the Committee on Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organisations.
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the appointment during yesterday’s plenary, confirming Bassey’s replacement of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who is currently on suspension.
Akpoti-Uduaghan was reassigned to the Diaspora and NGOs Committee in February after she was removed as Chair of the Senate Committee on Local Content during a minor reshuffle.
Bassey is the senator representing Akwa Ibom North-East Senatorial District.
Although no reason was given for her removal yesterday, the change is believed to be connected to her unresolved suspension.
In May, Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court ordered her reinstatement and directed her to tender an apology to the Senate.
However, the Senate has insisted it has not received a certified true copy of the court judgment.
Akpoti-Uduaghan who represents Kogi Central, has yet to resume her legislative duties despite a recent court ruling that voided her suspension.
In a televised interview on Tuesday, Akpoti-Uduaghan said she was awaiting the Certified True Copy of the judgment before officially returning to plenary, citing legal advice and respect for institutional process.
Although the Federal High Court described her suspension as “excessive and unconstitutional”, a legal opinion dated July 5 and attributed to the Senate’s counsel, Paul Daudu (SAN), argued that the ruling lacked any binding directive to enforce her reinstatement.
Akpoti-Uduaghan, one of only three female senators in the current assembly, said the continued delay in allowing her return was not only a denial of her mandate but also a blow to democratic representation.
“By keeping me out of the chambers, the Senate is not just silencing Kogi Central, it’s denying Nigerian women and children representation. We are only three female senators now, down from eight,” she said.