Reallocate Aso Rock’s N11.92 Billion Food And Trips Budget To Support Farmers, Flood Victims – HURIWA Urge FG

By Jonathan Ugbal

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA on Wednesday called for the reallocation of about 90 percent of the N11.92 billion estimated for food and foreign trips of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to aid victims of floods and support farmers in the country.

Several States in Nigeria including Cross River and other parts of the Niger Delta region have suffered from floods. And, in its recent flood report, the National Emergency Management Agency revealed that over 1.3 million persons have been rendered homeless, over 600 dead, 45,249 houses have been destroyed, and 70,566 hectares of farmlands have been damaged.

HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, described the allocation for food and trips as bogus, an act of gluttony and avariciousness, and said it should be cut down to N1 billion.

“It is unfortunate and detestable that elected leaders in Nigeria should exhibit this level of gluttony and avariciousness at a time when many more Nigerians are starving to death,” the statement reads and tasked the President to, “drastically cut down on this bogus food budget and travels to just N1 billion so the remaining funds can go into promoting local agricultural productivity coupled with a robust security architecture. Some funds should be allocated to farmers and other victims of floods to grow the nation’s agriculture sector.”

The group also called for a probe of the monies expended for the National School Feeding Program which according to the Federal Government, has gulped about $100 million especially as the country still ranks 102 out of 121 countries in the 2022 Global Hunger Index.

The group wondered whether the programs aimed at uplifting the poor were working.

HURIWA said that “anti-hunger measures must be introduced and implemented and the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry must be dissolved and the Minister (Sadiya Umar Farouq must be) made to answer hard questions before the EFCC on how billions meant for the poor were spent.

“It is perplexing and beyond logic that the more billions the government claims to have spent on feeding poor Nigerians, the hungrier Nigerians are becoming which means that the allocations are being siphoned.

“HURIWA demands a public TV debate with the Humanitarian Affairs Minister on these bogus claims.”