COVID-19: FG’s rice palliative stirs controversies in states

As part of measures to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the attendant lockdown across the country, the Federal Government approved the distribution of some bags of rice to some states. However, controversies have trailed the gesture. Notably, Oyo and Akwa Ibom states rejected their consignments from the Nigeria Custom Service (NCS) warehouse, […]

As part of measures to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the attendant lockdown across the country, the Federal Government approved the distribution of some bags of rice to some states. However, controversies have trailed the gesture.

Notably, Oyo and Akwa Ibom states rejected their consignments from the Nigeria Custom Service (NCS) warehouse, saying the commodity was unfit for consumption.

This also led to an open disagreement between the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar-Farouq and the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC). The minister had said the agency certified the rice before distribution.

On Monday, April 20, the Federal Government distributed 6,000 bags of rice to Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo states as palliatives against the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the people.

But four days after it received 1,800 bags of rice from the Federal Government, the Oyo State Government rejected the consignment, saying it was not good for human consumption.

Mr. Debo Akande, the executive adviser on agribusiness to the Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, announced the decision of the state government at a press conference in Ibadan. He said the decision to reject the rice was reached after inspection was carried out by the state’s Food Security Committee of the COVID-19 task force.

He said the state government discovered that the rice was infested by weevil and other pests.

Akande said the action of the state government would not affect the distribution of palliatives to the people, noting that the state has enough rice for distribution. He added that the state was looking forward to receiving the replacement of the 1,800 bags of rice from the Federal Government.

A government official, who did not want to be named, also said, “The other states may also reject the rice like Oyo, but they don’t want to appear confrontational to the Federal Government, for political reasons since they belong to the All Progressives Congress (APC).”

It was, however, reported that there was no issue with the bags of rice donated to Lagos and Ogun states as they distributed their shares to their people.

Also, Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel said the rice given to them by the Federal Government as palliative was not good for consumption. During a press statement last Monday in Uyo, the governor said they could not reject the donation, but he would not approve its distribution because the colour of the rice had changed.

“The only palliative we have gotten from the Federal Government is 1,800 bags of rice. As I am taking to you, the rice is in the warehouse. It is a gift. We have sent it for test, and until the result is out, we will not distribute it to our citizens. It is not good for consumption,” he said.

In Ondo, the state government said it was rejecting some of the bags of rice because it had “expired.”

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu reportedly expressed displeasure over the poor quality of the products sent to the state and directed that it should be returned to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management.

Alex Kalejaiye, secretary of the palliative committee in the state, at the weekend said, “We discovered that some of the bags have expired and not good for consumption at all, so we are separating them from the ones that are still manageable. After this, we will still take the ones that appear good to the laboratory to test if they are fit for consumption. It is even written on some of the bags that the rice has expired. And it seems that the ones that have not expired were not properly stored, so it would not be given to our people without laboratory test,” Kalejaiye said.

NCS reacts

Reacting, the NCS, Oyo/Osun area command, said Oyo State Government was not fair to them.

The public relations officer of the command, Abdullah Lagos, said they suspected foul play.

“We gave 1,800 to Oyo, 1,800 to Osun, 800 to Ondo and 1,800 to Ekiti. We did not choose for them. Why is it that it is only Oyo State that is rejecting the rice? How can we give the public expired rice? We have a special place we keep rice. You did not call us and you called a press conference. That is too bad.

Daily Trust on Sunday learnt that when the Oyo State Government, led by its Commissioner for Agriculture Ojemuyiwa Ojekunle, returned the controversial rice on Wednesday, officers of the NCS shut the doors of the command against them. As a result of this action, the rice was sent to the command’s office in Ibadan, but again, Customs officers refused to open its doors to them.

Mr Ojekunle said the state government wrote two separate letters to the NCS to inform them of plans to return the rice but was surprised at their refusal to accept the commodity. “They did not allow us to enter,” he alleged.

But the spokesman of the command insisted that the procedure for the return of the rice had not been perfected. He noted that the state government wrote an ‘unprofessional’ letter to the agency.

“In the letter they wrote on April 24, they only copied us. In that kind of letter they should not expect us to act. The letter they wrote is unprofessional. We politely told them that they should go back because we have not been told to collect the rice. We received an order to distribute the rice, so we have to wait for an order before we collect it,” he said.

Minister, NAFDAC in war of words

In contrast to the claim by Minister Sadiya Umar-Farouq, that the NAFDAC certified the rice distributed to various states, the director-general of the agency, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, said they were not invited to test the commodity in question. She said her agency was only invited to take samples of rice from Idi-Iroko, Ikeja and Ogun state.

Prof Adeyeye said, “We got an invitation to sample rice from Idi-Iroko and Ikeja Customs offices. Our staff went to those places to sample the rice. Some of the samples are still in our lab in Oshodi. We tested the samples and they passed.

“I cannot say anything on the one for Oyo State, and probably, Osun, because the NAFDAC was not called by the Ibadan or South-West command of the NCS to check samples.”

During the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, the minister had said, “The rice was handed over to us by the NCS and it was assessed by the NAFDAC, which issued a clearance before the goods were released for onward distribution to the states. So, as far as we are concerned, the rice was certified fit for human consumption.”

Reacting to the claim by the director-general of the NAFDAC, the minister also said on Wednesday, “We still stand by what we said because this is what was conveyed to us by Customs. We have a certificate to that effect. The certificate indicated that the rice given to us is fit for human consumption. And that was before I even flagged off the distribution in Lagos State. We will make that certificate available later today.”

She, however, noted that both organisations would sort out the obvious communication gap between them.

APC, PDP join fray

Reacting to the development, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government of donating “contaminated and poisonous” rice to Nigerians as COVID-19 palliatives.

In a statement by its deputy national publicity secretary, Prince Diran Odeyemi, the PDP made reference to a video clip where the NCS had declared millions of seized bags of rice as unfit for human consumption. He stated that there was no basis for the Federal Government, through the same agency, to consider releasing such commodity to Nigerians as palliatives.

Odeyemi commended Governor Makinde of Oyo and his team for rejecting the rice donated to the state through the NCS. He advised other state governments to emulate Makinde rather than playing politics with the lives of the citizens.

Also, in Rivers State, Governor Nyesom Wike said his government rejected Federal Government’s rice donation because it was contaminated and bad for consumption.

Speaking at a press conference in Port Harcourt on Friday, Wike said the Federal Government should have consulted him to know what the people of the state needed. He said they would have preferred garri to rice.

In Anambra State, government and residents are lamenting that the Federal Government has not considered them in its distribution of palliatives.

The Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr. C. Don Adinuba, told Daily Trust on Sunday that the state government had not received any palliative from the Federal Government, either in cash or food items.

“To the best of my knowledge, no palliative has come to Anambra State from the Federal Government. Arrears of the monthly stipend to indigent people for four months were paid and not palliative for coronavirus lockdown,’’ he alleged.