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Nigerians are hungry, losing patience with your Govt — Senate tells President Tinubu

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The Senate has urgently called upon the federal government to tackle the pressing issue of hunger caused by food insecurity, which it has identified as an emergency situation.

In response to rising food insecurity, the Senate has urged President Bola Tinubu’s administration to implement effective measures to combat the crisis. It emphasized that with increasing hunger and poverty, people’s patience and tolerance are wearing thin.

Furthermore, the Senate cautioned against an impending crisis, warning that the country cannot afford the unrest that could erupt in its streets. It stressed the need for immediate action by the Executive arm of government to address the grievances of the people and avoid taking their support for granted.

Over recent months, the Senate observed a significant increase in the prices of goods and household essentials across Nigeria. This surge has led to heightened inflation rates, diminished purchasing power, and a deterioration in the living conditions of the majority of Nigerians.

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As an urgent response to the food scarcity problem, the Senate disclosed that the Federal Government has dispatched 60 trucks of fertilizer to each of the 36 states, allocating two trucks per Senator and one per member of the House of Representatives.

These Senate resolutions followed a motion titled “Urgent Need to Address Food Insecurity and Market Exploitation of Consumables in Nigeria,” sponsored by Senator Sunday Karimi of Kogi West, APC, and co-sponsored by Senate Whip Senator Ali Ndume of Borno South, APC.

Senator Karimi highlighted the recent steep rise in the prices of goods and household essentials, which has exacerbated inflation and worsened living conditions for many Nigerians.

According to him, ” the latest data by Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics shows that food inflation in the country skyrocketed to 40.66 per cent on a year-on-year basis, a significant increase from the 24.82 per cent recorded in May 2023.”

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He said that the Senate is “Aware the current market price of food items such as beans, maize, rice paddy, yam, tomatoes, and onions which initially rose by about 40% after the removal of petroleum Subsidy has now increased to over 100% to 300% without any attributable reason for the increase in prices;

He added that the Senate is “Further aware that although insecurity in food-producing regions, bad roads, increase in the cost of transportation attributable to the removal of fuel subsidy and depreciation of the value of Naira, are possible factors that have contributed to the increase in the price of Food items, Household Commodities, and Consumables; the percentage of increase in the cost of transportation and some under factors listed above is significantly less than the percentage increase in the current prices of goods all over the country;

“Concerned that the greater percentage of the increase in prices of food items and consumables in the Country is not only due to these factors but to the zest of the merchants, traders, and retailers to make supernormal profits whilst they excuse the hike in price on these factors (depreciation of the Naira against the Dollar, increase in price of Petroleum Products due to Fuel price increase and insecurity in farming Regions), thereby heaping all the blame on the Federal Government;

“Notes that there is a general attitude of “Get Rich Quickly” or “Get Rich By All Means” leading many Nigerians to jettison “being their brother’s keeper” and exploiting one another to make abnormal profits: This attitude has been justified on the basis that many members of the Political Class, Technocrats, and Corporate Elites have helped themselves with Public Funds without any repercussions in Law, Nigerian Traders have thus resorted to Price Gouging to maximize profits;

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“Further notes that there are reports that Farming Communities in the Border Regions with other Countries, prefer to sell their food items abroad (to these neighbouring countries), rather than domestically(to the hinterland), thereby increasing local food insecurity; and Concludes that all efforts made by the current Federal Executive to arrest the consistent increase in food inflation have not yielded the desired results, there is a need to be more pragmatic about addressing food insecurity, curbing herder farmer crises, kidnapping for ransom, and Terrorism, and ensure the development of a viable National Commodity Board to regulate the price of grains and ensure the elimination of artificial contributions to food and commodity inflation in Nigeria.”

In his contribution, Ndume who lamented that this was the first time Nigeria was listed as one of the countries battling food insecurity, said, “In their many publications, they say Nigeria is likely to experience the highest session of food insecurity globally.

“Currently, there are four countries including Sudan and some others that are facing very serious insecurity. Nigeria is added to this list this year by the International Rescue Committee as one of the spots for food insecurity action against hunger. World Food Program also indicated that over 32 million people are expected to face a critical hunger crisis and emerging levels between June and August.

“I don’t know about some other colleagues, but there in the North, we have started seeing it visibly. This is the first time we are experiencing this level of hunger. It’s the first time Nigeria is being listed as one of the countries with food insecurity.”

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On his part, the immediate past President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan, APC, Yobe North told his colleagues that the people are really hungry in the country, warning that patience and tolerance are both elastic, but they are not eternally elastic, just as he took a swipe at the Federal Government, saying that the government has nothing in the food Reserve across the Country and that the Silos are empty.

Lawan said, “Let me say here that patience, and tolerance, are both elastic but they are not eternally elastic. Our students are facing real, real anger. I travelled the two states last week, in the north particularly, and I’ve seen first-hand how people, especially those who are not in the civil service, nor in any business, are suffering, fighting, and struggling to have food at least once a day.

“Under normal circumstances, Mr. President, in the rainy season, from maybe June up to September or October, when there will be harvests of new foodstuff, prices escalate prices of foodstuff. Now we don’t even have that the truth. Mr. President in today’s national daily, the Executive arm of government is saying it is considering reducing or removing taxes on imported foodstuff.

” Here’s the catch. This Senate must engage the executive immediately. What are the issues? Which taxes are they talking about? Because we should be seen to be doing the right thing. We have little or nothing in our food reserve across the country. And nobody. If they come and tell us, they will distribute foodstuff from our silos, the silos are empty. So it means we have to import food. And if we have to import, it means we need foreign exchange.

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“We wouldn’t like the kind of thing that we see in our streets and it is time that we take every possible action to get out of the event of the arm of government to ensure that food floods our country, the right food. In portation, the government must be entirely responsible because we cannot, we cannot take people for granted for too long. We have come almost to the end of the patience. And I think the elasticity is now going to snap if we are not careful.”

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How I Got Helicopter Idea To Visit Kogi State – Senator Natasha

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The embattled Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has disclosed that the idea of using a helicopter as a means of transport for her homecoming rally in Kogi came from her husband.

She also insisted that she broke no law by her actions as the road that led to the venue of the event was constructed by her and the land on which the helicopter landed is owned by her family.

Senator stated this on Thursday during an interview with Channels Television.

It would be recalled that hours before the event, the Kogi State government banned all forms of rallies in the state and declared that all convoys coming into the state must get approval.

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However, Natasha circumvented the directives by arriving via helicopter, where she was received by her constituents.

Speaking on Tuesday’s homecoming rally, which coincided with the celebration of the 2025 Eid which is the end of the Ramadan fast, Senator Natasha insisted that it was not a political event as she had always done it even before she became a Senator, adding that it is a way of relating and giving back to her people.

She said she already knew that the state government came up with the restrictions because of her, adding that she wasn’t aware of any security challenge that could have warranted issuing such bans.

Senator Natasha also described herself as a peace-loving and law-abiding individual, contrary to the description by the state government that she is a law breaker.

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We were kept with hyenas, snakes – General Tsiga recounts kidnap ordeal

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Former Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Maharazu Tsiga (rtd), who spent over two months in captivity, has recounted his harrowing experience in the hands of terrorists and kidnappers.

Tsiga revealed that he and other abductees were held in a dense forest surrounded by hills, teeming with dangerous animals. He described his survival as nothing short of divine intervention.

The 72-year-old said: “We were kept with dangerous animals—hyenas, snakes, and scorpions. A day before I was released, just the day before yesterday, while on the mountain where I was staying, we suddenly noticed a hyena circling us, looking for food. And what kind of food? Us, human beings.”

“Throughout our time there, we constantly lived with snakes and scorpions. But the most terrifying experience was how they treated those of us whose ranks they knew. Whenever troops attacked them, they would bring us out and use us as human shields, hoping to get us killed by the military strikes. They wanted us to be hit by the aircraft. But God is merciful.”

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“The National Security Adviser (NSA) and the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) have said it—the good ones will survive, and ultimately, the bad ones will meet their end.”

Tsiga further narrated a particularly chilling experience involving an unexploded rocket: “During an airstrike, a rocket was fired at the terrorists, but it didn’t explode. Instead, they carried the unexploded rocket and placed it where I was sleeping, hiding it in a way that if I touched it, it would detonate. Yet, by God’s mercy, I survived.”

He also highlighted the kidnappers’ belief that military officers have access to government funds, which led them to attack his home.

“They believe that those of us in uniform are given money by the government. That’s why they tried to break into my house. They couldn’t, so they went to my home in Kaduna and used explosives to destroy it, including the gates.”

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Speaking on behalf of the 18 other rescued victims, Tsiga expressed gratitude to the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and the Chief of Defence Staff. He emphasized that security is a collective responsibility.

“We must not assume that the government can do it all alone. Everyone must contribute by providing intelligence and information. The NSA and the CDS are not magicians; they need timely and accurate reports to act upon.”

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INEC ought to have archived recall petition long ago-Senator Natasha

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Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan on Thursday hailed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for rejecting a petition to recall her as the lawmaker representing Kogi Central Senatorial District.

The lawmaker, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, said the electoral umpire should have thrown out the petition long before it did on April 3, 2025.

“I’m a lawyer. I’m a senator and I understand how Nigeria works. For me, the most important thing is this recall process has been stalled.

“I give kudos and credit to INEC even though I believe they should have thrown it away from the get-go.

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“I think it was void ab initio because there is no law in the Electoral Act that says a petition should be discarded just because there is no address but again, what if the address is false?”

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain argued that most of the addresses provided in the petition for her recall were false because most houses in her district weren’t labelled.

Even though INEC did count 208,000 signatures, I bet you if they had gone into the verification stage, they would have struggled to even have 500 people come out to attest to signing that,” she added.

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