I don’t want to be remembered for my many fights — Obaseki

By Bolaji Ogundele, 

President Bola Tinubu has approved a new initiative to route 20% of palliatives, including food interventions, through religious organisations and traditional institutions in the country.

Vice President Kashim Shettima, who announced this on Tuesday while speaking at a high-level dialogue on nutrition at the State House in Abuja, also unveiled an ambitious plan to improve nutrition across Nigeria with a rallying call to faith and traditional leaders to champion the effort in their communities.

The one-day dialogue with the theme: “Faith leaders as catalysts for enhanced human capital through nutrition,” was organized by the National Council on Nutrition and the World Bank-assisted Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria [ANRiN] Project.

Speaking about the approval given on the palliatives distribution, Shettima said: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is conscious of his obligations to the Nigerian people. He’s very much alive to the fact that the very essence of government is to provide support services and security to the lives of the citizenry”.

The Vice President was responding to concerns raised by the Imam of Bayero University, Kano (BUK) about the exclusion of traditional and religious leaders from the distribution of palliatives. 

He said: “The President has approved that 20% of the palliatives, in terms of food intervention, be routed through our religious organisations and the traditional institutions. The Tsangaya schools, the mission schools will be specially targeted for such interventions.”

Shettima also announced that 20% of the funds released for the School Feeding Programme will be channeled through the office of the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning to religious bodies. 

According to him: “We have already commenced the engagement, we are working out the modalities so that we can have a hitch-free disbursement, a very transparent disbursement, taking into cognizance all the tendencies in our system”.

The Vice President acknowledged the challenges of reaching thousands of Tsangaya schools and mission schools but expressed confidence that the initiative will be successful. 

He stressed: “We have a plethora, hundreds, thousands of Tsangaya schools, hundreds, thousands of mission schools for we need to capture. We are working out the logistics through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and these interventions will be anchored in the office of the Honorable Minister for Budget and Economic Planning”.

According to a statement by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications, Office of the Vice President, Stanley Nkwocha, Shettima explained that Nigeria’s future readiness hinges not just on food abundance but on the nourishing quality of its food supply.

“We must proclaim to the world that our commitment to producing food of unparalleled richness is not rhetoric”, Shettima declared, noting “this gathering is a solemn pledge to safeguard our well-being and preserve the legacy of generations yet to come”.

The Vice President appealed directly to the religious and traditional figures in attendance, calling them “prime cultural influencers” and a “gateway to a Nigeria defined by mutual understanding, peace, unity and social cohesion”.

He restated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to prioritising nutrition as part of Nigeria’s food security drive.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has demonstrated his commitment to prioritizing nutrition as an integral component of our quest for food sufficiency. This is our inspiration to implement quality, cost-effective nutrition services.

“From providing support to pregnant and lactating women to ensuring the well-being of adolescent girls and children under five years of age, President Tinubu’s vision has propelled us towards a future where every Nigerian has access to the nourishment they need to thrive,” he said.

Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, and President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the Most Rev. Daniel Okoh, pledged the commitment of their communities and congregations to the efforts to combat hunger and malnutrition in the country, stating that their presence at the event underscored their loyalty to the campaign.