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By Ehichioya Ezomon
Rice – the most popular Nigerian staple food – has suddenly become an issue, and may contribute to futher scrambling of the campaign of the Edo State chapter of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that’s already reeling from months of defection of high-profile members to the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), ahead of the September 21, 2024, governorship election.
This follows the reported discovery of thousands of bags of rice hoarded and warehoused in residences or property of alleged chieftains of the PDP in Benin City, the state capital city. As claimed by the “discoverers,” the rice was part of the 20 truckloads, which the Federal Government donated to each of the 36 States of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, for free distribution to the most vulnerable members of the society, to alleviate the hardship they’ve faced due to high cost of living and food inflation.
Because the PDP-led administration of Governor Godwin Obaseki allegedly didn’t distribute the rice to the people – even as the government initially denied receipt of the 20 trucks – the commodity has become an instant campaign matter against the election of the PDP governorship candidate, Dr Asue Ighodalo, who Obaseki “anointed” to succeed him in November 2024.
To get a proper handle on this story, let’s compare how Borno State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum and his Edo State counterpart, Godwin Obaseki, handled the 20 trucks of rice, respectively. On Saturday, July 27, 2024, Prof. Zulum didn’t only demonstrate his leadership by example, but also the need for cooperation and synergy between the federal and state governments, to meeting the basic needs of the masses, especially in these economically-difficult times in Nigeria.
The governor – scheduled the next day to oversee the distribution of food palliatives and farm inputs donated by the Federal Government to the state – travelled to Monguno, one of the local government areas in North-East of Nigeria, which’s suffered years of bloody and destructive attacks by Boko Haram and other insurgent groups.
As is the modus operandi of the popular governor – who mingles freely with Borno inhabitants, to feel their pulse and their pains – he moved a day ahead of commencement of distribution of the food and farming palliatives on July 28, to enable him profile the beneficiaries in super camps in Monguno town.
Addressing the palliative recipients on D-Day, Zulum said: “We are in Monguno town mainly for two functions, first to distribute food items provided to the government of Borno State by the federal government. I want to acknowledge the receipt of 20 trucks of rice, and this morning, we distributed all of them to this community.
“I want also to inform you that the federal government has provided 90 trucks of fertiliser to the state government for free, to distribute to our farmers. On behalf of the people and government of Borno State, I want to appreciate the support of the federal government and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to the deserving communities. This is not the first time Borno has received palliatives from the federal government. It is a continuous affair.
“In addition to this, we have distributed seeds, as most of them (farmers) do not have the capacity to buy farm inputs, and we have distributed cowpeas to all the able heads of households (each of the 35,000 beneficiaries received one bag of 25kg of rice and cowpeas to enable them cultivate their farmlands).”
The Zulum administration complemented the federal government’s gesture with its own palliatives. “We have also distributed N10,000 in cash support and a wrapper to each of the over 45,000 widows and vulnerable women in Monguno town,” Zulum said, noting that the distribution of palliatives by his government wasn’t meant to create dependency but to “support vulnerable families that have lost their sources of livelihood to the Boko Haram crisis facing Borno State.”
Now, we take a diagonal trip of over 1,000km down south to Edo State in the South-South of Nigeria, to see how the Obaseki administration handled the hardship problem regarding the federal government rice donation.
In stark contrast to the Borno scenario, trending in the Edo polity – and on mainstream and social media – is a series of posers: “Obaseki & Asue, where are our 20 trucks of rice given by the Federal Government?” “Where are 30,000 bags of rice donated by Dangote?” (Reference to Aliko Dangote, Chairman of the Dangote Group and the Richest Man in Africa)
These posers were triggered by the viral videos of angry and hungry Edolites, who looted thousands of bags of rice reportedly donated by the Federal Government to Edo people, but were allegedly hoarded and warehoused in residences or property of chieftains of the PDP in Benin City, and across the state.
That’s why concerned Edolites tagged Obaseki and Ighodalo to the rice “scandal” inundating the Obaseki government since the Bola Tinubu administration revealed its donation of 20 trucks of rice, and other food and farming products to each of the 36 States and the FCT, to ameliorate the hardship and food crisis across Nigeria.
While several states, including Borno, had admitted receiving the federal government food and farming consignments, many, like Edo, denied any knowledge, and/or receipt of the largesse, resulting in a war of words between the Edo chapter of the APC and the PDP-controlled state government.
The controversy started when Obaseki claimed that his administration, for several months, had spent N1bn monthly to supply food palliatives to Edo people, who, disclaimed off-handedly the governor’s unsubstantiated assertion. Notably, the said N1bn monthly palliatives came on the heels of the initial federal government reported allocation of five trucks of rice, and N5bn to enable each of the 36 States and the FCT to purchase more grains and other food items for distribution to their people.
Some state governments – which’d denied receipt of the rice and N5bn – recanted, claiming that the N5bn wasn’t a grant but a loan from the federal government. Then came the instant 20 trucks of rice to the states and the FCT, with many states keeping mum, and Edo and Oyo publicity dismissing the federal government statement – even buttressed in the August 1, 2024, national broadcast by President Tinubu, while appealing to Nigerian youths to shelve the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest that’s billed to commence the same day and end on August 10.
But on the first day of the 10-day #EndHunger protest, demonstrators in Edo discovered – and looted – thousands of bags of rice stored in several residences of alleged members of the PDP at Urora community, Ikpoba Hill area of Benin City. The state government, through its Commissioner for Communication, Chris Nehikhare, quickly dismissed the claim by the “rice looters” and the APC state chapter – that it’s the federal government rice donated to Edo State.
As reported by the online news portal, GWG.COM, the Edo State chairman of the APC, Jarrett Tenebe, accused the Governor Obaseki government of “stockpiling the rice sent by the federal government as palliative for political use ahead of and during the forthcoming governorship election.”
(Recall that the APC and informed inhabitants of Edo State made a similar allegation against Obaseki during the September 2020 governorship poll: That he hoarded – for his re-election bid – the COVID-19 palliatives donated by then-President Muhammadu Buhari administration to Edo State, for distribution to the most impacted by the effects of the pandemic.)
At a press conference on Thursday, August 1, “to celebrate what he described as a shame of the Obaseki administration in hiding palliative rice from the people,” Mr Tenebe said: “He (Obaseki) has announced also that each month that his PDP government spends N1 billion for purchase of rice.”
“If Edo (people) were ever in doubt, the video that emerged on social media today (August 1) of an abandoned trailer load of repackaged Federal Government rice with Edo State Government inscription, discovered by Urora residents, has exposed Obaseki’s deliberate plan to deprive Edo people the different palliative measures of the Federal Government.”
But in a statement, Mr Nehikhare attempted to spin the rice “discovery” as an APC stunt to smear the image of the Governor Obaseki, his government and the PDP, claiming that, “the government does not have any store in the Urora community and that it only distributes palliatives through religious bodies.”
“The State Government does not keep any relief material by itself but reaches out to the people through these channels,” Nehikhare said. “We will not put this tactic past the All Progressives Congress, APC, which is spreading malicious content to score cheap political points. This condemnable action is intended to cause chaos in the state and the APC is discouraged from such ignoble practice.”
Yet, confronted in a Channels TV programme, following #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest, Nehikhare confirmed that the Edo government actually received “trucks of rice” from the federal government, without stating how many trucks, and how the rice was distributed to vulnerable members of the Edo public.
While the rice saga has reinforced opposition’s scrutiny of and referendum on the eight-year tenure of Governor Obaseki, the owners and residents of the premises allegedly used to warehouse the commodity – for rebagging into smaller kilograms, and inscribed with the “Edo State Government,” for onward distribution and/or sale to party members – are counting their losses to the angry mob, who looted the rice and vandalised the property, accordingly.
“The discovery of the unattended-to truck (of rice at Urora community in Benin City on August 1) led to a frenzy, as the truck was completely looted. A house in the community, where it (rice) was also being housed, was looted, and adjoining houses to the flat accommodating the rice suffered collateral damage, as they were raided and looted by the rice raiders,” the GWG.COM reported on August 4.
“Like others in the buildings which were destroyed by the ‘rice looters,’ a resident, Charles Omoaka, has become a collateral victim of the people’s wrath on the political class. In an interview, he lamented that he, like many others, ‘does not know where to put his head after the angry protesters went beyond rice to also ransack their homes and took away even the roof over their houses.”
In saner climes, those, who by their actions instigated the rice heist – which prompted the looting spree, and destruction of property, rendering the residents “homeless” – would be held to account through legal means or via the ballot, which, in the case of the “rice scandal” in Edo State, is barely one month away on September 21, 2024.
Will Edo voters look beyond partisan and sectional streak, and do right by all Edolites allegedly shortchanged in the distribution of the palliatives donated by the federal government? The answer to this crucial and critical question resides on Election Day!
•Mr Ezomon, journalist and media consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
