Nigeria needs to outsource the distribution of essential items to the country’s two most successful food distributors - The APC and the PDP

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) Over the last week we have all seen the mayhem this lockdown is causing in parts of Nigeria as people are complaining about not having supplies of basic food items to deal with the situation

(2) In Lagos in particular, people are getting quite restless saying they cannot afford to go for 14 days without food. They blame the government for not backing up the lockdown with the appropriate distribution of food items

(3) In all fairness to the Lagos State government, it has a food distribution programme but alas, the quantity of items in that its bag are pathetic. It will probably only feed a family of six for about a day

(4) In contrast, I saw a clip from the Philippines in which the government gave every family 10kg of rice among other things. Their package would easily sustain a family of six for a fortnight

(5) I am not sure if the Nigerian food ministry has details of how many tonnes of rice, gari, yam, palm oil, etc are stored in warehouses across the country. If they do, I would like to see statisticians do some number crunching and come up with a plan to distribute whatever is available

(6) If you ask me, the task of doing this should fall to the APC and PDP as these two organisations know how to distribute food items. They already have distribution networks across all 774 local government areas and have people on the ground

(7) During election times, the APC and PDP successfully reached every nook and cranny with their bags of food known as stomach infrastructure in political parlance. I think we need their experience more than ever now

(8) For me, the government needs to ask Adams Oshiomole and Uche Secondus to draw up distribution plans for getting food to Nigerians and then get their boys to execute the plan

(9) I would like Oshiomole and Secondus to start off by finding out how much rice would be needed to give every Nigerian family a 10kg bag. They should then ask if we have such rice stocks locally in our warehouses. If not, maybe should start with distributing what we have and then come up with a plan to boost domestic production to fill the gap

(10) They say, even in ruins there is architecture. For all our sins, Nigerian politics has midwifed successful food distribution companies. Now, the country needs these organisations, so we should tap into that resource in our hour of need