10 items that should make up the basic Nigerian Covid-19 relief food package

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) One packet of 5kg of rice
(2) One packet of 5kg of gari
(3) One packet of 5kg of beans
(4) Two tubes of yam
(5) Two loaves of bread
(6) One gallon of cooking oil
(7) One crate of 30 eggs
(8) Two litres of milk
(9) Four litres of water
(10) Four tins of tomatoes

Now, here is some background research we needed to have carried out as soon as this crisis broke:

(1) What is the size of the average Nigerian family?
(2) How many families are there in Nigeria
(3) Does everyone of our 774 local governments have a warehouse that can store enough food to feed its populace?
(4) Do we have the capacity to distribute food across all our local governments within a week as we do say election material?
(5) What is the daily required calorie intake of the average Nigerian?
(6) How many bags of gari do we produce a year given that we are the world’s number producer of cassava?
(7) How many bags of rice do we have in storage across Nigeria?
(8) Can we augment this food package by opening refrigeration units in each local government area to store local fruit like papaya, mangoes, guava, pineapples, bananas, oranges, etc?
(9) Does each local government authority have the capacity to deliver food to every street within its domain?
(10) How long can we sustain the delivery of this kind of package before we run out of stocks?