52-years-old Ondo resident Olawunmi
Fagbemi has not been a happy woman in the past 6-months. Neither does
her status as a widow brings her sadness nor that she has three
undergraduate children which she sponsors their education with her petty
trade is the source of her unhappiness.
No thanks to the present economic woes
of the nation which has brought untold hardship upon Nigerians and has
jerked up prices of food items with little or no income to afford the
food items. This has in no small measure brought starvation to the
center stage in homes across the country, and Fagbemi’s home is not an
exception.
DailyMail of UK reports few
days ago how starvation is killing five children per hour every single
day, with 250,000 people at risk, while famine is also making thousands
of refugees to flee Nigeria.
“I have a son who is an undergraduate at
the Adekunle Ajasin University, my daughter is also at the School of
Nursing in Akure, while my youngest child attends a public secondary
school. Taking care of the children and providing for their needs with
my trade has not been very easy since I lost my husband the major
financier of the family five years ago, but it has never been worse like
this. In the last five months, eating two times in a day has become
very difficult for me and my family. It got so worse that sometimes we
only eat at nights” Fagbemi lamented with anger and sadness boldly
written on her face. as her voice fades.
That Fagbemi could not afford three
square meals a day for her children and meet their other needs give her
sadness. She is not the only one in this sorry state; hunger is now the
order of the day in the homes of millions of Nigerians across the
nation. The hardship that has befallen the nation in the last 18-months
is legendary. Reports of theft of food commodities are rising each day
from different parts of the country.
“The hunger in the land has become so worse that many parents could
not even afford a small cup of rice which sells for N50 to feed their
children. Those who can afford it cannot repeat it three times in a day,
while the three square meals a day has long become a thing of the past
in many homes, many now flood parties either invited or uninvited to get
food to eat and also take home to their family. It is that bad!”
Opeyemi Akinbami, a primary school teacher stated.
The timely intervention of the Ondo
State Government through the flag-off of its Eto Igbe Ayo Food
Palliative programme brought succor to Fagbemi and an end to her months
of hardship, as well as thousands of her likes in Ondo state, who are
not exempted from the national hunger. Fagbemi was one of the first
beneficiaries of the initiatives when it was flagged-off in July, and
she was full of praises to the government for coming to the aid of the
citizenry through the distribution of food items across the state.
The crux of the Eto Igbe Ayo food
palliative programme is to supply food items to 100,000 women resident
across the state. Eligibility to be a beneficiary is to be a holder of
the Ondo multi-application smart card, the Kaadi Igbe Ayo. The essence
of using the card is to ensure only residents of the state benefit from
the initiative, because over the years when social services are put in
place in Ondo state, residents of neighbouring states flood the state to
hijack such initiative targeted at Ondo state residents, thereby
shortchanging the residents who should be the direct beneficiaries.
No doubt the hunger in the land calls
for emergency attention of any serious government to take action in
order to salvage its citizen from starvation, and not pretend that all
will be well after payment of workers’ salaries which is not even enough
to feed the family again with this present condition of the country.
One would not but agree with Governor Olusegun Mimiko that “hunger is a
desperate situation that needs desperate attention” and this calls for
the intervention of government in order to avert deaths in the land
resulting from hunger, an offspring of a collapse economy.
It will not be out of place to state that it is only a government
that understands the magnitude of the problem presently ravaging the
land that can tackle it and proffer a solution the way the Mimiko-led
government is doing in Ondo state with the food palliative programme, by
not shying away from the fact that monthly salary alone could no longer
meet the needs of the people.
As expected naysayers and the
politically jaundiced have gone to town to ascribe political meanings to
the laudable initiative which has also been adopted by the Oyo state
government few weeks after it was initiated in Ondo state. If caring for
the people and saving them from the throes of death is apolitical, then
wouldn’t it be safe to ask that politics be played in this line? Rather
than playing politics of destruction and falsehood.
Apolitical or not, Sulaiman Olayinka, a
resident of Ikare-Akoko and an excited beneficiary of the food
palliative programme, full of joy as she receives her portable bags of
the food items, described the initiative as a great and commendable
programme for the needy, “at this critical time when people are
lamenting and dying of hunger, it is a great step by the government to
secure the future of our children, it is when you eat that you and your
family can live at peace, in good health and also think about how to
give your children a better future.”
Omotadowa Roseline is another
beneficiary who said she has always believed in the programmes of the
State Government, noted that “I was so happy when I heard it on radio
that the governor is distributing food items to those who have Kaadi
Igbe Ayo, I knew it was real when it was announced and not a deceit. It
will have a very great impact on the family, because presently many
parents don’t even have any means to feed their children with a cup of
rice.”
“I have never benefitted from government
programme directly in this way before, we never knew that Kaadi igbe
Ayo is so beneficial like this, we never knew it could bring food to our
table at the time when there is hunger everywhere, my family is
grateful to the Governor for this kindness” Grace Olanipekun
For Afe Christiana a resident of Akure, “things have been difficult in the country presently, we can only pray to God to help us. The Mimiko food palliative is timely and will go a long way in binging happiness into many homes, because presently there is sadness in many homes as a result of the harsh economic condition of the nation.”
For Afe Christiana a resident of Akure, “things have been difficult in the country presently, we can only pray to God to help us. The Mimiko food palliative is timely and will go a long way in binging happiness into many homes, because presently there is sadness in many homes as a result of the harsh economic condition of the nation.”
Akingbohungbe Yemisi in Idanre also
believes that the Eto Igbe Ayo food palliative programme “will really go
a long way, and have great impact in the family, the Lord will also
give the government peace of mind as they have decided to bring peace
into our homes with this food palliative”
The good news for the people of Ondo
state is that the Eto Igbe Ayo food palliative programme is not a one
phase programme, Mimiko was quoted to have said at the flag-off of the
programme that it is going to be a continuous programme to reach the
largest number of people until things get better in the country.
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