President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima have differed on the measures to adopt in addressing the rising cost of living in the country.
While Shettima believes in establishing a price control agency to halt the rising cost of food and other consumables, Tinubu is thinking differently.
Indeed Shettima, on Tuesday, during a two-day high-level strategic meeting on climate change, food systems, and resource mobilisation held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, proposed some measures the government would put in place to check increasing cost of living, claiming a price control board is also on the way.
“The short-term strategy entails revitalising food supply through specific interventions like the distribution of fertilisers and grains to farmers and households to counteract the effects of subsidy removal; fostering collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources for efficient farmland irrigation, ensuring year-round food production, and addressing price volatility by establishing a National Commodity Board,” the Vice President remarked.
This, the President spurned at a meeting involving the Vice President, governors, the National Security Adviser, Inspector-General of Police, the Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS) and ministers held on Thursday at the State House.
The rejection was contained in a statement the presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, issued, in which he narrated what Tinubu said at the meeting.
Quoting the President, Ngelale said: “What I will not do is to set a price control board. I will not also approve the importation of food.
“We should be able to get ourselves out of the situation we found ourselves in because importation will allow rent seekers to perpetrate fraud and mismanagement at our collective expense.
“We would rather support farmers with the schemes that will make them go to the farm and grow more food for everyone in the country.
“We must also look at the rapid but thoughtful implementation of our livestock development and management plans, including dairy farming and others.”