Senator Abubakar Kyari, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, has warned commodity traders against hoarding and speculative trading as the Federal Government intensifies efforts to reduce hardship and scale up food production in the country.
The minister made this warning in Abuja at a special Ramadan lecture/Iftar themed ‘Gratitude, Patience, and Vision: Embracing Challenges with Optimism’, organized by the Special Assistance to the President on Agriculture and Food Security, Mufutau Yinusa.
Kyari said the Federal Government would continue to work round the clock to ensure food security for the nation while addressing the insecurity challenge frontally. He lamented the increase in the cost of food items, but nothing apart from insecurity has affected agricultural production; the issue of hoarding has exacerbated the problem.
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“We have seen and discovered some warehouses in big commodity areas where even gates are removed and walls are built just to hoard food stuff inside.“ Some of the problems we are facing are also man-made; hoarding, for instance, and speculative trade by commodity traders are also very huge.
“So when you look at those things and say it’s Bola Tinubu, I think we are not being fair to the administration of this government. “So we have to look inward; we all have a role to play,” the minister added.
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Also speaking was the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Aliyu Abdullahi, who highlighted the Federal Government’s commitment to working with relevant stakeholders to address the economic challenges facing the nation.
The Imam of Abuja National Mosque, Sheik Muhammad Kabir, in his lecture, admonished Muslims to shun corruption while contributing positively to nation-building.
The Islamic cleric stressed the need for Nigerians to continue to pray and support the current administration in addressing the myriad of problems confronting the country.
