NewStats: 3,261,366 , 8,173,801 topics. Date: Thursday, 29 May 2025 at 02:44 AM x1q6h

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has called on the Federal Government to commence the immediate importation of essential food items to cushion the effect of rising food prices across the country.

This was made known by the President of TUC, Festus Osifo, during a press conference on the economic hardship ravaging the country on Monday, February 26, 2024. in Abuja.

Osifo lamented that Nigerians have never witnessed this level of hardship before even during military regimes, adding that the problems are not unconnected to the government’s poor patronage of locally made products and services, and lack of capable hands at the helm of affairs.

What the TUC President is saying
Osifo said, “Nigerians must live to see tomorrow before we can understand how beautiful a government policy is. The national pride of striving to achieve food sufficiency locally should be temporarily relaxed. Governments at all levels should immediately purchase sufficient quantities of food items from different parts of the world and share them with vulnerable Nigerians.
“Importing food abroad at this point will assist to reduce the hyper-inflation of food in the country. FG should allow importation of food items for Nigerians consumption within the next two weeks.’’

The TUC President advised President Bola Tinubu to as a matter of urgency strengthen the economic management team of his istration and also look beyond party or tribal lines to headhunt the best Nigerians throughout the world who could sit down and develop homegrown solutions to the hardship menace.

https://nairametrics.com/2024/02/26/cost-of-living-crisis-tuc-to-fg-begin-importation-of-food/?amp=1

A good bad idea.

Importing food with scarce dollars would deepen the problem. It'll be more food that Nigerians CANNOT afford.

Instead, the government needs to launch an aggressive and sustained comprehensive attack on bandits and terrorists holding whole farming villages to ransom.

Also, the government needs to approve state police ASAP and have the states set up a special farmland protection squad. Like SARS, but better because they'll only harass tresing herdsmen and criminal bandits.

Finally, more stringent price control measures need to be introduced. It's MADNESS for the price of goods to jump more than 40-50% in just 7 days.

He will rather import more cocaine than import food.

Why won't the dumb government remove duty on the import of things like grains and medical supplies for Godsake. Remove restrictions on some food imports

You want to import food when one dollar is almost 2k. How much would they sell it by the time it's cleared from the port?

The naira has to gain value against the dollar before we can talk of importation.

Rubbish! Absolute nonsense






Until you're legally married to a man, don't live with him. Visit and go back home so that others can also visit..

Tinupoo and buhari ed Apc and scammed Nigeria...it shall never end well for them


Where is buhari and tinupoo rice pyramid?? Rice is now 80k per bag .

Pepperlilili:
Won't that worsen our dollar

If tinupoo #5bn yacht and 156bn SUV didn't worsen dollar, the food that hungry Nigerians will eat will do no shit to dollar.

Chai..


Bad advise!

Is Nigeria's land now barren?


Before we'll start importing food that they produced with human flesh!!

Import food? That will never happen. It will be either drug or other illegal things

While this might be good.

Nigerians won't trust it because

Either they loot the money allocated for it or When the food arrives. Oga at the top will say, this is for Sinate president, this one is for Ganduje.

They will move the food to their states for campaign. To make them look like its part of their constsituency project.

Nigeria has a long way to go.

I forgot to mention that some states in South South and South East wont get a grain of rice. Yet, they will publish they have fed 100 million people

Wetin be that Buhari Humanitarian minister that said she fed 16 million kids during covid. abeg fear Naija politicians

They'll meet tonight and FG will agree to the importation of food... Then NLC/TUC go call off protest.... We sabi d drill

Pepperlilili:
Won't that worsen our dollar

Eat first before we talk about exchange rate. Millions are starving oga

Why are Nigerians not seeing beyond the 5 inches in front of their noses? Even if you give 200 million Nigerians bags of rice and foodstuff, what happens when the food finishes? Is Nigeria now one big refugee camp?

Yes na since they cannot call Buharis brothers killing farmers to order. Let them be importing

Imagine

What rubbish is this? Is there food scarcity? Instead of them to advice the FG to tackle the remote cause they are asking for another problem.

But Tinubu recently said he won't tow the line of importation of food commodities but to buy tractors for food production.

What is the govt doing about those people killing farmers

That's the major cause of the food shortages

They are systematically putting the govt in a tight position and nobody is talking about them

If Nigerian army is hard pressed....what about mercenaries like what Godluck did then

Which kind useless advice be dis? Fighting a problem by creating other problems.

Is TUC saying we should import Garri, cassava, yam, Plaintain, beans, agbado, groundnut etc? APC should tackle insecurity. They know what to do but don’t want to do it.

By the way, Where are the garri, ewa, agbado BAT promised?

I have said it, Tinubu should be humble enough to invite Obasanjo, Jonathan and Babangida to coach him how to run the economy..
Pride will not profit him..

Next they will say they are subsidizing food at 5 trillion naira per month.

This man no mean well. Some people just go to school but cannot think

Importing food is still the reason why we demand for more dollars which inturn inflates the naira

TUC opinion is that, you too can also share your own opinion to our baba Tinuburuku our own presido.

Dollar that politicians are squandering is that what you want to preserve thereby killing everybody with hunger

Including cement

Just legalize cannibalism we have enough protein to sustain the whole of Africa.

BBright1:
Importing food is still the reason why we demand for more dollars which inturn inflates the naira

The issue lies in people hoarding dollars which they are not putting into use.
Our politicians are culprits

Meti99:
I have said it, Tinubu should be humble enough to invite Obasanjo, Jonathan and Babangida to coach him how to run the economy..
Pride will not profit him..

what makes you think that Tinubu is interested in knowing how to run the economy?

Yes. If Tinubu is wise or surrounded by wise men, the best way to respond to the prices of essential food items is to open the borders for food items only.

A bag of rice will reduce to less than 30k, then the price of the local rice will crash like pack of card too.


Let rice, beans, be vegetable oil, semo etc roll in and see how people will start singing his praise.

Tinubu ko lagidi ni... Ko gbon rara. Ode alagidi radarada.

When people buy cheaper they'll sell cheaper.

Even with the Naira free fall, how much do you think a bag of rice is in Benin Republic?

There is no shortage of food,fo ol.
It's that the food is too expensive and no money to buy and now because of blabulu s tupidity in floating the ₦,people are now smuggling goods across the border because their currency is stronger/gives higher profit when converted to Naira.
I wonder how some of these semi-illiterates became union leaders,dishing out village men ideas.
If you want to buy anything in the market,it's available,rice, beans,indomnie,spaghetti,yam,oil,tomato,sugar,salt,cooking gas,water,soft drinks and beverages,etc;the issue is that it's not affordable,stupid!