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, DDM News Reports.
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 administration 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.