House of Representatives Speaker Tajudeen Abbas has said food insecurity was a huge national embarrassment which must be addressed by akk tiers of government.
He therefore urged the National Assembly and the State Houses of Assembly to use legislative instruments to tackle hunger and malnutrition in Nigeria.
The Speaker stated this on Tuesday while addressing the House Committee on Food Security and Malnutrition as well as the National Legislative Network on Nutrition and Food Security in his office in Abuja.
A statement issued by his Spokesperson Musa Krishi quoted Abbas as saying, “Nigeria’s problem is largely, in a way, food insecurity and whatever we can do as parliamentarians to ease the burden on the people when it comes to hunger and malnutrition, we will be doing a very great service to this country.
“I urge you to please maintain the tempo. Ensure that you continue to increase the level of your activities until we get to that Promised Land.”
Abbas said it is gratifying to hear that an initiative of the House, “Which came on board for the first time in the history of the parliament,” is really making such kind of impact.
He said “the committee is no longer a baby of the House of Representatives; it has become the baby of Nigeria as a whole, embraced by all the 36 Speakers (of the State Houses of Assembly) who are also making efforts to see that they can take this to all the local government areas.
“I think this is one of the few things that we created in the 10th House that will forever linger in my mind for being very useful to the country. I can attribute that success and the benefits to the chairman of the committee whose passion and commitment are driving this process.”
Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee, Chinedu Okafor said the conversations around food security “Cmcannot start and end in Abuja,” stressing that his committee has taken the campaign against food insecurity and malnutrition to the sub-national levels.
Okafor recalled his meeting with the Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly and Chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria, Adebo Ogundoyin, which led to organisation of a retreat in Owerri, Imo State, where it was resolved that committees on food security and nutrition be set up at the state parliaments and federal laws be domesticated at the state level.
Okafor also said the chairmen and clerks of the newly created committees met in Abuja, which led to the creation of the National Legislative Network on Nutrition and Food Security.
He said the network meet with Vice President Kashim Shettima, on Wednesday on food insecurity.
