The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, has faulted the distribution of food and some other palliatives to certain class of Nigerians in the wake of the biting hardship facing the country. 

President Bola Tinubu’s decision to float the naira and the removal of fuel subsidy without proper analysis of the dimensions and implications have pushed inflation to unprecedented levels leading to unparalleled hike in the cost of living.

Governments across the second tier have also rolled out palliative measures, including the distribution of food items to the vulnerable as part of moves to cushion the hardship in the country.

However, Bishop Kukah, has picked holes in the approach saying such moves are undignifying and governments should map out better plans to tackle the nation’s problems, the issue of humger.

“We need to see a much more robust programme designed by the government to help us go away from just lining up and collecting palliative when we are not at war,” he said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics

“I think it is the height of indignity to see Nigerians lining up every day under the sun and waiting to collect bags of rice, which probably never come, not because money has not been given out for the purchase, but because everybody who gives out money in Nigeria from the Federal Government knows that a good part of this money is always stolen. Nigerians are not looking for handouts.”

He suggested to the federal government to tackle insecurity so that people can go back to the farms to fix the situation.

“Ordinary farmers just want to go back to their farms. People just want to be able to get back to their lives. 

“Ending insecurity is the beginning of this healing and a decisive programme and plan to end is the beginning of the healing,” Bishop Kukah said.