By Suleiman Yakubu

The Bida Local Government Palliative Committee has been commended for sticking to the template and having a seamless distribution of the food items accordingly.
Hon. Abdulmajid Danlami Yaman, a former PDP councillor who represented Bariki ward in Bida, said he was impressed with the way the team leader, Hon. Suleiman Umar, the Commissioner of Works and Infrastructural Development, exhibited leadership quality. Hon. Yaman disclosed this yesterday at Bida Town Hall, where the Committee flagged off the distribution of the palliative for the Bariki Ward.
He said the level of transparency displayed by the committee was highly commendable, as all the ward committee members were carried along.
In his address, the team lead, Hon. Suleiman Umar, said a monitoring committee was set up at the local government level to supervise the activities of the unit committee members.
He pleaded for the total cooperation and understanding of the people of Bida, disclosing that no man can share anything with the people in society perfectly; however, their target was that the beneficiaries should be more than those who might not be so lucky.
The Commissioner of Works and Infrastructural Development disclosed that the palliative was meant to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal temporarily, especially for the most downtrodden in society, adding that, however, the government of Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago was designing a programme that would enable the citizens to feed themselves.
He said the state government was already taking steps such as the Bida Ring Road, Minna township road projects, conversion of the Shiroro Hotel to the IBBU Teaching Hospital project, redevelopment of Three Arms Zone, and others to create job opportunities for our teeming youth roaming around the corners of the state.
Hon. Suleiman then warned the various committees not to shortchange the template given to them as a comprehensive report would be filed after the exercise.
In his goodwill message, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Special Duties, Dr. Murtala Bagana, admonished the unit committee members to distribute the items with the fear of Allah, as they would be asked to account for their deeds.
He said that the committee's priority was to ensure the food items got to targeted beneficiaries, adding that widows, the physically challenged, and the less privileged must be carried along.
Hon. Sadiq Umar, a former member of the Niger State House Assembly who represented the Bida South constituency, pleaded with the beneficiaries to give their maximum support and cooperation to the sharing committee when they ask for their details, such as phone numbers, as the monitoring committee or even Governor Bago may decide to call them to inquire about them.
Five kg of rice and four wraps of spaghetti were given to the beneficiaries, and at the time of filing this report, all 14 wards in Bida had a successful flagged-off ceremony.

By Suleiman Yakubu

Residents of Kpakungu community in Chanchaga Local Government Area of Niger State have criticised members of the palliative committee in charge of the area for not utilising the N20 million naira given to their ward as palliative.
Some of the people who spoke with Newsline about their plights regarding the development of palliative but did not want their names mentioned in print said that what they were given as palliative was nothing to write home about, describing the action meted out on them as unfair after waiting for two days to have their shares with high expectations.
According to the residents, the people handling the distribution were seen moving from one house to another Thursday night and Friday morning, sharing one packet of spaghetti and one packet of macaroni per household; there was no rice, no oil, no tomatoes, and no beans. The question raised was what about the truck of rice allocated to each ward apart from the N20 million in cash?
They, however, called on the state government to investigate all those in charge of the palliative committee and give an account of what they did with the N20 million allocated to their ward, Minna South, which comprises 41 polling units.
The people, while expressing their displeasure over the insincerity of the palliative committee, said the plights of the downtrodden, who were the targeted beneficiaries aimed to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal, were rather short changed from getting what they were supposed to be given while the rich got richer as they channelled the money for themselves.
They, however, blamed the state government for releasing the money meant for palliative to each ward to purchase food items by themselves and distribute.
The Assistant Public Relations Officer, APC, of Minna South Ward, Esther Gwonna, who confirmed the sharing of only one spaghetti and macaroni to a household in the area, told Newsline on Friday that what they shared with the people was what the palliative committee gave them to share.
Esther, while responding to a question from Newsline on what happened to the truck of food items allocated to each ward by the state government received from the federal government for distribution to the people in addition to the ones they were given money to buy, explained that they had not seen anything like that and said that what they were given to share with the people were the items bought from the market.
The Executive Chairman of Chanchaga Local Government Council, Hon. Aminu Ladan, a member of the committee, and all efforts to speak to him by Newsline between Thursday, the 2nd day, and Friday to get his comments proved unsuccessful as he refused to answer the calls put to him.
A Newsline correspondent who visited most of the polling units where the distribution of palliative was expected to be shared with the people, reported that none of the committee members surfaced in any of the polling units.