Hunger Crisis: Tinubu directs total compliance with export prohibition act

The Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale, has said that President Bola Tinubu has directed total compliance with the Export Prohibition Act in respect of food items, to check smuggling of the commodities out of the country.

The measure, Adewale said, was to also ensure the availability of food items in the country.

He disclosed this during a meeting with the leaders and members of the Dawanu Grains Market Association, Kano, on Friday.

He stated that the Act had not been implemented in the past because Nigeria had food sufficiency then.

He said now that the country was going through a food crisis, the President directed that the Act must be fully implemented to ensure that the food items were not exported when people were in dire need of them.

The comptroller-General then urged the Dawanu grains dealers to assist the government by complying with the directive banning the exportation of food items, to provide enough food to the people.

“It is unwise for a reasonable and sincere country to embark on the exportation of food items when her own citizens are in need of them.

“You are big stakeholders in this direction and these are the reasons why I am here to interact with you and solicit for your support” he said.

In his remarks, the President of the Dawanau Market Development Association, Alhaji Muttaka Isah, told the comptroller-general that members of the association were facing several challenges which included “the unfounded allegation in some quarters that our dealers hoard grains in their warehouses.

“I want to seize this opportunity, Sir, to deny this baseless allegation and to inform Nigerians that we do not hoard foodstuffs; whatever grains we procure from the growers and other sources, we store them in our warehouses for a while, before we supply them directly to our customers in the markets.

“So, we store these grains for operational convenience and to protect the foodstuffs from any foreign bodies that might spoil them. That is the truth.

“Another challenge bedeviling this market is the near absence of operational understanding between our traders who import beans, and the operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service, especially along the Nigeria-Niger International border.

“We appeal that the operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service relax their conditions on the importation of beans and other foodstuffs from the Niger Republic to enable us to transport the goods seamlessly for the benefit of our customers in particular and Nigeria in general,” the president added.