A social group, the GCIO Nigerian Citizens Welfare Project ( GCIO-NCWP) has pleaded with the federal government not to cancel the planned sale of a bag of rice at N40,000 to civil servants across the country.

The group made the appeal while reacting to federal government’s announcement suspending the project. The Director General of the group, Esanorovo Agbodo, predicated the appeal on the grounds that the project if allowed to continue would bring down the prices of food in the country.

Agbodo, in a statement, explained thatthat the FG initiative was a good one and should not be cancelled, adding that the government should expand the scope to cover all Nigerians across all classes using the National Identity Number (NIN) as a fair criteria rather than focusing on only civil servants or selling through politicians.

The statement signed by the group’s Publicity Secretary, Mr Jeremiah Orede, noted that Agbodo reiterated the stand of the group as published in the Media immediately the fuel subsidy removal was announced in 2023.

“He said that the hunger protestwouldn’t have been necessary if the government had implemented some of the recommendations of GCIO-NCWP where the group stated that food palliatives should be distributed using NIN not politicians or other channels that will make it complex for the common man to benefit from the project.

“The group also recommended that the federal government should open farms in every local government as well as partner with the National Union of Road Transport Owners and Workers to subsidise transportation for citizens until the CNGbuses are ready,” the statement read in part.

The group lamented that its suggestions to the federal government on how to handle the issue of fuel subsidy removal are yet to be inculcated in government’s strategy to combat the rising cost of living.

“If our suggestions were implemented a bit, it would have stemmed the sharp rise in transport fares and also reduce the prices of food stuffs because when transportation fares for food stuffs are reduced and food palliatives distribution done through NIN,the prices of food in the open market will surely come down and the common man will not be excluded,”, the group noted.

Agbodo stated that just as they recommended the palliatives distribution using NIN, they stated that unless the NIN is used randomly to sell the bags of rice or give any welfare package to Nigerians, some people will still hijack the process and the common man will hardly benefit.

“We are also not resting on our oars because we have also rolled out plans to establish farms and also food banks in our little wayto support Nigerians soon.

GCIO-NCWP also plans to host an Investment Dialogue to fathom ways to attract both local and foreign investments to Nigeria to boost the value of the Naira and create more jobs before the end of the year.

“We want to stop here and we also want to state that we will continue to make our suggestions open to the government because what we need is a better Nigeria for all,” he added. (THISDAY)