My attention was drawn to the information the Plateau State government released on the Federal Government of Nigeria covid19 palliative, I will vehemently say the information was not true, the state government should come out and apologise to citizens for hoarding the covid19 palliative and fertilizers for personal interest.

Let me state this to the Plateau state government I am well informed on government activities in the state and Nigeria.

On 13th April 2020 Hajiya Sadiya Sadiq Farouk the minister of humanitarian affairs made this known during the 10th joint national briefing of the committee that henceforth state governors will be in charge of the distribution of palliative measures in their state, this was in response to a question when being asked if the government was thinking of strategy of sharing the palliative amidst citizens dissatisfaction over handling policy.

The minister made a statement some months back and I quote,
“There is hardly anyone in Nigeria who didn’t receive the Federal Government Palliative care during the Covid19 Pandemic period. All the tribes in Nigeria received the palliative in fact in was evenly distributed.”

The state government saying the minister of women affairs and humanitarian affairs brought the palliative on 16th October 2020 was not true. The two ministers were in the state for international rural women day, which have in attendance some members of the Plateau state house of assembly and some civil society organisations, a colleague of mine Nerat Yakubu was present to witness the event, she confirmed from the ministers speech palliative was not mentioned, what the minister mentioned to be given was 20,000 naira to the rural women and most beneficiaries will be breast feeding mothers, and the event was said to be is in line with the promise of President Muhammadu Buhari to lift 100 million people out of poverty in Nigeria.

If it is true the Ministers brought the palliative, why will citizens not be informed? why didn’t the government announce the arrival and recipient of the covid19 palliative with civil society organisations monitoring it for the sake of transparency?

I have worked to monitor projects in several communities on the Plateau and across Nigeria, citizens are very hungry, Nigerians are hungry, but I wonder what kind of leaders we have that will have this wicked mind-set towards the people that entrusted leadership to them.

I still call on the government to publicly apologise to citizen on this issue of palliative and I am advising the committee constituted to look into the #EndSARS and #PoliceBrutality to quickly make policies that will assist the government to engage citizens and bring an end to the current situation in the state as the current situation is not only about police reform.

God Bless Plateau state.

God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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Youth Activist Emmanuel Bature slams Plateau state government on covid19 palliative.