The Coalition Against COVID-19, CACOVID, said the scale of the nationwide food distribution programme and the number of persons slated to benefit from the palliatives were some of the reasons why the delivery of the items were delayed.

Nwanosiobi Osita, who doubles as the Central Bank of Nigeria’s acting Director, Corporate Communications and spokesperson of the coalition, said in a statement that the relief items were to be delivered to about 2 million most vulnerable families in 774 LGAs across the country.

“The sheer scale of this nationwide food programme and the timing of the orders and deliveries, which coincided with the lockdowns and reduced movement across the country, compelled CACOVID to roll out distribution in a staggered manner.

“The very large size of the order, and the production cycle required to meet the demand caused delays in delivering the food items to the states in an expeditious manner; hence, the resultant delay in delivery of the food palliatives by the state governors,” he said.

CACOVID, which consists of Nigerian businesspersons and corporate organisations, contributed billions of naira to help the country reduce the impact of the lockdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic on the most vulnerable citizens.

The #EndSARS protesters had demanded the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police, but the protest was later hijacked by some people who went on a looting spree across Nigeria.

According to Nwanisobi, the first deliveries could not commence until June while a sizable portion of the items had been delivered but yet to be distributed by the governors by October.

“At the time CACOVID embarked on the palliatives effort in April, we decided to procure the food directly from the manufacturers, to avoid a distortion of prices in the market.

“For instance, rice had to be milled, semolina and maize flour had to be processed, noodles and pasta had to be manufactured, and sugar had to be refined,” he said.

The food package was designed that each of the nearly 2 million vulnerable families received: 10kg bag of rice, 5kg bag of garri/maize flour/semolina, 1 carton of pasta, 2 cartons of noodles, 5kg of sugar and 1kg of salt.

According to Mr. Nwanisobi, the first deliveries could not start until June while a sizable portion of the items had been delivered but yet to be distributed by the governors.

“Although various states and the FCT had commenced flag-off of the distribution of the food items since early August, some could not conclude the distribution as they were yet to receive complete deliveries of the items allotted to them. In the interest of transparency and accountability, CACOVID will, in due course, be providing the full delivery schedule and flag-off dates by each state,” he said.

“Given that the states and local government authorities oversee all relief efforts in their jurisdictions and know their citizens best, we had worked with each governor and the Minister of the FCT, utilising a combination of our protocols and their existing structures and processes to ensure food items reach the intended beneficiaries.

“We also appointed an independent monitoring team to ensure that the items would be delivered as intended,” he said.

Warehouses for the COVID-19 palliatives donated by CACOVID had been looted in Lagos, Osun, Kwara, Cross River, Kaduna, Plateau and others. The stolen food items include garri, rice, spaghetti, Indomie and vegetable oil.

“We are aware that official flagging-off and handover of the palliatives has taken place in 28 states and the FCT, and state governments have been distributing at various paces. As of today, October 26th, 2020, some states have confirmed completion of their distribution while others were in the process of proceeding with the distribution before these looting took place.

“By these looting incidents, some intended beneficiaries had been deprived of the opportunity of benefitting from CACOVID’s good intentions,” Nwanisobi added.

He disclosed that external auditors are completing the audit of all contributions from the donors, as well as a listing of all medical and food items procured with these funds.

“We will be sharing the external audit reports of our spending, alongside a full report of CACOVID activities, including delivery and planned flag-off dates of our donations to Nigerians.”

The CBN spokesperson, however, noted that not every warehouse in Nigeria that contains palliatives is affiliated to the CACOVID donation, given that the states, the federal government and other organisations also made donations.
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The group appealed for calm and for states to be allowed to proceed with their palliatives distribution peacefully.

“We urge all to be law-abiding, to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, and to end the raiding of these warehouses,”he said.

Rtn. Victor Ojelabi

Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.