By Babagana Hamza
About 23,000 households on Monday received food palliatives at distributions that were directly supervised by Borno State Governor, Babagana Umara Zulum in Baga town of Kukawa Local Government Area.
“Distribution of palliatives is one of the agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He (Tinubu) has declared an emergency on food security, and in line with this objective, Borno State Government is distributing food items to communities. We have provided food and non-food items to over 20,000 men and women (today)” Zulum said.
While working on permanent livelihoods through revival of commercial activities and farming, Governor Zulum frequently distributes food palliatives to beneficiaries who could not farm in substantial quantity to feed them year round due to over 10 years of the Boko Haram insurgency.
Zulum’s latest intervention in Baga reached 13,000 households in Baga town itself, 3,500 at Cross Kauwa, a town near Baga and 6,500 in Doro Baga, another community, making 23,000 households in total.
Each of the 23,000 households received bags of rice, spaghetti and maize grain with women getting a wrapper each.
In Baga the 13,000 households were made of 4,000 males heads of households who received a bag of rice and a bag of maize grain each, and 9,000 females, each of who received a carton of spaghetti and one wrapper each.
In Doro Baga, 3,500 male heads of households received a bag of rice and maize grain each, and 3,000 females received carton of spaghetti and a wrapper.
In Cross Kauwa, another 1,500 male heads of household received a bag of rice and maize grain and 2,000 females received carton of spaghetti and a wrapper.
Borno’s palliative task force Chairman, Engr Bukar Talba, and Dr. Barkindo Muhammad Saidu, Director General of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) led officials to Baga on Sunday to begin the distribution before Zulum joined them on Monday morning and completed the exercises.
The distribution had other participants who included the member, Mamber house of representatives for Kukawa, Abadam, Guzamala and Mobbar federal constituency- Babagana Malam Gana Kareto, Member representing Kukawa at the Borno State Assembly- Karta Maina Ma’aji Lawan, the Special Adviser on Monitoring and Evaluation, Engr. Baba Bukar Gujbawu, Executive Secretary of the Borno Geographic Information Services (BOGIS), Engr. Adam Bababe and the Executive Secretary, Borno State Primary Healthcare Agency, Professor Mohammed Arab Alhaji.
Zulum returned to Maiduguri on Monday night after the successful humanitarian trip.