Ganduje says food security for Kano workers guaranteed through prompt payment of salary

Kano state government on Monday reviewed the regularity in payment of workers’ salary in the last eight years and concluded that it had kept fidelity with the commitment that gulps about N10 billion monthly, which is funded from the states’ shares from the monthly federation account allocations and internally generated revenues.

Governor Abdullahi Ganduje disclosed this in a keynote address at the opening of a one-day northern geo-political zonal consultation workshop on the development of the National Pathways to Food Systems Transformation Implementation Strategy for Nigeria.

The workshop was organized by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning in collaboration with the Kano State Government, World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Usman Alhaji, who represented the governor on the occasion, said his administration had taken many measures towards sustainable food security in the last eight years, underscoring, for instance, its regular payment of salary to workers as a key factor in that it enabled them to access and procure foods that had bolstered their health and wellbeing.

Besides, he said that the state government had been able to maintain peace and security on account of the commitment to combat hunger because according to him, “a hungry man is an angry man.”

He recalled how the freedom and peace of Nigeria was once compromised through the weaponization of hunger during the 1967-1970 civil war.

The governor underscored the significance of developing the national pathways to food systems transformation implementation strategy for Nigeria, stressing that with the calibre of persons at the workshop, he expected robust discussions that would reflect in the workshop’s outcomes.

Commissioner for Agriculture in Kano State, Dr Yusuf Jibrin Rurum in a key note address said that the State Government was strongly committed to the realization of food security and access to good nutrition, through its sustainable efforts in reducing hunger and malnutrition, using a multi-sectoral approach including different interventions at the state, local and community levels.

“Various policies were crafted for effective implementation of nutrition programmes. Interventions from both national and international development partners were fully accepted and implemented to produce healthy and nutritious foods,” he said.

Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Ernest Umakhihe, who welcomed participants to the workshop, said in his keynote address that the zonal consultation workshop was imperative for harvesting input from stakeholders, especially state actors in the Food System, to strengthen and ensure an inclusive and jointly owned plan, taking into consideration various professional, technical an socio-economic positions of the stakeholders.

“It is important to note that the Food System Transformation Agenda is not a Federal Government programme, but one that calls for concerted efforts from everyone, including the states, local governments, private sector. Development partners and the citizens as food security is a critical aspect of security and survival.

“It is therefore incumbent on all of us to work collaboratively to ensure adequate food and nutrition security,” Umakhihe, who was represented by the Director of Irrigation Agriculture and Crop Development in the Ministry, Mrs Sugra Mahmood, said.

Umakhihe said: “The Food System Pathways represent a comprehensive and holistic approach to sustainable development in the food system. It aims to improve the productivity and sustainability of the food system while promoting health and nutrition, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and enhancing socio-economic development in Nigeria.

“The implementation of these pathways requires a multi-stakeholder approach and engagement at all levels to ensure that the objectives are achieved.”

He recalled that the journey of the Food Systems Transformation in Nigeria started in December 2020 in response to the call by the Secretary General of the United Nations that countries should look inward and identify the challenges of food from the farm to the dining table.

According to him, “The call necessitated the need for Stakeholders to work together starting with the Inception dialogue in Abuja in February 2021. Thereafter, Nigeria set the ball rolling to actualize Food System transformation through a series of dialogues at all levels of government with the active participation of relevant Groups such as women, youth, indigenous people, Non-Governmental Organizations as well as the private sector to harvest ideas, and come up with recommendations to address food challenges and change the narrative of food and nutrition in Nigeria.

“The recommendations drawn from over 40 dialogues were synthesized into 78 Priority Actions for sustainable food systems in Nigeria expected to be implemented in the short, medium, and long terms that will change the narrative that would lead to achieving the sustainable goals by the year 2030.

“The priority actions were presented by President Muhammadu Buhari at the UN Food Systems Summit in September 2023 after which the implementation began with 3 programmes considered as low-hanging fruits in 2022.”

Umakhihe pointed out that “This Consultation workshop, therefore, is designed to collate inputs from all of us here present and other relevant members of the society including a diverse group of stakeholders in food systems to engender inclusiveness of Nigeria’s Food System Transformation Pathways for the development of implementation strategy.

“The Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and our development partners constituted the 2023 Inter-Ministerial Task Team, made up of all relevant stakeholders of Federal MDAs across all relevant sectors of the economy, Development Partners and private sector to facilitate the implementation of the Priority actions for 2023. It is expected that the same arrangement would be made at the State level.”

He emphasized that the government at the sub-national level was critical to the success of the implementation of the Food Systems Transformation Pathways, pointing out that “This explains the reason for holding the Consultation Workshop which is a convergence of stakeholders in the Northern Zone.”

He added that the importance of the private sector was key because it had critical roles to play in the transformation of our food system, stressing that “the involvement of the private sector in our food system has helped to improve the entire food value chain – production, logistics, processing, marketing as well as distribution and utilization.”

Umakhihe said he believed that the outcome of the zonal consultation would accelerate the implementation of the Food Systems Transformation Pathways in Nigeria.

While setting out the objective of the workshop and an overview of the Food Systems transformation Pathways Implementation in Nigeria, National Convenor of United Nations Food Systems in Nigeria, Dr Sanjo Faniran said it would help to address the questions of poverty, inadequate supply of nutritious food, non-consumption of minimum dietary diversity, stunting, chronic malnutrition, underweight, anemia and and diet-related noncommunicable diseases, including hypertension, diabetes, stroke, and cancers, among others.

He said that the national food systems transformation sought to achieve some goals by 2030, among which were reduction of poverty, unemployment, especially among youths and women, hunger, food insecurity, malnutrition, and food imports.

He said the programme sought to promote sustainable food trade, increase women’s empowerment in Agriculture Index Score, and increase Environmental Performance Index score.

Goodwill messages were delivered at the workshop by representatives of WFP, FAO, IFAD and GAIN, among others.