In his lead debate, Orji submitted that Nigeria was one of the few countries of the World that had no legal framework for food security, hence, there was no accessibility to quality and adequate food security by Nigerians. He noted that the bill, if passed, would compel government to provide quality food as part of its primary responsibilities.
“A Bill for an Act to make provisions for freedom from hunger and the right to adequate food of acceptance quality, the right of every child to basic nutrition and for connected purposes,” he submitted.
Orji posited that the bill will provide framework for coordinated food programmes through government policies, such that Children, and pregnant women will access food security as their right.
Contributing, Senator David Jonah Jang, representing Plateau North, decried federal government’s nonchalant attitude to agriculture, stressing that if nothing was done as quickly as possible, Nigerians would be faced with famine.
Jang explained that there are no kind of foods that cannot be produced in Nigeria, calling for a coordinated effort by government to make sure that food produced through agriculture were processed for consumption.
“Mr. President, Distinguished Colleagues, Nigeria has never taken food security seriously in the past, and this bill seeks to make sure that foods produced by farmers were processed for consumption,” he noted.
Sam Egwu on his part regretted that private investors were currently loosing their investments for lack of proper legal framework that would support their effort.
He pointed out that the Nigeria Agricultural Reinsurance Company have abdicated from their responsibilities in mitigating losses of farmers thereby further frustrating the effort of farmers.
“Distinguished Colleagues, in Ebonyi State currently, those who invested in Agriculture in recent years were incurring loses and the Agricultural insurance companies were not helping matters,” he added.
Senator Remi Tinubu in her contribution, explained that Nigeria was where it is as a result of the inability of past administration’s commitment to agriculture.
She was emphatic that former governors who were those advocating for food security did nothing, regretting that their actions have impoverished Nigerians.
After various contributions in favour of the bill, Senate President, Bukola Saraki commended the Sponsor of the bill and foresight of the Senators, while referring the bill to the Committee on Agriculture.
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