![The Nigeria’s Bread Scramble [Video]](https://tkcdn.tekedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/06164923/rush.png "The Nigeria’s Bread Scramble [Video]")
The biggest irony: you lock down a nation because of coronavirus, implementing social distancing. Then, because of hunger, all protocols are broken as people fight for bread. Of course, the government is working – some contractors contracted to transfer cash to the poor in some states have been sacked for delay.
The federal government says it has terminated two contracts for cash transfers to Nigerians in four states.
The project was called off after a breach of agreement by the affected contractors, Sadiya Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, said in a statement Tuesday.
The “payment service providers” were contracted by the federal government to make payments to vulnerable persons in Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Abia and Zamfara States.
“The termination is with the procurement process launched using World Bank procurement guidelines to ensure that payments commence in the affected states on or before April 28, 2020,” the statement signed by Salisu Dambatta, the minister’s spokesperson.
The minister said the federal government cannot accept delays in the current payment round of N20,000 to beneficiaries in poor and vulnerable households under any excuses in the four states or any other states of the federation
I do not envy those contractors because if you ask me to find the poor in Nigeria, I am not even sure there is a standard quantifiable mechanism to do that. Yes, if you think you are transferring cash via any bank to the poor in Nigeria, you are wasting your time. Poor people in Nigeria do not have bank accounts! Of course, you can transfer via air, sea, party leader, … [add your magic].
You have less than 40 million unique bank accounts in a nation with at least 80 million adults. Magic transfer, none has ever reached my village since 1999! This video, on click, shows the state of things: scramble for bread.
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Residents invade a truck carrying rice. No one is save right now #Abuja pic.twitter.com/dEiOpS41j2
— CAPTAIN (@UtohPaul) April 14, 2020
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If you are fragile mentally, you are not likely to be a good Nigerian, because there are lots of things that can easily make you to go bonkers! A country that has historically struggled with counting 1 2 3 is now suddenly talking about sacking contractors for not getting cash quickly enough to the recipients. Apparently the minister wants them to give cash to anyone they meet on the road, because they didn’t tell us about confirmation mechanism from the expected recipients. Just hot air everywhere.
The mysterious list of poor people is still shrouded in secrecy, how the names came about and criteria used remain a mystery as well. Can they just give us a portal to login and fill names for needy Nigerians? There are many people who will certainly love to join this magic list, yet no one knows how it’s built up.
As for the scramble for bread, the social distancing maxim only works when taking official photos, it doesn’t apply when hustling for food. So after the scramble, the people go back to their lockdown status and continue quarantining…
This whole charade needs to end as soon as possible, because we have seen it all!