TheCable

‎Oluremi Tinubu, a senator from Lagos central and wife of Bola Tinubu, national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says President Muhammadu Buhari is ready to put food on the table of Nigerians.

Tinubu said this while making her contribution to a debate‎ on a bill seeking to make “provisions for freedom from hunger and the right to adequate food of acceptance quality” presented by Theodore Orji, a senator from Abia central and former governor of the state.

‎”I was once in the government house for eight years. I want to commend the presenter of this bill, Governor Orji. And I want to commend all the senators and former governors that have spoken,” she said.

“Looking at this bill in this time in our country, these are the best of times and the worst of times. And we see that the government we have now has been there for only 11 months.
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“‎This country is going through a lot of poverty. The past administration led us to where we are. This present administration has placed priority on agriculture. And it is going to take time, and it is going to take a lot of input from everyone.

“I support this bill because this present administration… agriculture and food security are on the table for us. We are promising Nigerians that this administration under President Buhari‎ is ready to hit the ground running and put food on the table for us.”‎

The presidency will welcome the positive comments, coming from a woman who recently accused the Buhari government of using Nigerian women during the 2015 general election, and dumping them thereafter.

“In its manifesto, the APC mentioned the need for empowerment programmes for Nigerian women,” she had said on January 26 while making her contribution to a debate on the 2016 budget.

“Such comprehensive empowerment requires fund, which should be included in the budget for implementation. Going through the budget for the federal ministry of women affairs, I discovered that the total allocation to the women ministry is so meagre and I think it would be the least allocation allotted to a ministry.

“And when we look at the functions of this ministry – the ministry is divided into two divisions: human resources and capacity building, economic services and women cooperative – but when we look at the first division, which is human resources and capacity building, they are supposed to promote education, development of women in the civil, political, socio-cultural and economic sectors.

“All these that I have also mentioned require capital. Looking at this budget of less than N4bn, they have capital with almost N3bn. So, when you look at it, what is left?

“I am just laying this case on behalf of the Nigerian women. This is not going well… It’s as if we were used during the campaign, and we said this is a government of change. The change mantra is supposed to change things across board.

“What they have allotted to the Nigerian women is not encouraging. When we talk about change, it doesn’t mean we are going to dodge and support what is not working.

“This is the best way to start. So that the women would not just be used for campaign and several promises made to them. On behalf of the Nigerian woman, I am making their case today that this budget is not telling anything and not making any promises, so when it gets to the committee level, they should have a way of trying to amend this budget so that it would meet all the needs that the Nigerian women and they would not incur the wrath of the Nigerian woman.”