TheCable

Some residents of Lagos state stayed in queue for at least six hours in order to benefit from the special intervention of Lagos and Kebbi governments to make rice available during this festive season.

While a 50kg bag of imported rice goes for as high as N19,500, Lake Rice is sold at the rate of N12,000.

This has attracted patronage for the product, which is available at designated centres. Since Wednesday when sale of the product was announced, people have been trooping to locations close to them.

When TheCable visited Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, one of the places where the staple is being sold, many intending buyers were seen lamenting over the delay in receiving the item after making payments.

Some aggrieved individuals expressed displeasure over the development, and called on the authorities to focus on improving the service being rendered.

“I’ve been here since 6am; I even coordinated the queue, only for them to tell us to write a list before they start attending to us,” said a man who identified himself as Mustapha Bello.

A response unit officer giving tag to buyers

“Meanwhile some of us had gone to the bank to pay yesterday and we are here with our tellers, but they are not attending to us. This is not fair. Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.”

Responding to the complaints, an official, who refused to disclose his name, said those in charge of sales at the location were not to be blamed.

“Only three of us were sent from Aluasa. Myself, an auditor who’s operating the point of sale (POS) machine, because the banker who is supposed to handle that is not here, and another lady who is in charge of distributing the rice,” he said.

“We pleaded with the people here to cooperate with us by being organised, we even assured them that the rice on ground will go round, but they refused to listen to us.

“Once the auditor clears the people with bank cards, she moves to the distribution point and monitors the rice. It is not easy, they should try and understand.”

Some volunteers and security personnel had to assist with logistics before the distribution of the product commenced around 1:30pm.

A man with his bag of rice walk past the statue of Teslim Balogun

But the situation was different at LASTMA yard in Lagos Island.

Intending buyers did not wait for long, and the queue thinned out within few minutes.

Speaking with TheCable, Kehinde Ishola, who said he bought his own rice on Thursday, commended those behind the initiative.

He also vouched for the staple, saying it brought back childhood memories.

“I have tasted the rice, it is very good. It’s just like one we used to eat when we were growing up. Foreign rice later took over the market. It is good we now we have made in Nigeria rice, we’ll patronise our own so as help the economy grow,” he said.

“I also want to commend Lagos state government for bringing this during such a hard time. My appeal to them is that the sale should not stop after the festive period, it should continue.”

President Muhammadu Buhari has commended Akinwunmi Ambode, Lagos governor, and Atiku Bagudu, Kebbi governor, for the successful partnership that gave rise to the local production of the commodity.

He saluted their commitment of in bringing to fruition the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in March.

He also expressed delight “at the relatively cheaper price of Lake Rice especially at this period of recession”.