Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki
Edo State governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, on Friday, said he earmarked nothing less than N1bn naira monthly to feed vulnerable Christians in the state in the next three months.
This is as he said a similar programme that has been mapped out for people in the Muslim faith in the state.
Obaseki disclosed this during the official flag-off of phase one of the Edo State Food Support Programme.
The Governor, who said he was worried by the rising number of people who cannot afford a meal in a day in the state, said he had to call Christian leaders in the state on how best to address the alarming situation.
Obaseki said in order not to make it look political, he decided not to involve political officeholders, but Christian leaders in reaching out to vulnerable Christians in the state.
The governor who added that the state government already had data of the vulnerable in the state, said the means of reaching out to them maximally was the issue, hence using churches to drive the programme.
He said, “I was worried by the rising number of people who cannot afford a square meal in a day. So, I thought to myself how do we solve this problem? This is not politics I told myself.
“I then called the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and others to a meeting and explained to them what I intended to do. So, that’s how we put our heads together to come up with this programme.
“I told them this is the amount of money I will be giving you every month is N1 billion. At least, Let us try this for the first three months and see how it goes.
The governor said the programme was not just to feed the vulnerable, but also to get more data about people in the state to create employment for them and how the government can render help where necessary.
Earlier, in his remarks, the Chairman of the Organisation Committee who also doubles as the Chairman of CAN, Apostle Irekpono Omoike, while thanking the governor for the initiative, said 10kg of 60,000 bags of rice has been purchased for onward distribution to the three senatorial districts in the state.
According to him, 27,000 bags of the 10kg would be distributed to the seven local government areas in Edo South, 15, 000 bags to Edo Central and 18, 000 bags to Edo North.
Omoike said 3, 000 bags would be distributed to each local government across the 18 local government areas, amounting to 54,000 bags, while the remaining 6,000 bags would be distributed to churches not captured under CAN.
