Utomi blasts Reps on F0I bill - As AC advises FG on food crisis

Adewale Ajayi, Lagos - 12.05.2008

African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate in the last general election, Professor Pat Utomi, has said the dilly dallying in passage of Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill by the National Assembly was an indication that Nigerian politicians are unwilling to run transparent government.

Utomi said the reason given by the House leadership on why its members had not discussed the bill was unacceptable and regrettable.

He added that the act was a cruel assault on the Nigeria citizens who are at the receiving end of any bad government, and refusal to pass the Bill into law has denied the governed the right to know and influence how they are governed.

In another development, Action Congress (AC) has admonished the Federal Government to go beyond a short-term approach in solving the food crisis hitting the country.

The party, in a statement issued on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Moha-mmed, said the N80 billion allocated for the emergency importation of rice could have been better utilised to begin the process of boosting rice production in the country.

AC added that it would take between three and six months for rice now being ordered to be available for consumption , adding that within the same period, the fund could have helped to jumpstart rice production in the country.