By Hameed Afolabi
There was large turn out of women beneficiaries of the Federal Government subsidy removal palliative program in three Local Government Areas of Giade, Shira and Zaki of Bauchi State.
This observation was made by our correspondent today at the ongoing palliative distribution exercise in the Bauchi North Senatorial Zone.
Unlike Katagum and Gamawa local government areas where the number of the male beneficiaries far outweigh that of the female, the turn out female folks in the three LGAs doubled that of the male.
In her remarks during the flag off exercise in the three LGAs, Bauchi State Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Hajiya Hajara Yakubu Wanka, expressed her delight at seeing the huge number of women that were selected by their respective communities to benefit from the the rice palliative.
Wanka also commended the efforts of the respective LGAs communities for painstakingly selecting the beneficiaries and assured of more of such gestures from the State Government.
The Commissioner said that Governor Bala Mohammed is very much concerned with the plight of vulnerable people in the state, especially with current hardship that was as a result of the fuel subsidy removal.
Wanka said that, even before the subsidy removal, the Governor is known to have implemented quite a number of pro-poor empowerment programs that is targeted at the most vulnerable people in the State through the Kaura Economic Empowerment Program (KEEP) that cut across the entire 20 LGAs of the State.
While reacting on the large turn out of women beneficiaries, caretaker committee chairman of Giade LGA, Muhammadu Usman Sale said that, community leaders in the Local Government were unanimous that women are the most vulnerable target group that should benefit more from the rice palliative distribution exercise.
Our correspondent reports that in Giade LGA, out of the 1740 beneficiaries drawn from the LG’s 145 polling units earmarked to benefit from the rice palliative, over 600 beneficiaries have so far collected theirs on the flag off day. There will be subsequent distributions to cover the entire 145 polling units that got 12 25kg bags of rice per 1 polling unit.