Akaiso Eyo-Akaiso, Akwa Ibom
The heavy rains of July 11 and 12 left a trail of destruction across Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital. Streets were submerged, homes flooded, and many families counted their losses. Yet, for many residents, the greater disappointment came not from the floodwaters but from the state’s free food distribution exercise held on Monday, July 13, at the Ewet Housing Estate office.
The programme, the fourth in the series, was introduced to cushion the effects of the rising cost of living on vulnerable citizens. While the objective was laudable, the manner in which it was executed has generated widespread criticism and raised serious questions about transparency, fairness, and accountability.
At the distribution centre, men and women waited for hours, clutching small pieces of paper that served as admission tickets to receive modest food packages. Many others, who appeared equally deserving, stood outside the premises, confused and frustrated because they had no tickets.
The controversy is not necessarily about the quantity of food distributed. Rather, it centres on the process through which the tickets were allocated. The government had earlier indicated that the programme was designed for the poorest and most vulnerable citizens across the state’s 31 local government areas. Yet many of those who should ordinarily qualify said they neither received information about the exercise nor had any opportunity to obtain the required tickets.
From what this reporter observed, for every person holding a ticket, there were several others who believed they should have been beneficiaries but had no idea how the selection process was conducted. There was no public announcement detailing the criteria for eligibility, no community sensitisation, and no published list of beneficiaries.
What was intended as a humanitarian intervention has, for many residents, become a source of anger, suspicion and disappointment.
The Akwa Ibom State Government deserves credit for introducing measures aimed at easing the hardship caused by inflation and the rising cost of essential commodities. However, good intentions alone are not enough. Public confidence depends largely on the credibility of implementation.
The exercise was conducted strictly on a ticket basis. Without a ticket, no one could collect food, irrespective of personal circumstances. Some residents alleged that vulnerable people who insisted on accessing the relief materials were turned away, while others claimed security personnel used force to disperse the crowd. Such allegations, if established, deserve serious attention.
Government officials are yet to make public the criteria for selecting beneficiaries, the number of tickets issued, the channels through which they were distributed, or the identities of those entrusted with the exercise. One official, who requested anonymity, claimed the list of beneficiaries was compiled in Abuja and forwarded to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs in collaboration with the state’s Bulk Purchase Agency.
Whether or not that explanation is accurate, the absence of publicly available information has fuelled speculation and eroded public trust.
Transparency remains the cornerstone of every credible social intervention. Relief materials purchased with public funds should be distributed through processes that are open, verifiable and accessible to all qualified beneficiaries.
Civil society organisations have also expressed concern. According to a governance advocate in Uyo who declined to be identified, “When public resources are distributed without clearly defined and publicly available criteria, the process becomes susceptible to manipulation.”
Several residents interviewed alleged that many of the tickets eventually found their way to political loyalists, influential community leaders and individuals with connections to government officials. These allegations remain unverified, but they underscore the need for greater openness in future exercises.
Without a publicly available register of beneficiaries, there is no objective means of determining whether the food reached those who genuinely needed it most.
Ironically, the people most likely to require government assistance are often those least able to access information about such programmes. Widows in remote communities, elderly persons living alone, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups are frequently excluded whenever access depends on personal networks rather than transparent procedures.
Relief programmes should unite communities, not deepen perceptions of exclusion or political patronage.
For an administration that has consistently projected the ARISE Agenda as a people-centred development blueprint, images and reports of vulnerable citizens struggling for modest food items risk undermining public confidence in an otherwise well-intentioned initiative.
Hunger is neither political nor selective. Poverty does not recognise party affiliation, ethnicity or social status. Government interventions designed to alleviate hardship should therefore be guided solely by need, fairness and equity.
Going forward, the Akwa Ibom State Government should publish clear eligibility criteria, disclose the number of beneficiaries, involve community leaders and civil society organisations in the selection process, and ensure wider public awareness before each distribution exercise.
Equally important, the issuance of distribution tickets should be rotated to accommodate different vulnerable households across the state, rather than concentrating the benefits among the same individuals. Such an approach would promote fairness, strengthen public confidence and ensure that government assistance reaches a broader cross-section of those for whom it is intended.
Humanitarian interventions achieve their purpose only when they restore hope and dignity. The success of any social welfare programme should not be measured solely by the number of bags distributed, but by the confidence of the people that the process was fair, transparent and just.
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