Many have asked, what is this Bulk Purchase Agency by Akwa Ibom State bringing to the table?
With the signing of the Bulk Purchase Agency Bill into law by the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno, expectedly that would be the question, like a refrain on the lips of many Akwa Ibom people? They would truly be wondering, how "bulky" is the Bulk Purchase Agency?

Yes, watching the governor run his golden pen through the pages of the protected destiny of Akwa Ibom people, assenting to the Bulk Purchase Agency Law, was enough to saturate the Exco Chambers with the imaginary aroma of food security for Akwa Ibom people especially the vulnerable. Food is not just ready for consumption but the sumptuous menu in the buffet of the Bulk Purchase regime brings everything good to the table. It is a table prepared for the people by a leader who sees food and nutrition as part of good governance.

There are so many take aways from the new Akwa Ibom State Bulk Purchase Agency which is simply an intersection of food availability, accessibility , affordability , price stability with food security. The agency comes as grains of grace to the needy and vulnerable members of the society. It is a responsive governor's initiative to challenge hunger hovering over Nigeria.
The Bulk Purchase Agency is intended to out hunger under the mirror in Akwa Ibom State and dissect same to the happiness of families.

The signing of the Bulk Purchase Agency Bill into law in the month of March shows that there is something special in March for Governor Umo Eno and Akwa Ibom people. Remember, it was In March 2023, that Akwa Ibom people gave Pastor Eno bulk votes, and in March 2024, the governor chooses to reward them with food from the bulky warehouses of the Bulk Purchase Agency.

Every responsible government prioritizes the welfare of the people in line with the basic needs of humanity. That is why the United States of America, the United Kingdom and other model democracies pay special attention to food and nutrition especially for low-income families, the elderly, children and those in emergency situations. This is often actualized through bulk purchase of food products. The US for instance operates such special feeding programmes, engaging in bulk food purchase to stabilize prices in agricultural commodity markets by balancing supply and demand. Similar programmes run in the UK with special concerns for the less privileged.

The Bulk Purchase Agency initiated by Governor Umo Eno is a replica of these programmes in other successful climes of the world.

The Bulk Purchase Agency is established pursuant to the poverty reduction and price stability goals of the economic blueprint of the ARISE Agenda as an interventionist agency and a redemptive measure for the procurement and distribution of essential food items at subsidized prices to as palliative to cushion harsh economic situation and ensure food availability, affordability and price stability while scaling up agriculture through boosting local food production to achieve food sufficiency.

By this, Governor Eno aims at cushioning the effects of high cost of living on the citizenry. He is emphatic that the social register will be used in the programme so that the food will go to those who need it most, and not an opportunity for people to play sentiments and cause the aim of the well thought out initiative to be defeated.

The seriousness of the governor in ensuring that the programme succeeds necessitated series of sensitization and enlightenment meetings with stakeholders, market unions and traders, Personal Assistants to the Governor from across the 368 wards in the State, and meetings with other critical and relevant players in the agricultural sector, including the potential vendors and accredited agents when the programme officially kicks off. All of these were at the instance of the governor, and the message was loud and clear: "this programme must not fail."

The collaboration with the market and traders’ union, the 368 Personal Assistants to the Governor who are on ground, supervision of the Ministries of Economic Development, Agriculture and Rural Development as well as the Bulk Purchase Agency gives the assurance that the programme will succeed. It is the only way to reciprocate the passion and compassion of the governor for the poorest of the poor.

The programme is basically a food security and subsidy initiative where the government will buy food items in bulk from the traders at higher prices, and sell them to the people at reduced rates, such that government bears the high cost on behalf of the people. The aim is not to put the traders out of business but to collaborate with them for the programme to succeed. It is to be a win-win situation.

While the initiative is not to work at parallel with the traders, however, in an unlikely eventuality of the agents not complying with the agreement reached for the good of the society in terms of prices or hoarding, the Visioner was unequivocal in stating that government will open Sunday markets and flood same with food to mitigate any untoward occurrences .

This sucour driven programme is an initiative that flies in transparency right from conception. The targeted beneficiaries will collect their vouchers and go to the redemption centres and branded shops of the agents to redeem their goods after confirmation. In order to avoid sabotage on the programme through printing of fake vouchers, the printing of the vouchers is done strictly by the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Agency, Lagos.

The accredited centres for the redemption of food vouchers shall be found in selected shops and market across the 31 local government areas of Akwa Ibom State.

There shall also be buffer warehouses where food shall be bought and stocked to guarantee long term availability, while incentives shall be given to the accredited agents, a good percentage to motivate and encourage them to be committed and transparent in the process.

So, it is not just food that the bulk purchase agency is bringing to the table, it is also bringing money, business and work will join to make the table full!

But the governor sees the Bulk Purchase Agency as just a victory in a match, not the entire tournament. He is now calling on all to redouble effort for the State to win the tournament by extending the victory of Akwa Ibom State over food crisis beyond the interventionist arrangement of the Bulk Purchase Agency to massively make food available and affordable across Akwa Ibom State, where the State will grow what it eats, and eats what it grows.

Governor Eno believes that for Akwa Ibom State to tick all the boxes in food sufficiency, there must be more tractors in the farms than SUVs in the streets, to make the State more of a production economy than a consuming economy.

When he traversed the length and breadth of the 31 local government areas of the State, he was as consistent as he was emphatic that agriculture will sit at the right-hand side of his his priority list as a governor of Akwa Ibom State. A promise keeper, he did not only do as he promised, he also made sure that agriculture was the leader of the pack as the first alphabet in the acronym of magic, A.R.I.S.E which is the both an expandable agenda and the governance Bible of his administration.

This made him to juxtapose agriculture with rural development, seeing both as Siamese twins. In that spirit, he started with agriculture. He led a high-powered delegation of Akwa Ibom people to Songhai Farms in far away Port Novo, Benin Republic to understudy the secret of the success story in agricultural revolution in that country with a view to replicating same in Akwa Ibom State.

At a stretch, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the both parties resulting to the commencement of work at the Ibom Model Farms in Nsit Ubium Local Government Area. When completed, the Ibom Model Farms will be a modern-day Garden of Eden because there is nothing man will need to survive that that farm will not have, and more. The idea is that such farms will also spring up in other parts of the State as soon as the local government chairmen of the respective areas donate the land to the State Government.

And Governor Eno keeps on calling on the local government chairmen to fast track the process of donation of lands for government to swing into action immediately.

Governor Eno's vision for agriculture also informed why among the first places he visited upon assumption of office were the moribund Akwa Palms Limited where he gave financial lifeline to be injected into the investment for an expected boom; as well as the green houses where he called for emergency diagnosis, prescription and treatment of the facility.

While waiting for all these to bear fruits, the governor's position is that the Bulk Purchase Agency should not make the people to be complacent and rest on their ores. To him, there is still work to be done in the "farm." Hence, his charge to his 368 personal assistants to, as a matter of must, ensure that they own personal farms, even if that means collaborating with other members of the community. Failure to do so is as dangerous as taking away the appointment from such defaulter.

The governor has an outsized vision for the agriculture sector. He was emphatic during his campaigns that he will ensure that Akwa Ibom people achieve the full value chain in agriculture, incorporating storage and processing of agricultural products to distribution and marketing of agricultural products. This is hoped to be juxtaposed with agro-allied industries.

Governor Umo Eno believes agriculture is beyond the art and science of cultivating the soil for the purpose of growing crops for man's use, or tending of livestock. To him, the beauty of agriculture is when its full value chain is achieved. That is where Akwa Ibom State is headed. The governor himself is the number one farmer in the State; his lushly vegetated policies and programmes in agriculture say so beyond the rubric of rhetoric to actualities.

The recently signed into law Bulk Purchase Agency Legislation is a kicker to the emerging screaming headline of agricultural revolution in Akwa Ibom State.

Pastor Umo Eno has shown clearly through his bulk purchase initiative that money banks may go bankrupt, food banks may run out of commodities but ideas bank can never fail. But interestingly ironically, he who owns the ideas bank has the money and food banks in his palms. Ideas are the cheques to cash in the banks of money and food to draw food security and good life. Governor Umo Eno passes for the chairman of the Bank of Ideas and custodian of this good governance initiative represented in the Bulk Purchase Agency.

Of the truth, food is ready in Akwa Ibom State. It is food with delicacies of sustainable meals, money, business, poverty alleviation and empowerment.
Akwa Ibom State is into a thrilling and fulfilling experience in agriculture and food sufficiency. For now, the dessert to wet the appetite is the Bulk Purchase Agency.
Food is indeed , ready; what is your order?

- Aniekan Umanah writes from Abak, Akwa  Ibom State