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IN the aftermath of the devastating floods that wreaked havoc across the country, the situation in Nigeria today is grim. Hunger threatens to gradually annihilate vast populations of citizens if immediate and desperate steps are not taken to arrest the drift. The food supply chain had previously been challenged by the nefarious activities of terrorists who scared farmers off their farms, making food production almost impossible. Apart from the threat they posed to the lives of farmers, Boko Haram and nomadic terrorists were, and still are, agents of economic ruination. They routinely extracted taxes from farmers before they could access their own farms. Many times, ransom was extorted from farmers before they could plant or harvest their crops. These factors, together with the failed policies of the current administration, have pushed the prices of food items to prohibitive levels. Many of the industries that depend on agricultural produce have been forced to lay off staff or even close down.
Nigerians are being squeezed beyond their tolerance level, with severe consequences for social stability and peaceful coexistence. Almost all the international organisations concerned with food and the welfare of people, especially children, such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have raised the alarm about food crisis and the imminence of hunger for millions of Nigerians. Their projection is based on the devastating impact of the general insecurity in the country on farming and food production. Insecurity has led to massive decline in food production with the attendant increase in the prices of food items often beyond the reach of most Nigerians. Food items like rice, eggs, gari, beans, yam and palm oil are so expensive that they have become prized possessions. An egg actually costs at least N100 in most neighbourhoods when a whole crate used to be between N600 and N700 only. With the hike in the prices of food, life is obviously threatened. Now, Nigerians are doubly jeopardised by the free plummeting of the naira, and a bleak end of the year stares balefully at Nigerians.
Certainly, massive food crisis and hunger will make the country unlivable, and many Nigerians may be forced to beg for what to eat. On its part, the government has only been begging farmers to plant twice in response to the emergency situation even as it has not been able to effectively address the problem of insecurity. Indeed, it is a fact that it is spectacularly poor at addressing emergencies, including the hunger in the land right now.
We hasten to say that the current situation will not be addressed with the palliative posture of the government. It has to do something more concrete to provide food for the citizenry. A situation in which a bag of rice that was only N7,500 at the inception of the Muhammadu Buhari government is now selling for over N40,000 while the national minimum wage that is not even being paid by most state governments remains a paltry N30,000 is a recipe for social upheaval. The government has to augment the low production from farmers to ensure that there is enough food in the market at affordable prices and prevent the impending food crisis from turning into food unrest that would be difficult for the government to handle.
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