Economy, Featured
Although the government says it has release 20 trucks of rice each to the 36 states of the country to help cussion the effects of food crisis in the country, most Nigerians believe that fixing the root cause of the problem, which include, insecurity, inflation, devaluation of the Naira, will be a better approach.
By Anthony Isibor
EARLIER in the year, the National Bureau of Statistics predicted that Nigeria’s food inflation rate would hit a record high of 40.66 per cent in May 2024, surpassing the previous month’s 40.53 increase. This surge represents the largest year-on-year increase in food prices since records began in 1996.
Collaborating this prediction, the United Nations in July, while calling on the government to tackle climate change, pest infestations, and other threats to agricultural productivity, again predicted that 82 million Nigerians, about 64 per cent of the country’s population, may go hungry by 2030.
The Nigerian government also admitted in a report titled, Cadre Harmonize, CH-Phase 3, Food and Nutrition Insecurity Analysis for Nigeria, presented in collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO, and CILSS, at the ‘Results Presentation Workshop’, held in Abuja, that the figure may jump to 31.5 million from May to August.
The report also stated that the number of IDPs across the country is expected to increase from 14, 000 to 83, 846 if measures are not put in place immediately to check the trend.
On February 8, 2024, President Bola Tinubu directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to immediately release 42,000 metric tonnes of grains, including maize, millet, and other commodities from the national strategic grain reserves, during the meeting of the Presidential Committee on Emergency Food Intervention.
Also, the Rice Millers Association of Nigeria has committed to releasing about 60,000 metric tonnes of rice into the markets.
Tinubu, in a broadcast to the nation, announced several initiatives to arrest the soaring prices of food items and calm the rising tempers, including supply of fertilisers to farmers and grains to households, increase protection for farmers, identification of 500,000 hectares of land for cultivation, enhanced synergy between the ministries charged with agriculture and water resources and the elevation of food and water issues as remits of the National Security Council, and others.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, on the orders of the President, also announced that modalities for the release of 42,000 metric tonnes of grains to needy Nigerians from different strategic grain reserves in the country were being worked out with the Department of State Service, DSS, and the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, to make the process seamless and successful.
According to Kyari, the ministry has also adopted various measures to produce more food to address high food prices.
The minister is collaborating with the 36 state governors in providing subsidised farm inputs for dry season farming and also wet season farming to boost food production with proper identification of real farmers to benefit from the interventions.
The federal government also approved a grant of N185 billion to the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, for the purchase of 100,000 bags of rice and other grains to be distributed as palliatives.
Recently, the federal government says it has donated about 20 trucks of rice to each of Nigeria’s 36 states and Abuja as part of measures to cushion the country’s food crisis.
According to Mohammed Idris, Information Minister each of the trucks is carrying about 1,200 25kg bags of rice. Idris said: “This is part of the measures that the government is taking in addition to so many others to ensure that the hardship being experienced by Nigerians is drastically ameliorated.”
The minister disclosed thàt the bags of rice are expected to be distributed to vulnerable Nigerians by the state governments.
This is even as Umar Bindir, a former Secretary to the Adamawa State Government and a public affairs analyst had during a Channels Television programme; Inside Sources with Laolu Akande revealed that the distribution of palliatives has failed to alleviate poverty in Nigeria.
Citing the National Bureau of Statistics, he said an average of 40% of the Nigerian population are poor as they lack the basic essentials of shelter, food and clothing.
“To address it, we think it is simply to buy Keke Napep and you think you have created jobs, you have not. Buy salon materials for women and share it to 1,000 of them and you clap for yourself, you have not created any job. Tackling poverty is a technical issue, it’s a commitment issue. First, you have to find these people and have the solution align with the issues,” Bindir said.
According to him, the poverty alleviation programmes by the Federal Government since the return to democracy in 1999 have failed to tackle the menace of poverty.
“We’ve tried Napep during (Olusegun) Obasanjo, we tried Sure P and YouWin during (Umar) Yar’Adua and (Goodluck) Jonathan, we tried Social Investment programme right from (Muhammadu) Buhari up till now. If you are to do an impact assessment of these programmes, you will find out that still, the average poverty level in this country is very high, meaning there is something that we are not doing properly and there is something that we are not doing right,” he said.
He said poverty eradication needs committed government officials who are passionate about the masses. “Federal government must have a clear and solid strategy in partnership with states,” he added.
Similarly, a pool collated by Vanguard and posted by NAN, showed that Nigerians do not believe that the distribution of rice as palliatives would be the solution to the nations food shortage and urged President Tinubu to declare an emergency in food security, introduce a national food policy, and tackle insecurity caused by herders, which had forced farmers in different states of the country, especially in southern Nigeria, to abandon farming.
According to the NAN report, Israel Amanze, Chairman, Board of Trustees, BoT, representing South East in the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, believes that the distribution of palliatives and trucks of food items to Nigerians is only a temporary measure and not a permanent one to address food insecurity in the country. Instead he urged the government to tackle farmers’ insecurity.
“Distribution of palliatives can only bring down the cost of food for a few months but it is not a lasting solution. They should first address the insecurity that drove away farmers from the farm. The government should subsidize fertilizer and farm inputs. In this way, they will encourage farmers to go back to farm.”
Another concerned Nigerian, Saviour Akpan, Executive Director, of COMPPART Foundation for Justice and Peacebuilding, aid that instead of donating trucks of food to the citizens, the government should subsidize and make available to the citizens organic seedlings and fertilizers.
According to him, this will encourage self-reliance as production will be based on two folds namely Subsistence and Commercial production. The citizens should also be educated on the danger of living a wasteful life, which includes purchasing of commodities not based on needs, but according to their want and that contributes to inflation and scarcity.
Blessing Adima, a political activist, described “Buying grains and rice for distribution to Nigerians as a misplaced priority. It goes to show that the federal government itself does not care about food production and doesn’t know how to tackle the problems that we are facing in Nigeria today.”
According to her, herdsmen have chased farmers from their farmlands and now, we import the rice that Benue State alone could have produced for Nigeria, and we also import the rice that southern Kaduna, Zamfara, Ebonyi and Taraba could have produced.
“The federal government does not know what to do. The money they are spending to import rice could have been used to tackle insecurity, banditry, terrorism and herdsmen menace and the problem would be solved.
“You are talking about the Ministry of Livestock; Nigeria is not one of the greatest exporters of cow meat and milk and the top 10 countries do not practice this kind of archaic open grazing system; it is ranching that they resort to. Let us come to the South, if they are importing rice, will they import garri from China too? Agricultural produce is scarce. When Goodluck Jonathan’s administration introduced its agriculture revolution, we saw how it was addressed.
“Today, fertilizer is not what the peasant farmer can afford and the government is not thinking in that direction. We want to see insecurity tackled in the rural areas, and let farmers go to their farms. We want to see tractors, fertilizers and farm implements distributed to the farmers.
“That is what will solve the food crisis, palliatives will not cure hunger, rather they will increase hunger because the people who should have gone to farms are in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. How will food be produced when 30 per cent, if not 40 per cent are in IDP camps? The government should tackle the problem of insecurity.”
Another Nigerian, Furoebi Akene, a development consultant has questioned how honest and patriotic the people entrusted with the distribution of the rice to ensure they get to the targeted beneficiaries? “The same dubious and fraudulent characters will play out,” he said.
Instead, he said that farmers should return to the farm and urged the government to fix the insecurity challenges which has prevented farmers from doing their job.
Similarly, Presley Idi, Secretary of the Ndokwa National Youth Movement, NNYM, noted that the best way to solve the food crisis bedeviling the country right now is to ensure a secured environment for farmers.
He said that without providing the needed security for farmers to return to their farms, we will continue to experience food shortages. The palliatives are just temporary solutions and it will always be difficult for the items to get to those who truly need them because of the high level of corruption amongst the political elite.
Inflation and fuel hikes are some of the major causes. Insecurity, bad roads and lack of incentives by the government to the farmers to become more productive and efficient is another.
“Therefore, it is a whole gamut of issues and the government must be sincere enough to address the challenges holistically rather than just providing palliatives that are not sustainable and efficient. They should act now. The country is currently nose-diving and it affects all sectors of the economy. Hunger and starvation are pervasive and Nigerians are dying daily. It has not been this bad in our country.”
For Edna Rukevwe, a Delta state-based educationist, said: “It has become clear that President Tinubu did not prepare for economic reactions to his removal of subsidy on petrol. So no clear policy direction. Throwing money and food at the problem of hunger in the country is not the solution.”
Instead of the distribution of palliatives, the government should work out modalities to redress insecurity so that farmers can return to the farms. Also fertilizers should be made available, while there should tax-free importation of farm tools into the country.
“The government should also acquire tractors for the local government areas. The tractors should cultivate farmlands for farmers across the country and be monitored by the local government councils.
“The government should stop its propaganda and focus on governance. The condition that Nigeria is now, is not the time for propaganda. The All Progressives Congress (APC) is a party that thrives in propaganda, but sadly, this is not the time for such. The people are wary of the lies from the government,” she added.
A.I
July 22, 2024 @ 18:55 GMT|
Tags: President Bola Tinubu Senator Abubakar Kyari Umar Bindir
