Panic As Food Shortage, Hunger Loom

Boko Haram, Armed Banditry, Boarder Closure As Possible Causes

• Nigeria is the most food in secured country in the world

• 7 million Nigerians, 11 states prone to Food Insecurity

By Mike Odeh James

Mallam Goni Kyari, a farmer on the shores of Lake Chad, tills away on his farmland as it is the rainy season and he needs to work hard to be able to provide for his family of two wives and twelve children.

Nonetheless, Goni knows that he cannot venture beyond specific areas to farm due to the fear of being killed or kidnapped by Boko Haram militants.

The Lake Chad region in the North East of the country was once home to over ten million farmers and fishermen but due to the persistent attacks by Boko Haram, most of the farmers and fishermen were displaced.

Malam Goni is among the millions of displaced farmers who could barely feed their families due to conflict.

Goni said that he could barely cultivate on a large expanse of his farm land due to insecurity, therefore, he was unable to feed his two wives and many children.

Mr.Onjewu Okwubi is a rice farmer in Benue State, he cultivates rice on a large-scale, alongside his village men and women their produce feed other Nigerians from the North and south of the country.

In recent times, however, intense conflicts between migrant Fulani herdsmen and farmers have forced Onjewu and other villagers in Agatuland to stop going to farm.

Once again, Onjewu’s situation is replicated in Plateau, Taraba, Kaduna, Kogi, and Kebbi States.

The persistent clashes between migrant herdsmen, who are mainly from Mali, and farmers in Benue, a state also known as the food Basket of the country, has forced farmers in agrarian communities in the state to abandon their farmlands for safety.

According to Madam Ngodoo Goundo, a farmer and victim of the Herders/ Farmers clashes, said she was lucky to escape with her five children. Goundo, however, said the herders’ flocks destroyed all her foodstuff and seedlings.

A 36-year-old man, Nguaan Iorshe, who hails from Ukpam in Guma Local Council, said he lost 20 bags of rice, 40 bags of soya beans, yams and many other food items to the herdsmen attack.

This worrisome spate of clashes had led the Governor of Benue State, Samuel Orton, to warn in 2018 that there would be food shortage in Nigeria. He also noted that a huge swath of farmlands in his state has been abandoned for fear of clashes.

Similarly, former Military Head Of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, said that the country lost $13.7 billion worth of crops, livestock annually in Benue, Plateau, Kaduna and Taraba due to Farmers and Herders clashes.

All these conflicts have seriously impeded the ability of the country to be self sufficient in food production.

Usman Muawiya, a baker and a father of six is considering laying off his six workers due to the rising cost of production. Just recently the government increased the tariff on electricity, fuel and value added tax, VAT have all gone up.

Muawiya can no longer afford to cater for his family let alone pay his workers their wages.

Throughout Nigeria and most especially in the North, food scarcity, malnutrition and hunger are gradually rearing their ugly heads among the populace.

Few months ago, the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, said seven million Nigerians would experience food shortage between the Months of May – August. The reports further added that states like Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Benue, Gombe, Taraba, Katsina, Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi, Plateau, Kaduna, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, and Niger would face food and nutrition crisis.

And in the month of September 2020, the FAO once again warned that with over 200 million population, the country is the most food insecure country in the African continent and in the world!

The FAO report maintained that the Democratic Republic of Congo is emerging as the country with the world’s largest food crisis in terms of absolute numbers, while Burkina Faso named as the country with the worst deteriorations in acute hunger in recent times .
It also noted that food crisis is made worse in Nigeria by prolonged religious, ethnic conflicts and organized crimes by some bandits, which has greatly affected farmers working on their farmlands.

The reports also stated that floods and drought have to a large extent contributed to the low agricultural output in the nation, while the novel corona virus also did trigger low agricultural production as well as surge in prices of agricultural commodities.


What is food insecurity?

Dr. Abu Johnson, a lecturer with one of the private universities in Abuja, defines food insecurity as “a lack of access to enough good, healthy, and culturally appropriate food.’ There’s a lot going on there, so let’s unpack it a bit.

Abu believes that “enough this one’s the easiest. Everyone needs to eat, and we all need to eat a certain amount to stay healthy, active, and happy.

“Good is a relative word. What’s good food for you might not be good food to your friend, sibling, neighbor, or co-worker. Moreover, throughout history those with power have frequently used patriarchal justifications about what is “good” to force other people to conform to the dominant culture and standards.

“But instead of ignoring the vagueness of this term, we should embrace it! Everybody deserves to eat food that they think is good, right? Nobody should have to eat peas if they hate peas but love carrots.

“Everyone is entitled to eat food that is nutritious and sustaining, food full of vitamins, minerals, fiber, energy, and all the other things that our bodies need to be happy.

“Culturally, the local food that we eat is also the food that is peculiar to our geo-cultural areas such as Amala and Ewedu, Tuwo da Miyan Kuka, Akpu and Vegetable soup.

According to the lecturer, lack of access to all these elements listed above would amount to food insecurity.

For the lecturer, the statistics given by the FAO are grossly misleading. And he gave his reasons as follows: Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows 21.7 million Nigerians are unemployed in the second quarter of 2020.

“The data also reveals the worst-hit are Nigerian youths with over 13.9 million currently unemployed.

“All these categories of Nigerians are, in one way or the other, food insecured as they cannot afford three square meals a day,” he added.

He explained further that “there are refugees in the Northeast, Northwest and North central of the country who are referred to as Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, who are living in IDP camps scattered over the country.

“These IDPs are about 2million; they do not have access to food and are dependent on handouts from Non Governmental Organizations, NGOs, and other relevant government agencies.

If you add them to the list of unemployed Nigerians you would discover that there are far more food insecure persons in the country.

The President of Farm and Infrastructure Foundation, FIF, Prof Gbolagade had warned earlier on that three quarter of Nigeria’s population suffers from adult malnutrition, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality all linked to food insecurity in the country.

Prof. Ayoola also revealed that way back in 2017 a research by Food Policy Research Institute has ranked Nigeria as the 84th among 119 countries in the category of Serious Hunger Prevalence. In a nutshell, Agboola’s warning is that about 150 million Nigerians are within the region of food insecure persons.

Furthermore, the professor called for the concept of food to be seen as fundamental human right of Nigerians.

For Jide Olowu, a social development advocate and a lawyer, food insecurity in Nigeria maybe attributed to poverty in the country.

He explained that food maybe available but the purchasing power of many have been stunted by the increase in fuel hike, rise in transport fare, rise in electricity bill which have led to high rate of inflation.

He believes that all these factors have contributed to food insecurity, even as he also noted that the Federal Government has concentrated much of its efforts on agricultural sector where food production is the ultimate, however, the inability of the government to provide security for farmers has also caused a situation where farmers have fled their farms in search for security.

He noted that failure of the government to provide storage facilities and to modernise agriculture is also leading to waste of huge chunk of agricultural produces.

Jide, like Prof Ayoola and Abu, foresees a scenario where more Nigerians would be thrown into hunger if the Federal Government does not act fast to curb the security challenges bedeviling the country while modernising the agricultural sector.