Amidst the prevalent food scarcity in Nigeria and the attendant food inflation, some Nigerians have urged President Bola Tinubu to enforce the state of emergency he declared on food security last year and introduce a national food policy. They asserted that distribution of palliatives by the Federal Government was not the solution to the food shortage facing the country. In separate interviews with Bushlink news, they asked President Tinubu to, among other things, tackle insecurity caused by herders, which had forced farmers in different states of the country, especially in southern Nigeria, to abandon farming.
Sandra Obiageli, a banker said the finance houses should provide facilities to farmers, so they can return to farming. She stated, “All efforts should be made for the farmers to return to their farms. The banks in conjunction with the federal government should provide soft loans, MSMEs should join the fray in providing interest free loans and agricultural extension services to the farmers in order for the farmers to be attracted to the venture again. Beyond that, how honest and patriotic are 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.” In the case of Mr. Nnamdi Igwe, spokesperson of the Imo Indigenous Farmers Association, he wants the government to make security a priority so that the farmers would return to the farms where criminal herders are said to have held sway.
Mr. Igwe said, “For us, we believe that the pathway to solving the food crisis bedeviling Nigeria right now is to ensure a secured environment for our farmers. Without providing the needed security for farmers to return to their farms, we will continue to experience food shortages. Not only are palliatives like the distribution of rice and other food items temporary solutions, but 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. We reiterate the only way to solve the current food crisis is to provide better security, once this is done and our farmers are back to their farms, the prices of food items will come crashing down.”
Mr. Emeka Ucheibe, a social commentator is not impressed by the actions of government in solving the food crisis. He said “Buying grains and rice for distribution to Nigerians is 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. 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 made for Nigeria.”
He is convinced that “The federal government does not know what to do.” That is because he believes that “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.”
What is his view about the efforts that the government claimed to have made since last year to ensure that massive production of food items is achieved in the country? Apparently unimpressed by whatever efforts had been made, he said, “When Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s administration introduced its agriculture revolution, we saw how he addressed it. Today, fertiliser 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, fertilisers 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 percent, if not 40 percent are in IDP camps? The government should tackle the problem of insecurity.”
He has a soulmate in Mr. Folusho Ajayi, A football referee with the Nigeria Football League NPFL. The latter said that distribution of food items was a mockery of the effort to address food insecurity. Hear him: “Sharing billions of trailer loads of rice and distributing money as palliatives is not the solution to our food security crisis in the country. Even if it is a temporary stopgap, it must be noted that the items and monies do not even get to the end users in most cases. Corrupt government officials at the federal, state, and local government levels divert and resell the items to market vendors and make huge profits. This is the reality and it is not good. The government should introduce a holistic national policy to address this challenge before it gets out of control. We know the problems that led to the high cost of living in the country. Inflation and fuel hikes are some of the major causes. Insecurity, bad roads and lack of incentives to farmers to become more productive and efficient is another.”
