1 week Ago By Onyekachi Eze
Former candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 presidential election, Mr Peter Obi, said moving Nigeria from consumption to production remains the surest way of combating food insecurity and pulling the nation out of the present food crisis. Obi in a message to mark the World Food Day, noted that the Global Hunger Index that ranks Nigeria among the 20 most hungry nations in the world, only painted a lenient picture of the severity of the food crisis and hunger in the country. “Nigeria’s struggle with a food crisis and hunger today is saddening, considering the richly blessed and vast arable lands with which we are endowed as a nation,” he stated.
According to him, severe hunger has now become an unfortunate member of many households in Nigeria, despite the large arable land in the country. “In August 2024, it was reported that more than 31.8 million Nigerians were acutely short of food due to security challenges and the removal of fuel subsidies.
“It was also reported that 15.6 million children in Nigeria were facing hunger. “The United Nations predicted that 82 million Nigerians, may go hungry by 2030 if the government fails to tackle the menace of food insecurity,” he recalled.
While noting that domestic food inflation in Nigeria remains among the highest globally, with food prices increasing by 37.5 per cent year-on-year as of August 2024, the former presidential candidate called for increase awareness for Nigeria to commit to food security and fight hunger. “This global observance is particularly important to us in Nigeria, where food prices are skyrocketing every day, and basic food items are becoming unaffordable to most people,” he said of the World Food Day.
He regretted that most Nigerian households are no longer able to afford sustenance food with their income. “Food prices are soaring, food inflation is skyrocketing, the food crisis is worsening by the day, and hunger has graduated to a national crisis. “In a Food Security Update Report released last week, the World Bank likened Nigeria’s worsening food security crisis to war torn countries like Yemen, noting that we have a significant rise in the number of people facing acute food shortages and an epidemic of hunger,” Obi stated.
He maintained that Nigeria’s greatest asset is the vast uncultivated lands in the North coupled with her huge demographics. According to him, Niger State with a landmass of twice bigger than the Netherlands “can neither feed itself nor feed the nation, while the Netherlands exports over $100 billion worth of agro-products annually.” He argued that if Nigeria can prioritise investment in agriculture by combating insecurity which has kept farmers away from the farms, and adopting modern ways of mechanised farming, she will be able to combat hunger and achieve food security for the nation.
Obi said: “A nation booming in productivity, free from hunger, with an abundant food supply remains our commitment to a new more prosperous Nigeria.”.
