“Nigeria cannot rely on the importation of food to stabilise prices. It should be producing more food, while creating jobs and reducing foreign exchange spending… Nigeria must feed itself with pride.”
– Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, president, African Development Bank (AfDB).
That Nigeria, with a vast, mostly arable land mass of 923,759 square kilometers, blessed with Rivers Niger and Benue, along with several tributaries and bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the South, parades the painful paradox of harrowing hunger in the midst of such resources is simply inexcusable and shameful! Worse still, the country boasts over 230 million people.
Ranked 109th out of 125 countries on the 2023 Global Hunger Index, GHI, even as 60percent of the youth are either unemployed or underemployed the recent decision by the President Ahmed Tinubu-led government to resort to food importation, is another knee-jerk approach that would amount to leaving the substance- of improving local economic productivity- to chasing the shadows of food insecurity. Hunger would therefore, act as the match-stick trigger to fuel the proposed mass protest billed for August 1, 2024.
Though the food importation is coming as a short- term measure in the face of the hunger in the land, it again reflects the recurring ugly decimal of abysmally poor leadership performance, over the decades. If not, how do you explain the sad situation that it is in this same crude oil-rich country, which boasts of four refineries, that the importation of the refined by-products goes on unabated, with trillions of naira down the drain. Still, according to several media reports much of the huge revenue keeps going into the coffers of the unpatriotic rotten-rich, oil cabal, if only to satisfy their insatiable epicurean tastes.
What an unjustifiable anomaly; that we keep importing the processed products of the raw materials our creator has richly blessed us with in abundance. So, that brings to the fore the recent intelligent and thought -provoking response to the government’s food importation policy by none other person than the world renowned, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Speaking at a recent retreat hosted by the African Primates of the Anglican Church held in Abuja, Adesina stated, and bluntly so, that the food importation policy may destroy the agric sector. With the theme, ‘Food Security and Financial Sustainability in Africa, the Role of the Church,’ he described the move as “depressing.”
Furthermore, he explained that the food duty suspension threatens private investment, even as the policy could undermine the hard work and private investment that has so far gone into the agriculture sector.
It would be recalled that on July 10, 2024 the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari stated that the federal government has suspended duties, tariff and taxes on the importation of maize, husk brown rice, wheat, cowpeas through both the land and sea borders for 150 days, or five months. In addition, the federal government will import 250,000 metric tonnes (MT) of wheat and 250,000 MT of maize in semi- processed state. These will be given to small scale processors and millers across the country. It is in the light of the announcement that we juxtapose it with Adesina ‘s response.
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Approaching the disturbing issue through a broad-based discourse, it would be appreciated that while the short – term measures adapted by the current administration might be sincere on the face of it, sustainable pragmatic measures have become compelling necessities. Having held leadership positions, as the then Vice President of Policy Partnerships of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), back in 2008 when FoodBusiness International magazine, that yours truly, headed had an engagement with him, it was patently evident that he certainly knows his onion.
Subsequently, he became the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development under the then President Goodluck Jonathan -led government. In both instances, his policies were farmer-focused. In fact, he canvassed for subsidy for African farmers. As he rightly noted: “When I say that we need smart subsidies, I mean that the private sector has to distribute the inputs, the government should support the farmers together. The government has to make sure that the farmers are provided proper extension services, to be very effective.”
He decried the situation of seeing graduates of agriculture roaming the streets looking for paid jobs, describing it as a “bizarre thing.” That statement was made 16 years ago but it rings true today as ever ago.
Going forward therefore, the government should muster the political will to combat the challenge of the herders- farmers crisis instead of the creation of the Ministry of Livestock for political reasons. A civil servant who left for farming in Ekiti state is lamenting the frequent threats from the fully armed, farm-crushing cattle herders. It is a worst-case scenario in Ondo State as well as Plateau and Benue states that have been reduced from the ‘Food Basket of the Nation’ to the blood-letting fields, all to actualise the obnoxious land-grabbing agenda of the sponsors of the herders.
In addition, to curb the food insecurity incubus, focus should be on the small-scale farmers who have to be taught on modern agricultural practices such as the use of disease-resistant, early maturing hybrid seedlings with bumper harvest. They also need the knowledge on food processing and preservation. These should be on organic farming techniques as being consistently canvassed by the wave-making Xtralarge Farms and Resorts Ltd.
Above all, with the hunger in the land the chickens have finally come home to roost. Restructuring is the best way to go. The Federal Government should hands off agriculture to the states and local councils. With the past interventions by the federal government through the Green Revolution, Operation Feed the Nation, Directorate for Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure, DFRRI and the transformation of agriculture from the rustic to mechanised farming, under the then President Goodluck Jonathan not able to stem the swelling tide of the hunger in the country that is the best way to go.
Like it or not, the Tinubu-led administration should listen to the voices of reason, when faced with socio- economic and political challenges instead of feeling hurt by pieces of honest advice.
With over 16 multinational companies having exited the country and the exponential rise in the cost of living, the provision of an enabling environment for increased local productivity and businesses to thrive has become an imperative. In a democracy good governance will be achieved when majority of us, including the leaders are propelled by policies, programs and projects driven in the national interest.
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