Nigerian FG’s initiative on food security

PHOTO

IN recent times, following public outcry, the Federal Government has been taking certain steps that it believes will address the acute hunger in the country. First, it suspended import duties and taxes on certain items to make them more affordable and address food inflation. According to the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, the Federal Government is committed to addressing the situation seamlessly to reduce hunger in the country. Adeniyi said that with initiatives such as the introduction of advanced ruling systems, authorised economic operators and a time-release study designed to enhance trade, the NCS had streamlined export processes to facilitate the efficient movement of Nigerian goods to international markets, stimulate the economy, and create new opportunities. The reforms, he opined, would provide farmers, artisans, and entrepreneurs with a faster path to global markets, benefiting their families and communities. Hear the Comptroller-General: “We are committed to implementing this measure seamlessly to address the problem of hunger in our nation.”

Again, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) announced the approval of 2,000 tractors, 4,000 disc ploughs and 1,200 tractor trailers, among other equipment, under the National Agricultural Mechanization Programme (NAMP) to promote food security. According to President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the items to be supplied are for the National Agricultural Mechanization Programme (NAMP) to strengthen national food security. He added: “Astride DMCC, which has done a similar job in Zimbabwe, Kenya, South Africa and Togo, will supply all the equipment and will also set up a plant to assemble the machinery in the second stage of the contract.”

In the face of the deep immiseration in which Nigerians are currently confined, it is noteworthy that the Federal Government has announced a solutions framework. The problem, however, is that the intervention has been knee-jerk, not deliberate and systematic. To put it mildly, the intervention has not been proactive, and key opportunities to make a real change in the lives of Nigerians have been shunned. At the very least, most of the decisions just announced should have been made a long time ago. It is obvious that with little or no money in their pockets and barely any food in their stomachs, the generality of Nigerians are being pushed to the wall and, sadly, it seems that there is no hope that things will get better soon, particularly with the refusal of the government to address key underlying issues such as the precipitate removal of subsidy on PMS and floatation of the naira.

The country is sitting on a time bomb and the Federal Government appears to be more concerned about averting protests and pacifying Nigerians than actually addressing poverty. If it knew that Nigerians faced acute hunger, why did it wait for public outcry before trying to act? Where are the N40,000 50-kg rice that the president promised? And should Nigerians even need presidential announcement of the price of the bag of rice if the government had done its homework? If a bag of rice costs N40,000, would Nigerians not know at the country’s markets?

The government’s so-called new initiative on food security is no more than a lamentable attempt at presenting itself as doing something even when it should be clear that nothing it is doing or planning to do will have any significant effect on the parlous food situation in the country. For how is the new initiative to ensure drastic reduction in the astronomical prices of foodstuffs even while ensuring that there is enough supply of the foodstuffs? There is massive hunger in the land today and the government is promising to acquire tractors. So when will the tractors arrive to start work in order to assuage the current hunger in the land? This all shows that the government does not know the enormity of the current food crisis in the country and is therefore not in a position to appropriately respond to it. Even if it can be argued that the strategy is aimed at the future, it is undercut by the fact that the government has not rolled out a security strategy that will ensure that farmers stop being preys to the terrorists who kill them for sport and undermine food production in the country.

Unfortunately, as we keep stating, hungry citizens will inevitably and inexorably turn into angry citizens when it becomes clear that tractors will not provide immediate relief to the hunger pangs and that is a disastrous situation to contemplate. Nigerians are tired of promises: the government must demonstrably make their lives better, beginning with an immediate, urgent review of the disastrous policies that it is holding on to against public opinion, and with utter contempt for the people.