Arnold Alalibo

Hunger is the greatest threat to the corporate existence of a nation. Any country that underrates its potency does so at its risk.  When a people are united in hunger and poverty, it is difficult to break their rank. Such portends the situation of our nation. I think the federal government should act fast to stem the hunger-induced progressive unity of the peasant class, if a major disaster must be averted. Such unity, if achieved by the hungry class, may spell a rustic revolution for the country.

The current food crisis is an ominous sign of a grave danger that may befall this nation. Ordinarily the crisis would have been avoided if the government had prioritised agriculture by adequately funding the sector. This would have checked the looming crisis over the high cost of foodstuff. It is induced regrettable that agriculture has suffered so much neglect in the past 30 to 35 years. This is why the sector deserves an immediate revival.

I feel so sad that Nigeria, with its abundant resources, trails behind countries that hardly have resources to subsist on. God has blessed this nation in a manner that has placed it in  a vantage position among the comity of nations. There are many areas nature’s endowment of the nation has manifested.

For instance, other country fought to gain independence, but fate determined that we needed not shed blood to bring about our nation’s independence on October 1, 1960. we virtually secured our sovereignty on a platter of gold.

In the recent past, however, we were made to believe that Nigeria’s problems emanated from the rank and file. But alas! the cock has come home to roost. It is now known that the leadership constitutes the core of the nation’s problems. For instance in 1993, Nigerians spoke with one voice when they buried their differences and voted for a common future and a united country. Unfortunately, agents of retrogression frustrated the people’s common will postponed our promised land and re-routed us back into the wilderness of disharmony, disenchantment and disunity.

The leadership has demonstrated its aversion to this nation through orchestrated misappropriation of public funds and bad policies designed to ensure that the poor gets poorer, while the rank of the rich is fast exploding. We appear to be running a government of the rich, by the rich for the rich.

It is not surprising that Nigeria is backward in the production of everything including food. Although the current food crisis is experienced nationwide, its impact is grave on those nations that are without sound agricultural policies, like Nigeria.

Why won’t there be food shortage in the country when there is no end to the incessant power failure? How do we expect food to grow when industries are shutting down with attendant job losses while small-scale enterprises fizzle out? Therefore, government needs to show seriousness in the redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor. There has to be commitment by the government to the availability of food, electricity, good roads and shelter.

As the food crisis rages, Nigerians are in the most disadvantaged position to survive the exigency. With a minimum wage of N7,500 and over 70 per cent of income going into food, Nigerians are wont to fizzle out in the face of this crisis. Our case is particularly sad because even when the United Nations had acknowledged the problem and issued a universal alert, our political leaders chose to remain reticent and did as though all was well.

Time has come for something urgent to be done. It has become expedient for the government to release the country’s grain stock and food reserve into the market. An emergency should be declared and urgent measures taken to force down the price of foodstuffs. In this period of food emergency, the government at all levels has to work out subsidies on food, food imports and food production ingredients like fertiliser.

The success of agriculture under the Yar’Adua administration will depend on effective planning and implementation of sustainable programmes and policies of his administration on agriculture.

Agriculture is the mainstay of many economies, but ironically in Nigeria, the sector has suffered administrative and financial neglect in the last 30 to 35 years. Ten years into democracy, many states do not have any meaningful project that will benefit the peasant to boost productivity and benefit the people.

Food is what agriculture represents in the world. Nobody can do without it. No nation can ignore it the way Nigeria does without paying dearly for it in terms of chaos. The high poverty level, many years of neglect and government’s inadequate funding and policies in the sector have created agony for the people.