Yemi Adebowale
It did not come as a surprise that Nigeria was listed as one of the “20 hunger hotspots” in the world in a joint report by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP). Hunger is real in beloved Nigeria. In the report released last week, the two agencies warned that acute food insecurity was likely to deteriorate further in Nigeria and 19 other countries, particularly between February and May 2022.
The FAO and WFP thereafter issued an early warning for urgent humanitarian action in Nigeria and the 19 other countries where part of the population is likely to face a significant deterioration of food insecurity that will put their lives and livelihoods at risk. The report noted that Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen remained at the highest alert level and humanitarian actions are critical to prevent starvation and death.
Giving specific reasons for the impending hunger in Nigeria, the report stated that attacks by non-state armed groups in the North-east, coupled with banditry and inter-communal violence in the North-central and North-west would continue to disrupt agricultural and market activities. These, it added, would lead to reduced production, incomes and new displacement, including in areas that are projected to face catastrophe.
The report adds: “Precarious security conditions and high inflation rates are likely to further aggravate acute food-insecurity levels beyond Borno State in the outlook period. Countrywide, about 620,000 people – over 74 per cent of them in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe – are projected to face emergency food need.”
Other countries listed in the 2022 “20 huge hotspots” were Mozambique, Syria, Myanmar, Central African Republic, DR Congo, Sudan, Madagascar, Afghanistan and Angola, among others.
The FAO and WFP’s story of hunger in Nigeria is indeed real. First, let’s look at the millions of Nigerians pushed into hunger by terrorists. Guerrillas have taken over so many towns and villages in the North, forcing millions of people to flee their farms and homes, to become Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in safe places. Daily, millions of these IDPs in wretched camps in Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Katsina, Zamfara Kaduna, Benue, Niger, Taraba, Plateau and Sokoto states struggle for food, which is hardly enough. Everyday, scores die of starvation and malnutrition in these camps.
Maiduguri alone is home to about a million IDPs; all victims of the Boko Haram and ISWAP attacks from across Borno State. There are official IDP camps in this town, with scores of other informal ones. The camps in Auno; Stadium, Bakassi, Muna Garage, Gubio, Dalori I & II, are some of the sites overflowing with IDPs struggling for limited food. There is severe hunger in these encampments.
A peep into Damba community (inside Gusau, Zamfara State) where an IDP camp has developed, shows women (some pregnant) and children sleeping on bare floor, with little food for survival. In Benue State, the three camps in Makurdi town and one other in Logo Local Government Area are filled with people that barely get enough food.
In Kaduna State, the IDPs in Goningora, Udawa Mararaban Rido and Kujama, (Chikun LGA) and those in Zonkwa and Samaru Kataf in Zangon Kataf LGA are all starving. Sometimes, for a whole day, there will be no food supply. Hunger and disease permeate these camps.
The responses of the federal and state governments to the hunger in IDP camps have been lethargic. In fact, many have been exploiting the IDPs to make money. Money allocated for their welfare hardly gets to them. More often than not, cash and goods donated by local and international organisations are stolen.
Aside from the millions of Nigerians pushed into hunger by the activities of terrorists, the disastrous economic policy of the Buhari government in almost seven years has pushed millions of other Nigerians into starvation, as poverty and unemployment pervade our country. Many have slipped into abject poverty. For example, 1.1 million Nigerians slipped into extreme poverty just in four months – June, July, August and September – of 2018. Under Buhari, Nigeria’s joblessness rate worsened, thus, stimulating hunger.
Millions have lost jobs with hundreds of factories shutting down. The employment rate is a vital measurement of any economy’s health. The latest figures show that unemployment increased to 33.3% in Q4 2020 from 27.1% in Q2 2020, with 23.18 million Nigerians jobless. Everyday, these jobless people struggle to feed. Over 88 million Nigerians now live in extreme poverty – below $1.90 a day. Earlier in June 2018, the Brookings Institution named Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world, with 86.9 million extremely poor people. Nigeria overtook India as the world’s poverty capital, despite being six times smaller in population than the Asian country.
Between 2016 and 2019, the Buhari government spent N470.8 billion on the implementation of its social safety programme. Yes, N470.8 billion. How I wish the Presidential Adviser on National Social Welfare Programme, Maryam Uwais, would pick up courage and give Nigerians a transparent report on the activities of this comical National Social Investment Programme since its inauguration. The truth is that this programme that aims at improving the living conditions of Nigerians, through capacity building, investment and direct support, has failed woefully.
Millions of Nigerians are slipping into hunger and abject poverty, notwithstanding this comical social welfare programme. The programme has failed to change the fortunes of the poorest of the poor in our dear country. The Tradermoni, Farmermoni, and Marketmoni remain charades incapable of reducing poverty in Nigeria. This is why poverty is on the rise in mother Nigeria.
The astronomical rise in the prices of staple foods in Nigeria in the last seven years is also a major cause of hunger among millions of Nigerians. So many go to bed without meals and wake up not sure of breakfast. Poor man’s Garri is beyond the reach of the masses. A bag of beans is selling for N90,000. Kerosene, poor man’s cooking fuel is selling for a frightening N400 per litre. In beloved Nigeria, a 50kg bag of local rice sells for between N25,000 and N32,000, depending on the part of the country you are in. This is the same rice that was selling at N7000 for a 50kg bag when Buhari assumed office about seven years ago. Our local rice is now beyond the reach of the masses. A bag of local rice is selling for this much in a country where the minimum wage is N30,000 monthly. The billions of Naira spent on subsidising rice production has failed to bring down the price.
The Buhari government should come up with pragmatic steps to pull Nigerians out of hunger and poverty, instead of regaling us with stories of a failed social welfare programme. The N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfers, National Home-Grown School Feeding and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programmes, are lousy projects incapable of truly impacting on the lives of the masses of the people.
Terror kingpin, Ada Aleru still killing unhindered
For those who don’t know him, Ada Aleru is one of the terror kingpins operating in Zamfara and Katsina states. He makes money from killings, kidnappings and levies imposed on several communities in these two states. Aleru and his boys are visible in Faskari part of Katsina State; Tsafe, Bungudu and Bakura LGAs of Zamfara State.
Last week, three communities controlled by Aleru in the Zamfara local governments mentioned were brutalised for failing to pay the levies he imposed. The attacked communities were Nasarawar Mai Fara, Yar Katsina and Nasarawa. Aleru imposed N40 million levy on Nasarawar Mai Fara, which the poor people could not raise; 20 people were subsequently killed by Aleru in the village.
In Bakura, a health worker, Masud Kyambarawa, said three people, including the chief imam of the area, Akilu Dan Malam, were killed by Aleru and his boys, also for failing to raise the levy demanded.
Aleru is also behind the terror attacks last Tuesday in three communities in Bakori and Funtua local government areas of Katsina State that led to the death of 13 residents. The terrorists began their operation last Monday night at Dukawa village in Bakori LGA, moving from house to house and looting shops; then to Gidan Kanawa where they killed three residents. They later attacked two communities in Funtua LGA where they murdered 10 residents and abducted the village head, Mohammed Umar.
Aleru’s boys are also suspected to have carried out the attack in Magama area of Jibia town, Jibia LG of Katsina State last Wednesday, during which they killed a Divisional Police Officer, Abdulkadir Rano. The terrorists likewise stormed the home of a businessman in the town, Alhaji Lauwali Magama and abducted his wife and daughter. This terrorist is operating openly unimpeded. It can only happen in Nigeria. Security agents can claim to be unaware of Aleru’s whereabouts.
In a related bad news, in the first three weeks of 2022 alone, at least 486 people were killed by non-state actors across Nigeria, over half of them by terrorists in the North-west and Niger State. Residents of communities along the Kontagora-Rijau road in Mariga and Rijau local government areas of Niger State are fleeing their homes as a result of unending terror attacks.
Enough of Aregbesola’s mischiefs in osun
The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola is a lucky chap. This former governor of Osun State has been going about destabilising the state unobstructed. He is lucky because incumbent governor Gboyega Oyetola is a gentleman. Aregbesola goes about with a prickly sense of entitlement; that he should be the godfather of Osun State after his eight useless years as governor. Oyetola has not firmly resisted this. Aregbesola uses his “The Osun Progressives” (TOP), a group within the All Progressives Congress in the state to cause anarchy and confusion. This former governor also runs parallel APC Executives from the wards to the state level. This week, a court in Ikire, presided over by Justice Sikiru Oke, struck out a suit instituted by TOP, challenging the legality of the Osun State APC EXCO loyal to Oyetola and recognised by the party’s headquarters.
Aregbesola wanted the court to invalidate the state Congress that produced the Gboyega Famodun-led state executive and declare his faction as the authentic state officials of the party. The congress that produced Gboyega Famodun, was conducted by a team sent by the party’s headquarters in Abuja. He failed in this mission.
Still, Aregbesola will not end his disruptions. He is often boasting that his TOP members are firmly in control of the state, especially in all the local government areas, and are ready to stop Oyetola from getting a 2nd term. This man made the job of the reconciliation committee sent from Abuja difficult by insisting that Oyetola must give TOP half of the political offices in the state and that his factional EXCO must be recognised as authentic. He wants to impose even commissioners on Oyetola. This is silly. This former governor is aiming to reap where he did not sow. Aregbesola has been going about, using men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to cause chaos across the state.
This Interior Minister can’t try one tenth of what he is doing in Osun State with the likes of Governor Yahaya Inuwa of Gombe State and Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State. We all know how Inuwa and Ganduje checkmated Danjuma Goje and Rabiu Kwankwaso when they tried playing the godfather. Oyetola has to wake up and put Aregbesola where he belongs. Enough of this current Osun governor’s gentleman politics, else, Aregbesola will mortify him further. My dear Oyetola, you must put your foot down as the leader of the party in the state and end the reign of those undermining your authority. Above all, you must deal ruthlessly with people destabilising your state. The likes of Aregbesola must not continue to enjoy a free rein. Enough is enough!
