The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi has expressed apprehension over the looming hunger and famine occasioned by activities of bandits and terrorists, which have continued to deny farmers access to their farms.
Obi, who was reacting to publications and international agencies’ warnings on the matter, said that the alarm should be given adequate attention.
Writing on his X handle, the LP standard bearer said: “I just read in the dailies this morning about concerns being expressed by stakeholders in our agriculture sector over the worsening food insecurity in Nigeria.
“I have remained consistent in voicing out my worries over this growing food crisis, which has even continued to claim the lives of our fellow citizens.
“I do believe that the urgency required to address these issues cannot be overemphasised.
“The report this morning said that the number of food-insecure Nigerians increased significantly from 66.2 million in Q1, 2023, to 100 million in Q1, 2024, (WFP, 2024), with 18.6 million facing acute hunger and 43.7 million Nigerians showing crisis-level or above crisis-level hunger-coping strategies as of March 2024.
“While the above report gives an understanding of the current and impending food crisis looming large on the nation, the current realities show that we are already in a worse situation than is presented in the report.
“An earlier similar report by Cadre Harmonise stated that about 31.5 million Nigerians are projected to face acute hunger by between June and August this year.
“What is now very worrisome is that many Nigerians have lost their lives in their quest to find food, reflecting a very acute level of hunger not yet captured in the media. We are gradually descending to the level of survival of the fittest, where, driven by hunger and a quest for survival, one loses every sense of order to do the unthinkable.”
Obi noted that with the recurrent bandits and terror attacks on farmers, many of them have abandoned their farms. He said that it was reported that in a state like Sokoto, farmers have paid an accumulated sum of N3 billion in ransom to bandits, while others pay as high as N100,000 to bandits to gain access to their farmlands. Obi disclosed that about 165 farmers have reportedly lost their lives to insecurity this year alone.
“It is, therefore, a matter of urgency, for the government to solve the problem of insecurity in the country. This will, in turn, reduce the problem of food insecurity when farmers safely return to their farms. A new and hunger-free Nigeria is possible,” he added.
