How Tinubu can tackle food insecurity in Nigeria — Ex-senator

A former Nigerian senator, Emmanuel Onwe, has outlined what President Bola Tinubu must do to address food insecurity in the country.

Mr Onwe, a farmer, spoke on Sunday in Enugu while briefing reporters on his open letter to Mr Tinubu, titled, Declaration of a State of Emergency on Food Security and Commodification of the Naira Using Cassava: What Can I Do for my Country.

Food security in Nigeria

Food security is attained when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Nigeria is expected to have about 26.5 million people grappling with high levels of food insecurity in 2024, a report by the Cadre Harmonisé said.

The Cadre Harmonisé, an initiative focused on food and nutrition analysis, conducts studies biannually (in March and October) across 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Creating Food Intelligence Agency

Speaking on what can be done, Mr Onwe, who said he has over 300 hectares of cassava farm, urged Mr Tinubu to establish a Food Intelligence Agency to support his recent declaration of state of emergency on food security.

The farmer, who represented Ebonyi Central District, contended that the declaration on food security has failed to galvanise mass action in agricultural practices, but expressed hope that the proposed agency can rescue the nation from food inflation and hunger.

“A Food Intelligence Agency, the strike squad of food security and food sovereignty, would have played a significant and defining role in investigating, assessing and recording the state of food production, consumption and preservation across Nigeria.

“Such a body would have the capacity to provide actionable intelligence on the threats and prospects of food production so that these recurring and embarrassing emergencies in food availability could be proactively averted,” he said.

Food subsidy

Mr Onwe, a lawyer and former information commissioner in Ebonyi State, also asked Mr Tinubu to consider subsidising the cost of agricultural inputs for farmers to make food security possible in Nigeria.

“No nation can actually claim to be self-sufficient in food and food secure unless they subsidise for farmers,” he said.

The farmer said some agricultural inputs, such as tractors, needed for farming are expensive for most farmers and not readily available.

He claimed that a few tractors which were given out by the government two years ago were hijacked by politicians.

“Something has to be done about these things. Something has to be done about the escalating cost of pesticides and insecticides because those are absolutely beyond the affordability of genuine farmers, not particularly noncommercial farmers,” the former senator said.

Work with farmers, not politicians

Mr Onwe urged the president to direct his interventions on the agriculture sector to real farmers, not politicians, who he claimed, often deliver such interventions to their political cronies.

“Any measure of intervention that does not bring representative farmers together – not politicised organisations populated by political farmers that cannot boast of a hectare of farm – is bound to fail.

“The tendency to hijack agricultural initiatives by politicians and cavemen has been strangulating previous efforts by previous governments. And the citizens of this nation are paying a terrible price for it,” he said.

“To this end, I strongly urge Mr President to include genuine and experienced farmers in his National Economic Council.”

The farmer also called for the procurement and installation of six garri processing factories in Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones to fight hunger in the country.

“There are excellent examples of such machinery in China, India, Germany and other places, and will cost the government of Nigeria a tiny fraction of the Abacha loot remitted to the treasury by the government of France recently,” Mr Onwe said.

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The former senator stressed that the government must make necessary sacrifices in ensuring “land preparation on an industrial scale, single-minded investment on infrastructure for irrigation, laser-focus on agricultural research and development” to make improved seeds and breeds abundant and accessible to farmers.

Address insecurity

Mr Onwe said although insecurity was not to be blamed for the worsening food security in Nigeria, the country’s government must fight the menace to boost food production.

“The government of Nigeria cannot be defeated by a marauding band of criminals threatening some of our farmlands,” he said.