Following the high cost of living and protests in some parts of the country, the Federal Government has planned to establish a national commodity board that will regulate prices of goods and food items.
According to the latest National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report, food inflation has hit all-time high of 35.4 per cent for the month of January. Vice President Kassim Shettima, at a recent meeting on ‘Climate Change, Food Systems and Resources Mobilization’ in Abuja, hinted that the proposed commodity board will, among other things, be mandated to assess, regulate and stabilise food prices of crucial grains, maintain a strategic food reserve and other food items.
How soon the commodity board will take off and how effective its implementation will be to reduce the present soaring cost of living, remains uncertain.
No doubt, food security was a key plank of President Bola Tinubu’s 8-point, ‘Renewed Hope’ Agenda. It was probably based on that that the government last year declared a state of emergency on food security with 500,000 hectares mapped out for food production. According to the government, the proposed commodity board will focus on three areas, short, medium and long-terms strategies, to tackle the escalating food crisis. The short-term measures will, expectedly, revitalise food supply through specific intermediaries, such as distribution of fertilizers and grains to farmers and households to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal. Similarly, the medium and long-term strategies will involve collaboration between government, ministries of agriculture and water resources for efficient and effective farmland irrigation towards ensuring all-year-round food production.
Certainly, the idea of setting up a national commodity board to control the prices of essential food items is good. If it is well implemented, it will hopefully stem the rising food inflation. Let the government see the current protests over rising cost of living as a wake-up call to address the socio-economic challenges of the country. It must come up with policies that will stimulate economic growth and enhance the welfare of the citizens.
Sadly, the government has not been able to put the economy on the path of quick recovery due to its bad policies. Since food is one of the basic needs of man, government should not toy with the provision of adequate food for the citizens. While the effort to control the prices of basic food items is commendable, let the government embark on massive importation of essential food items as an interim measure to check the escalating food prices.
The rising cost of living and hunger in the land can lead to social unrest if the situation is allowed to deteriorate further. The hardship caused by the removal of fuel subsidy has not been adequately addressed. The ravaging hunger in the land can exacerbate the general insecurity across the country. The CBN should immediately deploy concessionary capital to the agricultural sector, especially towards fertilizer processing, mechanisation of agriculture and other things that can enhance food production.
The enormity of the hunger crisis is not in doubt and needs urgent attention. According to the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS), about 26.5 million Nigerians, including women and children, are in dire need of urgent assistance to prevent death and prolonged suffering. We believe that this number is conservative considering the fact that Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world.
This is, indeed, the time the government should prioritise agriculture as a way of ensuring food security. State and local governments must play a vital role in ensuring food production and food security. The commodity board should be properly managed. Those in charge of the commodity board must be above board. Government should draw examples from the old commodity board of the First Republic when agriculture was the mainstay of the economy.
Despite the envisaged benefits of a commodity board, the policymakers should realise that over regulation of prices of food items may discourage private sector participation in the food production and distribution chain. It will also hinder market dynamics and hamper business growth. Without addressing this problem, the commodity board cannot single-handedly stabilise food prices.
Above all, government should adequately consider the other underlying factors contributing to food crisis. These include insecurity, unfriendly business environment, exchange rate volatility, climate change, herders/farmers’ clashes, kidnapping and others. We urge the government to prioritise fertilizer processing and distribution so that farmers will have access to fertilizers. Government should factor in the active youth population in agriculture production. This is a viable option that can create millions of jobs and reduce the increasing unemployment rate.