By Omoniyi Salaudeen
Nigerians can now heave a sigh of relief following the 150-day duty-free import window announced by the Federal Government for essential items such as maize, husked brown rice, wheat, and cowpeas, to ease the rising food prices in the country.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, who made the policy decision known last Wednesday, in Abuja, said that the move was part of the Presidential Accelerated Stabilization and Advancement Plan to achieve food security and economic stability in the country.
This could not have come at a better time than now when the food crisis has reached such an alarming stage that members of the National Assembly are fretting over the possibility of the Kenyan experience.
To underscore the seriousness of the matter, Kyari assured that the government remained committed to achieving food security and that no citizen would go to bed hungry. Soothing as it may, the statement sounds more alarming than assuring. It’s more like living in self-denial, for people not only go to bed hungry, they are dying of hunger.
The worsening food insecurity facing the nation has reached an end stage. In medical jargon, the end stage is the last phase in the course of a progressive disease. For a couple of months, the masses have endured the progressive erosion of their purchasing power occasioned by rising food inflation, which the government has been unable to control. So, where is the assurance coming from? Whoever likes may pretend not to know, available statistics represent clear and present danger.
And figures don’t lie. In May 2024, Nigeria’s food inflation rate reached 40.66 per cent on a year-on-year basis, a significant increase from the 24.82 per cent recorded in May 2023. It is also higher than the 40.53 per cent recorded in April 2024. This sharp rise in food prices has been attributed to a range of factors including climate, insecurity, infestations and lack of essential inputs. Worse than that, the United Nations has predicted that 82 million Nigerians, about 64 per cent of the country’s population, may go hungry by 2030, calling on the government to tackle climate change, pest infestations, and other threats to agricultural productivity.
At this critical time, all eyes should be on the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security for the necessary action plans that will mitigate the effect of the looming mass protest.
But what has Kyari done? He gave an empty assurance that food prices would crash in 180 days. Rhetoric! In the immediate short run, the policy initiative may stabilize food prices and provide much-needed relief to millions of Nigerians, especially if properly implemented. Other than that, the nation cannot control the price of a commodity it does not produce. The market price of commodities is directly a function of the interaction between supply and demand. That is the eternal, but simple law of economics. Price can be modulated, but not by a magic wand. Only enhanced productivity can meet the people’s demand for food vis-à-vis the supply side. That, the minister must know.
By projection, the Federal Government is expected to import 250,000MT of wheat and 250,000MT of maize. According to Kyari, the imported food commodities in their semi-processed state will target supplies to the small-scale processors and millers across the country.
“In addition to the importation by the private sector, the Federal Government will import 250,000MT of wheat and 250,000MT of maize. Under this arrangement, imported food commodities will be subjected to a Recommended Retail Price (RRP),” he assured.
That is another empty theoretical postulation. The idea is to calm the frayed nerves, it will not guarantee the affordability of food items. Inasmuch as everything is import-dependent, the real market price of food will ultimately be determined by the value of the naira vis-à-vis the currency of the exporting countries. With the current instability in the foreign exchange rate, the likelihood is that the massive importation planned by the government will put further pressure on the naira leading to a worsening economic situation of the country if care is not taken. Within the six-month grace, the best the government can do as a lasting solution is to swing into action, focusing attention on the massive production of food to avert the Kenyan experience.
It has been said, time and again, that the government will be “embarking on aggressive agricultural mechanization to reduce drudgery, lower production costs, and boost productivity.” There has been a mismatch between the words and the actions of the present government. It’s time to work the talk. Otherwise, the recent protests witnessed in some states over the rising food prices may be child’s play compared to a looming mass revolt.
No nation is immune to protest in the face of hunger. Just like the Kenyan experience highlighted the government’s insensitivity to societal challenges and the youth’s discontent with the government’s decision to yield to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pressures to generate more income for debt servicing, Nigerians can do worse things in the face of hunger.
Writhing under the present economic hardship, the hungry masses may decide to take their destiny into their own hands if the hardship continues. Without a backed-up action, the rhetoric about the Renewed Hope agenda that has failed to put food on the table of the ordinary people or the empty promise of food self-sufficiency will not be able to hold them back from another looming protest, which the nation can ill-afford at this delicate time.
So far, the performance of the Ministry of Agriculture under Kyari has been abysmally poor. Yet, there is no clear-cut policy direction on how to lead the country out of the woods. The current ad hoc approach to governance which has become the hallmark of the present government is more often contradictory, arbitrary, and perfunctory.
As already revealed by the Senate, the country’s food reserve is said to be empty. The immediate past Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, pulled the veil, saying “We have little or nothing in our food reserve across the country.
“If you tell us that they will distribute foodstuff from our silos, the silos are empty. So, it means we have to import food. And if we have to import, it means we need foreign exchange. That is why we have to engage the administration.”. This is a warning that can no longer be ignored.
And it speaks to the essence of the state of emergence in food production earlier declared by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu about a year ago. In making the declaration, Tinubu harped on the need for synergy between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources to achieve the policy objective.
‘There must be an urgent synergy between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources to ensure adequate irrigation of farmlands and to guarantee that food is produced all year round,” the president was quoted as saying.
One year on, the nation cannot feed itself. And nobody has been called to account. Everybody appears to be doing that which is convenient.
It is high time President Tinubu and his lieutenants in the agricultural sector, national security, and other allied matters woke up to their responsibilities and created an enabling environment for farmers to go back to their farms to boost food production to feed the teeming hungry populace.
And time is of the essence. The people have waited for too long, increasingly getting tired of the waiting game. Therefore, the government can no longer afford to procrastinate on doing the essential and delivering the deliverables.
At best, all the loud noise about the Renewed Hope agenda of President Tinubu remains a pipe dream.