The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused the President Bola Tinubu-led government of making over 17 million Nigerians face acute hunger and death, describing the situation as the self-creation of a humanitarian disaster.

ADC has also described the figures, which include infants and young children, as the result of incompetence, misplaced priorities, and failed policies.

The party made the statement following a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) report showing that more than 17 million Nigerians across nine conflict-affected Northern states are facing acute hunger.

In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party condemned the Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) Federal Government for what it described as its “cruel indifference” to the growing humanitarian crisis brought about principally by its failure to contain banditry and terrorism that have displaced farming communities, as well as the harsh economic policies that have pushed food beyond the reach of millions of Nigerians.

The ADC said it has received, with profound concern, the latest assessment by the United Nations WFP, which confirms that Nigeria is now facing one of its worst food security emergencies in almost a decade.

The statement said: “According to the WFP, more than 17 million Nigerians across nine conflict-affected northern states are now facing crisis, emergency or catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

“This represents an increase of almost two million people from previous projections. In Borno State alone, more than three million people are acutely food insecure, while the combined figure for Borno, Adamawa and Yobe has risen to 6.2 million people.

“These are not opposition figures. They are not campaign slogans. They are the findings of the world’s leading humanitarian agency on hunger.

“The WFP also identifies the principal causes of this unfolding tragedy: expanding insecurity, attacks on farming communities, mass displacement, restricted humanitarian access and declining support for vulnerable populations.

“In other words, the hunger confronting millions of Nigerians today is not a natural disaster. It is an APC-inspired government-created humanitarian disaster.”

Abdullahi noted that the humanitarian crisis is also the predictable outcome of a government that has failed to secure Nigerian lives, failed to protect Nigerian farmers and failed to address the cost-of-living crisis that it has created.