• Ogun empowers 4000 households with free seeds, farming tools
• CAPPA tasks govts on regulation of pre-processed foods

Niger State Governor, Mohammed Umar Bago, has called for a radical shift from food security to food sovereignty in Nigeria, stressing the need for greater investment in agriculture and decolonisation of the nation’s food systems.

Bago gave the charge yesterday, in his keynote address at the World Food Day Forum, themed “Food Security to Food Sovereignty: How Far Has Nigeria Gone?” organised by the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in Lagos.

The governor, who described himself as “a farmer and a governor,” said that agriculture must be placed at the heart of Nigeria’s economic and foreign policy agenda if the country is to achieve genuine self-reliance and prosperity.

He commended the NIIA for deepening the national conversation on food policy.

Bago decried the nation’s over-reliance on imported staples, such as rice and wheat, saying that the situation drains foreign reserves and weakens local food systems.

Director General, NIIA, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, described World Food Day as “a reminder that without food, there will be no world at all.”

Relatedly, Ogun State Government, yesterday, said it had started distributing free farming tools, kits and planting materials to over 4,000 households under the Special Agro-Processing Zone (SAPZ) in its home garden programme to combat food insecurity and reduce hunger in the state.

The state’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Bolu Owotomo, disclosed this during a media briefing at the Government Secretariat, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

Meanwhile, the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has urged governments at all levels to implement comprehensive food policies that protect Nigerians from the growing threat of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and unhealthy beverages.

In a statement, the organisation reiterated that more Nigerians, particularly children, adolescents and young adults, are being aggressively targeted with unhealthy diets that are not only nutrient-poor and heavily processed but also deceptively packaged and marketed as healthy and convenient.