Why Tinubu should prioritise security

Shortly before he departed for the 5th Mid-year Co-ordination Meeting of the African Union (AU), held at the United Nations (U.N.) Complex in Nairobi, Kenya, last week, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, declared an emergency on food security.

The details of this declaration are captured succinctly in a statement by the Presidential Adviser on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy, Dele Alake. According to Mr. Alake, the declaration on food security, like the President’s other interventions, was meant to have an immediate impact on the most vulnerable Nigerians.

He explained that the President was not unmindful of the rising cost of food and its impact on citizens. He said that while availability (of food) was not an issue, affordability was a major concern for many Nigerians in all parts of the country.

Mr. Alake further explained that the emergency on food would be tackled in the immediate, medium and long term and that some of the savings from the removal of fuel subsidy would be channeled into the agricultural sector.

The Presidential Adviser enunciated measures through which the emergency on food would be accomplished. First, he said, “We will immediately release fertilizer and grain to farmers and households to alleviate the shortage.”

Second, he spoke of an urgent “synergy between the Minister of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources to ensure adequate irrigation of farmlands and ensure that food is produced all year round.”

Third, he said the Tinubu administration “will establish and support a National Commodity Board that will review and continuously assess prices and maintain a strategic food reserve that will be used as a price stabilisation mechanism”.

For a government that is responsive and sensitive to the welfare of its citizens, this declaration of an emergency on food security is ineluctable. In the aftermath of the peremptory withdrawal of subsidy on fuel by the President, all costs associated with transportation, had shot through the roof. Inflation which had been upward bound has, by the accounting and telling of the National Bureau on Statistics (NBS), reached an unprecedented 22.7%. Not less than 25.3million Nigerians are said to be suffering from acute food insecurity. Poverty and destitution have increased by leaps and bounds. Despair haunts the land like some ogre.

Against this straitened background, the Tinubu administration, understandably, has to latch onto something to give Nigerians some modicum of hope. Like the withdrawal of fuel subsidy before it, there was no prior consultation with critical stakeholders in the food and agricultural sector. Other than identifying some fanciful immediate, medium and long term strategies, no elaborate road map or strategic plan was put in place with who should do what and when. Clear responsibilities are not assigned to stakeholders, with timelines, key performance, result indicators and a realistic budget to drive the process. In short, the emergency on food security falls short of international best practices as we know them. Without a painstaking plan by pundits and stakeholders in the agricultural sector, this declaration will surely flounder and come to grief.

If the declaration of emergency on food security seems a helter-skelter and intellectually indolent enterprise, it seeks to put the cart before the horse. Which should come first: a declaration of emergency on security or on food? The answer to this poser is as clear as day in view of the challenges that confront us. It is not a nebulous chicken-and-egg conundrum as to which came first. It is a crystal clear case of precedent and cause and effect.

Due to prolonged insurgency in the North East geo political zone, it is feared that the States of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa will be afflicted with hunger, starvation and acute malnutrition this year.  According to UN agencies, not less than $396 million dollars will be required to mitigate acute malnutrition in this zone alone. At the current official exchange rate of 801 to the dollar, this will amount to N317 billion.

Only last week, Medecins Sans Frontieres(Msf) Or Doctors Without Borders warned that the current humanitarian response(arising from banditry and kidnapping) fell short, risking a catastrophic outcome in the near future. Said MSF:”North West Nigeria, burdened with some of the nation’s worst health indicators, is witnessing an alarming malnutrition situation spiraling into a full-blown crisis, exacerbated by escalating violence levels.

“Armed groups’ frequent raids and kidnappings have forced many residents to seek safer grounds, leaving their farms and workplaces inaccessible due to growing insecurity.”

If kidnapping and banditry are keeping farmers away from their farms in the North West geo political zone, genocidal attacks are taking place in the North Central geo political zone, without let or hindrance. The States of Niger, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Benue and Plateau are the worst-hit. They have since become the killing fields where marauders maim and kill farmers on a daily basis and with recklessness.

Hundreds of thousands have scampered from their villages and farms and are holed up in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. The upshot of these genocidal killings and the abandonment of the farms is that hunger and starvation are imminent in this zone as well. Before the recent co-ordinated and unprovoked attacks on villages across Mangu, Barakin Ladi and Riyom Local Government Areas of Plateau State, a bag of maize sold at N15,000. As at two weeks ago, the same bag of maize at the well known Mangu market, was going for N30,000, an increase of 100%!

What is clear from the foregoing is that acute hunger and starvation that straddle the North East and North West will soon bestride the North Central zone, and by extension the entire country, like some grotesque giant. After all, most of the food produced in this country is from these three geo political zones of the North.

The issue, thus, and contrary to the President’s thesis,  is not affordability of food but its production. No matter how better-heeled one is, he can only afford or buy what has been produced or is on offer.  Arising from heightened insecurity and the genocide perpetrated by marauders, food production is acutely threatened. This is why the Tinubu administration should provide an enabling environment for our millions of small and big-time farmers by prioritizing security. Security is a win-win for all. It is when the country is secured – and – in a comprehensive and muscular manner that our farmers can go back to their farms and produce. Such production, of food, will birth and engender an enduring food security which we all desire and can afford.

In fact, it is when the country is secure that other salutary dividends will accrue to it. Precious lives will be saved. We will come across as a civilised people who lay premium on the sanctity of human life. Our battered image, arising from genocidal killings, terrorism and banditry, will be burnished. And investors, in droves, will feel confident enough to put in their hard-earned monies in a country with the largest population on the continent.  Commercial activities will thrive and visitors from other jurisdictions will throng our country and savor our tourist endowments. Thankfully, from their zealous pronouncements and gung-ho spirits, the new Service Chiefs appear keen to deliver on their assignments. The President should seize upon their enthusiasm to secure the country. He should do so by giving them an unambiguous order and a realistic time frame to accomplish this onerous task.