₦airaland Forum

Today, the world marks World Food Day, a very significant global event that raises awareness about the issues of hunger and food insecurity and serves as a reminder of the need to commit to food security and fight hunger to a standstill.

This global observance is particularly important to us in Nigeria, where food prices are skyrocketing every day, and basic food items are becoming unaffordable to most people.

Severe hunger has now become an unfortunate member of many households in Nigeria - the once giant of Africa, a nation that has the most arable land in the continent.

Nigeria's struggle with a food crisis and hunger today is saddening, considering the richly blessed and vast arable lands with which we are endowed as a nation.

In the past, I used to lament that the majority of Nigerian households spent most of their income on food alone, sparing none for savings and other critical exigencies.

Today, it is heartbreaking to note that most Nigerian households are no longer able to afford sustenance food with their income.

Food prices are soaring , food inflation is skyrocketing, the food crisis is worsening by the day, and hunger has graduated to a national crisis.

In a Food Security Update Report released last week, the World Bank likened Nigeria's worsening food security crisis to war torn countries like Yemen, noting that we have a significant rise in the number of people facing acute food shortages and an epidemic of hunger.

Today, the Global Hunger Index ranks Nigeria among the 20 most hungry nations in the world. In August 2024, it was reported that more than 31.8 million Nigerians were acutely short of food due to security challenges and the removal of fuel subsidies.

It was also reported that 15.6 million children in Nigeria were facing hunger.

The United Nations predicted that 82 million Nigerians, about 64 percent of the country’s population, may go hungry by 2030 if the government fails to tackle the menace of food insecurity.

The domestic food inflation in Nigeria remains among the highest globally, with food prices increasing by 37.5% year-on-year as of August 2024.

I believe these reports, sad as they are, only paint a lenient picture of the severity of the food crisis and hunger in reality.

Over the years, I have maintained that moving the country from consumption to production remains the surest way of combating food insecurity and pulling the nation out of the present food crisis.

I have equally stated, unequivocally, that the greatest asset our nation has is the vast uncultivated lands in the North coupled with our huge demographics.

Therefore, We must be intentional with our agricultural investments.

A state like Niger State, which is twice bigger in landmass than the Netherlands (excluding water) can neither feed itself nor feed the nation, while the Netherlands exports over $100 billion worth of agro products annually.

If we can prioritize investment in agriculture by combating insecurity which has kept farmers away from the farms, and adopting modern ways of mechanized farming, we will be able to combat hunger and achieve food security for the nation.

A nation booming in productivity, free from hunger, with an abundant food supply remains our commitment to a New more prosperous Nigeria. It is POssible! -PO

DamnnNiggarr:
Peter Obi

Kobojunkie:
The greatest challenge to Nigeria's development is not food insecurity but corruption that is at the root of the problem of food insecurity.

Ibela:
His assertion is not far from the truth. We haven't done much in agricultural sector in spite the growing food challenge

Hezzyluv:
The wahala here is how worthless #1,000 has turned to.

Imagine buying a loaf of bread for 2k and a litre of fuel for #1,200.

Kobojunkie:
The greatest challenge to Nigeria's development is not food insecurity but corruption that is at the root of the problem of food insecurity.

Proudlyngwa:
■ The greatest challenge to Nigeria's development is education and miseducation

Kobojunkie:
But corruption is at the root of the problems in your Education system and the reason for much of the miseducation. Corruption has safely situated itself as the black hole that will stop all progress in that country.

Imagine for one minute the many lies/propaganda that your very president has been reported to have said during many of his interviews, meetings, and live broadcasts — all of these sources of misinformation —, don't you see that corruption is to blame for when it is all without consequence.

Proudlyngwa:
■ Education does not necessarily mean formal education, are you saying that the parents who suppose to teach children stealing is bad is corrupt or is it that they just don't care.
■ Education of the mind which is the most important thing starts from the home. Moreover people put themselves under unnecessary pressure to get irrelevant white collar education making them poorly educated for the task ahead , what a simple trademanship would have taught them.

aariwa:
Peter Obi have always consistently addressed those basic issues that affects the common man in Nigeria for more than 4 years now, while the man that claimed he won election have been clueless about the country’s problems for more than a year now. How can you solve a problem when you don’t really know what it is or where it is coming from? Can a doctor start treating a patient when he doesn’t know the disease like tinubu is doing now? This is the reason why I believe that even if you give tinubu 40 years , he can never fix Nigeria but make the country worse. A new Nigeria is possible with Mr. Peter Obi

jameshankss:
Anambra State Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, has said he is sure the candidate of Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, would lose the 2023 presidential election. Soludo said he would not submit to the bullying of Obi’s supporters, who recently descended on him for addressing issues in the state.

The governor made the comments in a lengthy write-up personally authored, with the title, “History Beckons, and I Will Not Be Silent (Part 1).”

Soludo said Obi was inadvertently making the pathway to victory much easier for the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, and at the same time, toying with the destiny of millions of Ndigbo.

But the chief spokesperson for the Labour Party Presidential Campaign, Yunusa Tanko, accused Soludo of being sponsored by some unknown persons to weaken the base of the party in the South-east.

The former CBN governor had been under intense attack for close to a week for dismissing Obi’s investment in the state as amounting to nothing, during a television interview.

Soludo said in the write-up, “My attention has been drawn to some of the tirades on social media following my frank response during an interview on Channels TV regarding the ‘investments’ Mr. Peter Obi claimed to have made with Anambra State revenues.

“Sadly, several of the comments left the issue of the interview to probe or suggest motives, inferred from my response on ‘investment’ that I am opposed to Peter Obi’s ambition and, therefore, committed a ‘crime’ for which the punishment is internecine abuse and harassment, even to my family.

“Everyone knows that I don’t follow the winds or one to succumb to bullies, or shy away from a good fight especially, when weighty matters of principles and future of the people are involved.”

Soludo said he had urged Obi to return to his former party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), to actualise his presidential bid. He added that he had always told the LP candidate to his face that he was not capable of winning the 2023 presidential election, especially, under LP, which had neither a councillor nor a local government chairman.

Soludo said Obi was not just his friend, but also his brother, but despite that, they have their political differences.

He stated, “For full disclosure, let me state that Peter Obi and I are not just friends, we call ourselves ‘brothers’. But we have political differences: he left APGA for PDP after his tenure as governor, while I have remained in APGA since 2013.

“During the last two governorship elections in Anambra in 2017 and 2021, he led the PDP campaigns but APGA won landslide in both elections. By the way, in 2016, he visited and proposed that I defect to PDP and contest the 2017 election against the incumbent Willie Obiano, but I declined.

“After my victory in November 2021, he called to congratulate me, as I did to him in 2010. That is the Anambra way: we fight fiercely during campaigns but share drinks at the next social events. After all, it was the Great Zik of Africa, who taught us that in politics, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies but only permanent interests.”

Arguing that Obi’s presidential bid would only work in favour of Tinubu, Soludo said, “Indeed, if I were Asiwaju Tinubu, I would even give Peter Obi money as someone heading one of the departments of his campaign, because Obi is making Tinubu’s pathway to victory much easier by indirectly pulling down PDP.”

Obi, according to Soludo, would only deplete the votes of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and pave the path for an APC victory.

He stated, “The current fleeting frenzy, if not checked, will cost Ndigbo dearly for years. The South-east has the lowest number of votes of any region, but it is also the only region where the presidential race might be a four-way race (it is a two-way race in the other five regions) thereby, ensuring that our votes won’t count in the making of the next president of Nigeria.

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2022/11/15/soludo-i-wont-succumb-to-bullies-obi-knows-he-cant-win/

Kobojunkie:
1. Have you seen the average Nigerian parent before? They are themselves corrupt entities who are all too willing to take bribe, cut down their neighbor for their own benefit, etc. So, how do you expect those same to teach their kids that stealing is bad or corrupt?

2. I am sorry to tell you but what you already see of Nigeria reflects the quality of informal education obtained from upbringing and society combined in Nigeria even today. And if we are honest, we can at least admit that Nigerian parents are doing a very terrible job raising their kids and changing society. Formal education can actually go a long way in countering a lot of that, however, corruption stands in the way of providing the people with beneficial formal education.

Kobojunkie:
.... @Poster, he is doing exactly what the people elected him to come do again. I mean for a man with meagre list of accomplishments during his first time, why else would he had been re-elected if not to continue the same?? undecided undecided undecided

PROUDIGBO:
^^^I'm trying to, but i can't fault your reasoning.

cpu2006:
Obi talkertive don talk

bennybuhari:
“’I cannot take anything back about Obi. I said Obi said he wants to move Nigeria back from consumption to production and I said that is not true. He cannot do it because his own business survives on consumption. Is that a lie? He has been an importer and I said he deals with cash and carry economics; container economics, imports”.

“All the goods that can be produced in Nigeria, Obi imports them in his supermarkets. That is consumption economics. That kind of person cannot tell you that he is moving you from consumption to production. He will then be committing self-economic suicide and Obi will not do that to himself”.

“So, Obi is deceiving everybody and I can’t take that back because that is true.

https://independent.ng/peter-obi-deceiving-everybody-i-wont-retract-my-statement-about-him-dele-alake/

DamnnNiggarr:
Peter Obi