As the discourse on the reconstruction of the North-east and rehabilitation of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) continues to take central stage, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and international community and donor agencies have been called upon to find urgent solutions to the food crisis and nutrition problems in the region. JOHN OBA reports
Stakeholders at the just concluded 32nd annual meeting of the Food Crisis Prevention Network (FCPN) held in Abuja as part of event to mark the 2016 Sahel and West Africa week have advised ECOWAS and the international community to respond to this food and nutrition emergency in order to save lives and relief the distress experienced by the affected populations by providing immediate food and nutrition assistance to the affected households; providing treatment for cases of severe acute malnutrition and targeted nutritional support to children under the age of five as well as pregnant and breastfeeding mothers; establishing health and psychological care facilities, including other basic social services (education, water, hygiene and sanitation) for the affected populations, most notably women and children and where necessary additional recovery and stabilisation centres.
Participants at the meeting which was dedicated to the central theme: “Social Protection an Nutrition,” hosted by the federal government of Nigeria under the patronage of ECOWAS and the West Africa Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and had over 250 representatives from Sahel and West Africa governments; inter-governmental, civil society and the private sector organisations, technical and financial partners all agreed that ECOWAS and the international community, should provide Nigeria with technical and financial support to continue to further evaluate the socio-economic impact of the crisis based on recent assessments and implement a rehabilitation/recovery plan for the affected areas with sufficient financial resources required for such a plan.
Focusing majorly on the food and nutrition insecurity in the North east Nigeria and the Sahel and West Africa region participants agreed that even though there has been some slight improvement in the prevalence of global acute malnutrition in the region, the situation remain serious, in the north east Nigeria where according to meeting, it has reached 30%.
“Despite the relatively good agro-pastoral campaign, by June 2017, some 15.6 million people could be faced with food insecurity, including 5.5 million people in the Lake Chad Basin if no appropriate measures are taken. Brought by the security crisis, the situation in the north east Nigeria is extremely worrisome. Some 5.1 million people could face a critical food and nutrition situation by June 2017. In the state of Borno, some 1.9million people could be in an emergency situation and 121,000 people faced with the threat of famine,” the meeting stated.
It stated further that the security crisis in north-eastern Nigeria and in the broader Lake Chad Basin, coupled with the lack of robust development initiatives, is having a significant impact on the food and nutrition situation and consequently on the health and the wellbeing of the affected population.
“The persistence of the security crisis is the root cause of significant numbers of internally displaced populations in north-eastern Nigeria, estimated at some 2.1_million individuals; this situation has
also given rise to acute food and nutrition insecurity, most notably in the states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, where approximately 4.6 million people are estimated to be severely food insecure, of which 1.8 million are in an emergency situation and 55 000 are in a famine situation.
“The security environment seriously impedes the large-scale expansion of food and nutrition assistance operations for the populations in the affected areas.
“The ongoing food and nutrition crisis, combined with the destruction of livelihoods, limited access to basic social services (health, education, water, sanitation and hygiene) and the lack of protection, constitutes a high risk of weakening, over the long-term, the resilience of the affected displaced populations as well as host communities.
“This humanitarian, food and nutrition crisis has emerged within the context of a particularly unfavourable macro-economic situation featuring plunging oil prices, the depreciation of the naira and a high inflation rate; these factors worsen the already precarious situation of the most vulnerable and limit the government‘s ability to render assistance commensurate with the scale of needs required,” they agreed.
The participants therefore asked the government of Nigeria, with support from its partners, to step up its efforts in providing secure access for aid organisations in the affected zones.
They urged all ECOWAS member states and stakeholders to engage in regional solidarity efforts and take into consideration the cross-border nature of the crisis threatening the entire Lake Chad basin.
Responding, Nigeria Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, assured the participants that the problem of insurgency is gradually being solve and the situation has stabilized, adding that the government is resolving the humanitarian crisis of the internally displaced persons (IDPs). “We are attending to issues of food and nutrition especially for women and children.
The task is a turf one, the numbers are huge and the spread is large. Borno state alone account for 9% of Nigeria land mass. From the Yobe, Borno and Adamawa, we are facing several shortage of food, due to a number of factors, in addition to climate change. It is heartwarming that we have taken steps to address the situation, with the assistant of the international community, donor agencies, civil society groups and international financing institutions.”
Ogbeh said due to the successes recorded by the military most of the IDPs are being slowly resettled in their various communities, adding that resettlement itself is a problem because most of these communities were razed to the ground and those returning have no roof over their heads, and that the government have to make sure it provide not only food but housing and other necessary amenities.
He said inter-ministerial task forces on North east have been set up to coordinate the humanitarian efforts and improve the effectiveness of collective and immediate actions.
“We expect that many good spirited individuals and organisations that have not yet come on board will be encouraged to step in as willing partners to alleviate the suffering of our people in the north eastern region through their offer of materials and financial support.
“Beyond the situation in the north eastern part of the country, a threat of food crisis in our sub-region is real, accordingly we must recognise the urgent need to develop mechanisms to curtail the impact of it food crisis on our people. We are currently facing shortages in staple foods because of our inability to modernize agriculture over the years.
“Our failure to restore agriculture to its place of pride has resulted in our dependence on food import and several depreciation of our foreign reserves. Africa is said to spend $35 billion a year importing food of that amount Nigeria account for $22 billion, there is no reason for this because Africa has no excuse for not been able to feed it citizens.
The need to remedy this situation has necessitated the current administration step of renewed focus on agriculture, solid material development and export. These two sectors are expected to serve as a spring board for diversifying our national economy by building an agric business and export driven economy capable of sustaining the prosperity that will meet domestic food security goals, support sustainable income earnings and enhance job growth. We are pained when we see our youth especially across west and north eastern Africa desperately scrambling to board boat to cross the Mediterranean to Europe,” he lamented.
Ogbeh however lamented the huge movement of trucks into Nigeria in search of grains, saying to ensure that the country does not rain out of grains next year, the government has concluded plans to construct about 400 dams and lakes in the next two and half years.
