When Vice President Kashim Shettima last week called for the strengthening of relations between Nigeria and the European (EU) to tackle malnutrition, he struck the right chord. Amidst the devastations caused by insecurity and other natural disasters that have contributed to poor harvests, hunger and starvation are major challenges confronting the health of citizens.
In resolving the issues that have promoted malnutrition in the country, the need for collaboration and assistance from other friendly nations and organisations, Shettima told an EU delegation, led by the outgoing EU Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Samuela Isopi, that the country was highly appreciative of the efforts of the organisation in humanitarian efforts in the North-east and North-west, among others.
Reports from the United Nations (UN) reveal that between 2016 and 2022, Nigerian men living in extreme poverty rose from 35.3 million in 2016 to 44.7 million in 2022, just as poverty among women increased from 34.7 million in 2016 to 43.7 million within the same period. In 2022, an estimated 88.4 million Nigerians lived in extreme poverty, with the number of men living on less than $1.90 per day in the country reaching around 44.7 million, while the women population hit 43.7 million.
Rising spates of insecurity have degraded Nigeria’s capacity to meet the required nutrition for its citizens, thus, rendering the realisation of food security a mirage. Poverty has been on the rise, as farmers have been forced to abandon their farms for fear of being kidnapped. The sharp fall in the supply of food has led to rising food prices and making it difficult for citizens to afford high costs of foodstuffs. While affordability has become a major issue due to inflationary trends, not even a presidential declaration of a state of emergency on agriculture has brought the anticipated relief. In portraying the predicament Nigerians face over food inadequacy in 2023, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in 2022 predicted that over 25 million were likely to face acute hunger.
When people have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that provides the required dietary needs, according to FAO, then citizens live an active and healthy life. For a nation to be food secured, citizens must attain a calorie requirement of about 2,200–2,300 calories per day for adult females and 2,900–3,000 (about 8-10 kg of maize flour) calories per day for adult males, with smaller calories for children, to maintain adequate health. According to the 11th edition of the Global Food Security Index (GFSI) that was published in 2023, Nigeria ranked 107th (scoring 42.0 points) out of 113th countries globally in the food security index, suggesting that 12.9 per cent of the global population in extreme poverty was found in Nigeria as of 2022.
There seems to be a correlation between poverty and a capacity by a country to tackle malnutrition. Arising from major factors identified as contributing to food insecurity like poverty, climate change, increasing population, poor policy implementation, inefficient agricultural practices, post-harvest losses and low budgetary allocation to agriculture, Nigeria in the present dispensation is a nation fraught with food insecurity. Apart from suffering from myriads of forces militating against food production, the activities of insurgent groups, poor government policies and poor agricultural practices are recurring phenomena behind malnourishment in Nigeria.
Conflicts and worsening insecurity in various parts of Nigeria, especially in the North-east, North-west and North-central geo-political zones, have rendered food production inefficient, while poor access roads, inefficient transportation system and lack of effective storage system, among others, are factors stalked against increased level of agricultural production. The 2003 Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa that requires signatories to allocate 10 per cent of their national budgets for agriculture is yet to be complied with as provided in the pact. Within the last decade, allocation to the agriculture sector by Nigeria has been extremely poor, with the immediate former president, Muhammadu Buhari, in 2015, allocating only 1.43 per cent (N67 billion) of Nigeria’s 4.7 trillion national budget to agriculture.
Much as a country may seek support from other nations and relevant international agencies in attaining food security, the capacity of countries to tackle malnutrition is more dependent on internal policies of states characterised with complete devotion in combating malnutrition is the best way to go. While we commend the federal government over its efforts to seek collaboration in salvaging the country from the deadly activities of non-state actors in combatting nutritional challenges caused by poverty and crisis, it is imperative that national leadership undertake a holistic review of relevant policies in addressing challenges that threaten food insecurity. The government should, as a matter of urgency, extend similar collaborations with other countries and international organisations in order to secure relevant assistance and technologies that promote local solutions in reducing internal poverty and hunger.
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