By Patrick Wemambu
The World Food Programme, (WFP) recently disclosed that at least 17 million people across nine conflict-hit states in Northern Nigeria are facing severe hunger, warning that violence and funding cuts were driving food insecurity to its worst level in nearly a decade.
The current food security analysis showed the number of people facing crisis, emergency, or catastrophic hunger rose by almost 2 million from previous projections.
The declaration contained in a statement issued by the WFP Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Kinday Samba, noted that violence was spreading across a wider area and forcing people from their farmlands.
The findings underline the deepening humanitarian cost of insecurity in Africa’s most populous country, where Islamist insurgents in the northeast and armed gangs in parts of the north have displaced communities, kept farmers from their fields and restricted aid access.
The crisis is worsening during the lean season, when households typically exhaust food stocks before the next harvest. Borno State, the epicentre of a long-running Islamist insurgency, is said to have more than 3 million people who are acutely food insecure, including more than 750,000 facing severe hunger conditions.
“When people lose access to food, the risks of displacement, exploitation and instability increase,” the agency said, adding that it can only support fewer than half of the 1.3 million people it assisted last year in three northeast states, where 6.2 million are food-insecure. The UN agency, however, said it needs $89 million over the next six months to maintain food, nutrition, and logistics support across northern Nigeria.
Reacting to the shocking revelation, it is very disheartening to say the least that as a result of persistent insecurity, mass displacement, economic hardship, climate-related shocks, and declining humanitarian funding – more than 17 million people across nine conflict-affected Northern Nigerian states are facing acute food insecurity.
This alarming development is not merely a humanitarian emergency; it is a stark indictment of the country’s governance failures and the inability of successive interventions to address the structural drivers of poverty, insecurity, and food insecurity.
Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) who doubles as head of Transparency International (TI) Nigeria, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, in a recent interview expressed deep concern over the issue.
“Hunger on this scale undermines human dignity, weakens national security, fuels social instability, and threatens sustainable development,” he was quoted as saying.
The CISLAC boss lamented that the civil society organisation is particularly concerned that continued attacks by insurgents, bandits, and other armed groups have displaced farming communities, disrupted agricultural production, destroyed livelihoods, and restricted humanitarian access to vulnerable populations.
“Combined with soaring food prices, inflation, unemployment, and shrinking household incomes, millions of Nigerians are being pushed deeper into extreme poverty. Equally troubling is the significant reduction in humanitarian assistance caused by global funding shortfalls.
”While international partners have played an important role in responding to the crisis, Nigeria cannot continue to depend primarily on external humanitarian support to feed its citizens.
Food security is fundamentally a governance responsibility that requires sustained domestic commitment and accountable public investment.
“Beyond emergency interventions, Nigeria must confront the underlying governance challenges driving recurring humanitarian crises. Persistent corruption, weak institutions, insecurity, poor budget implementation, policy inconsistency, and inadequate investment in rural communities continue to erode the country’s resilience against food shocks.
“The current crisis should serve as a wake-up call. No nation can achieve peace, economic prosperity, or democratic stability while millions of its citizens suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Protecting Nigerians from hunger is not charity – it is a constitutional obligation and a fundamental measure of accountable governance,” Rafsanjani warned.
This begs for a germane and pertinent question. If food security is fundamentally a governance responsibility that requires sustained domestic commitment, what measures must the federal government and its sub-nationals – particularly in the affected states – activate towards urgently implementing coordinated emergency and long-term measures to avert the looming catastrophe?
No doubt, the federal government has been involved in what might be described as agricultural scaling-up by distributing thousands of tractors, farm implements, and improved seedlings to boost dry-season and wet-season farming. Through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the government further distributes palliatives and nutritional support, partnering with agencies like the World Food Programme to treat severe acute malnutrition in children.
Talking about resilience and climate Adaptation, there have been collaborations with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) towards funding emergency resilience plans designed to help vulnerable farmers recover from climate shocks, such as recurring droughts and floods. Establishment of specialized agro-rangers and increased military deployment in agricultural belts (e.g., in states like Borno and Niger) to protect farmers from insurgent attacks and banditry should also be commended.
However, like the proverbial Oliver Twist, more is expected towards curbing the menace in question. For starters, there should be a mechanism for implementation of the declaration of a state of emergency on hunger.
This is in view of the worsening hydra-headed monster which has reached alarming proportions and requires immediate, coordinated interventionist approaches. Suffice it to say the country’s rising hunger index constitutes a national calamity that should not be ignored.
Aside from deepening poverty and reducing the purchasing power of millions of Nigerians, the nation’s deteriorating position on the Global Terrorism Index has continued to affect agricultural production, disrupt livelihoods and discourage economic activities, thereby worsening food insecurity across many communities, especially in the aforementioned region.
This is why the imperatives for the prosecution of sustainable poverty-reduction programmes cannot be overstressed, at least to arrest scenarios of vulnerable households continuing to struggle with declining incomes and limited access to economic opportunities.
Corollary to the foregoing suggestion is the need for immediate expansion of food assistance and nutrition programmes for the most vulnerable households, especially women, children, internally displaced persons, with persons living with disabilities.
Likewise, restoration of security in farming communities to enable displaced farmers to safely return to their lands and resume agricultural production – is sine qua non to increasing investment in climate-resilient agriculture, irrigation infrastructure, extension services, and rural development to reduce dependence on rain-fed farming in affected areas.
Whereas some critics have blamed the severe hunger crisis under analysis on recent policy decisions by the government at the centre which includes the removal of fuel and electricity subsidies with rising inflation placing additional pressure on already struggling families, it needs little emphasis to reiterate that only a transparent and accountable management of all food security interventions can redress the situation.
Ensuring that public resources and humanitarian assistance reach intended beneficiaries without diversion or political manipulation is also key.
Although the country failed to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of ending hunger by 2015, efforts must be redoubled to ensure we do not miss the target again under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Just as political leaders at all levels would do well to treat the WFP report as a wake-up call, policies that would boost agricultural production, create jobs, tame inflation and strengthen social protection programmes for vulnerable Nigerians must be urgently implemented.
Failure to address the underlying causes of food insecurity could further undermine national stability, weaken economic growth and worsen the living conditions of millions of Nigerians.
Harping on the essence of urgently tackling the hunger imbroglio, it should be noted that actionable actions would require deliberate investments in agriculture, improved security, employment generation, and targeted interventions to raise household incomes.
As a way of rounding up, concerned stakeholders – in public and private sectors, development partners, and humanitarian agencies are hereby tasked to work collaboratively towards building a food-secured, peaceful, and resilient Nigeria. It is where every citizen should have access to adequate, nutritious, and affordable food.
