The hunger protests

THESE are indeed terrible times as hunger literally ravages the land. Pushed to the wall, Nigerians have been decrying the privations in which they are trapped as prices of essential commodities go through the roof. Following the mass protest in Minna, Niger State, against rising food prices and worsening economic situation, President Bola Tinubu gave orders to his officials to work out immediate measures to check rising food prices. And acknowledging that 84 million Nigerians are living in poverty, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, after a meeting of the Presidential Committee on Emergency Food Intervention in Abuja, said that the president was concerned about the accessibility and affordability of food items across the country. “The government is very concerned about what Nigerians are going through, especially what happened in Minna.” As it turned out, the  Minna protest was a mere prologue.

Although men of the Nigeria Police Force arrested one Aisha Jibrin and 24 others who led the Minna protest, accusing them of vandalism, the Niger State government later apologised to the suspects, saying that they had done nothing wrong. And the spontaneous protests in other parts of the country, including Lagos, Osun, Ogun, Kogi, Abuja and other places, have underscored the biting nature of the hunger in the land. Amid the groundswell of dissent across the country, a Federal High Court in Lagos gave a rather unusual ruling asking the Federal Government to fix the prices of goods and petroleum products within seven days, thus recalling the “essential commodities” (Essenco) days of the Muhammadu Buhari military junta precisely four decades ago when Nigerians literally scrounged and starved.

Justice Ambose Lewis-Allagoa granted the order following a motion filed and argued by the human rights activist, Femi Falana (SAN).  The judge ordered the Tinubu-led government to fix the price of milk, flour, salt, sugar, bicycles and its spare parts, matches, motorcycles and its spare parts, motor vehicles and its spare parts as well as petroleum products, including diesel, Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and kerosene.  Falana had asked the court to determine “whether by virtue of Section 4 of the Price Control Act, the first defendant is carrying out its duty to impose a price on any goods that are of the kind specified in the First Schedule to the Price Control Act.” The court ruled in his favour, apparently in deep cognisance of the calamity in the land and in exercise of moral authority, yet economics seems to work in a slightly different manner.

It is difficult not to believe that President Tinubu’s government and the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) are not playing ostrich by suggesting that the current hunger protests in some parts of the country is the handiwork of certain opposition political parties. There is nothing political about the inability to feed; it is an existential issue. Who really can deny that Nigerians are slipping into poverty and hunger with the cost of food rising every day? Do people who have not eaten and who are unable to provide food for themselves and their families have to be sponsored by anyone to know the reality in which they have found themselves? And why and how is it difficult for those in government to know that there is diminishing and deteriorating production and productivity in the country, resulting in the scarcity of virtually all food and other items?

Nigerians are in dire straits because of glaring scarcity and gaps in the production and availability of food and other items and this, we believe, should not be just about releasing finite and limited grains in the silos by the government, but more about concrete steps and efforts to generate quick and rapid production to make more food and other items readily available. It is often said that hungry people make for angry people and this explains why Nigerians who are increasingly hunger-ravaged are demonstrating discontent on the streets. We expect the government to devote itself to addressing the root causes of hunger in the land if it is truly interested in stopping the hunger protests. It will be foolhardy to believe that hungry people will continue to stomach their hunger without complaining and protesting.

The hunger in the land is palpable. People are barely able to feed and that is a recipe for disaster. The government must address the rising tension in the land. Very quickly.