By Marie-Therese Nanlong

The federal government has been urged to give urgent attention to the growing protests against hunger and poverty in the land because if left unaddressed, they may give rise to an inescapable full-blown revolt by the masses.

The Convener of the Initiative for Better and Brighter Nigeria, IBBN, Prophet Isa El-Buba made the call on Thursday in Jos, Plateau State where he stressed that “Nigeria has been overdue for a revolution that for some reason has not happened but will have to happen with the increasing spate of devastating hunger and excruciating poverty taking a toll on Nigerians.”

He further stated, “A hungry man is an angry man and his angst can snowball to have severe consequences if not checkmated. Despite the government’s ‘state of emergency on food security’, efforts to curb rising food prices have not yielded results with a foreign exchange rate that is rapidly turning the naira into a currency not worth the paper on which it is printed.

“Pervasive inflation is causing a month-by-month increase in food prices, neither has the government stopped terrorists from chasing farmers away from their farmlands nor has it forestalled attacks and kidnaps for ransom on communities in States like Plateau and Taraba and others who produce a bulk of Nigeria’s food. The massive displacement and moving of people from the farming zones into the IDP camps is stopping agricultural activities. Every other part of the country is feeling hunger and hardship due to the recent high cost of energy and its impact on transportation which all leads to an astronomical rise in the price of food items.”

He advocated that “the Government should release grains from its strategic reserve depots, and ensure they get to hungry Nigerians at affordable prices, as it crashes the astronomic costs of grains in the market. Previous releases have not been reaching the majority of poor Nigerians. A cue should be taken from China whom the World Economic Forum reported having focused on supporting its 250 million smallholder farmers that produce 80 per cent of the country’s food.

“Government should invest in building rural road systems that link farms to local markets in real-time, provide storage and processing facilities to drastically reduce the post-harvest rot and waste of agricultural produce before they get to consumers, so farmers won’t have to make up for losses. The Tinubu Administration should tackle insecurity in real-time, if insecurity is curtailed in food-producing zones that have been under siege like Mangu, Bokkos  and others, it is sure to have an impact on the cost of food in the markets.”