Insecurity: House Tasks FG on Emergency Programmes to Avert Food Shortages

Udora Orizu in Abuja

The House of Representatives at the plenary yesterday urged the Presidency and the Ministry of Agriculture to begin to make arrangements and put in place emergency programmes to mitigate the emerging food challenges.

The House mandated its Committee on Agriculture and other relevant committees to interface with the appropriate ministries and agencies as well as the International Development Partners to begin the process of establishing and implementing protocols to manage food resources and avert the food crisis.

The resolutions were sequel to the adoption of a motion of urgent national importance sponsored by Hon. Rimamnde Shawulu and Hon Solomon Bob.

Moving the motion, Shawulu noted that the world generally is apprehensive of an impending massive shortage of food and possible famine.

He also noted that food is next to petroleum products in Nigeria’s highest import bill list, which might become unsustainable.

He expressed concerns over a recently released Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) report, which showed that Nigeria food import bill increased by 45 per cent to $2.71billion in 12 months in 2021.

He said: “In the new projection at least 16 states and the Federal Capital Territory will face major food crisis in the year 2022. These states include Abia, Adamawa, Benue, Cross Rivers, Edo, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Lagos, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.

“Cognisant of the fact that terrorists often lay siege on farms, kidnap farmers, sack villages – and force farmers to pay ransom or some fees before accessing their farms; considering the fact that many farming communities have abandoned their farms and are seeking refuge in urban centres and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps; and concerned that should no proactive actions be taken now, the impending hunger and food shortages will worsen Nigeria security situation.”

In a related development, the lawmakers at the plenary adopted a motion sponsored by Hon. Vincent Ofumelu, Hon. Chinedu Obidigwe, Hon. Simon Atigwe and Hon. Dennis Amadi that called on the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to include Anambra and Enugu States in the ongoing National Agricultural Growth Scheme (NAGS) Under ATASP-l.

They expressed concerns that if nothing is done in this regard, the tendency that these states would be left out is very high; and the non-inclusion of these states in the project would definitely affect the progress already recorded in the past years.