Fed Govt must urgently address looming food crisis

Jonathan

In response to President Goodluck Jonathan’s national broadcast on the flood ravaging the country, Hardball on October 10 decried the failure of the federal government to address the looming problem of food scarcity and provision of seedlings for the next planting season. The column said among other things that, “In the 20-paragraph broadcast, the president said virtually nothing about the even more frightening cataclysm of impending food shortages, nor of how it would be mitigated both immediately and in the next planting season. It is bad enough that weeks after the flood, he is still proposing a visit to affected communities. But his refusal to say something concrete about what he intends to do both to tackle a possible food crisis and to ensure the availability and distribution of seedlings for the next farming season, and his inability to acknowledge the threat food shortages could pose to national security at a time of sundry and ubiquitous terrorist threats, is truly befuddling.”
In the October 9 broadcast, the president merely sympathised with the affected communities experiencing flood and announced the provision of N17.6 billion to be shared among the 36 states of the federation. In addition, he set up a fund raising committee headed by businessman Aliko Dangote to raise approximately N100 billion to help flooded communities. But Hardball had criticised the fact that the monetary relief was planned before the president had the opportunity to visit affected communities or correctly estimate the extent of the floods and the crises they were likely to engender. A few days later, the president began his visits only to discover that the problem was far worse than estimated. He has belatedly started to appeal to the international community.
Now, in the face of fresh warnings of flood in some 19 states, it is time the federal government began to look at the issue of food crisis and national security much more closely. Not only are many farming communities and towns still under water, the threat of additional flood is an even huger burden for the affected states to bear. Already, food prices have shot through the roof, and scarcity looms. For certain food crops, prices have risen by as much as 300 percent. At a time of grave terrorist threats and breakdown of law and order, rising food prices can only stoke the fire lit by years of social and economic inequalities. With poverty spreading, highways are likely to be more unsafe, while homes in towns and cities will come under intolerable siege.
In addition to the money already voted to ameliorate the flooding problem in the 36 states, and the funds yet to be raised by the Dangote committee, President Jonathan must urgently set up a committee to look at impending food crisis, the threats they are likely to constitute to democracy and stability, and the options available to tackle them. These threats are not an exaggeration; they are real, and they must be addressed now. The three tiers of government must also manage the flood relief camps much better than they have done so far and plan for the aftermath of the floods. Nothing must be left to chance.