What state of emergency on food security means to Nigerians - Experts

 

L-R: Kabiru Adamu and Johnson Chukwu

The Executive Director of Beacon Security Consulting Agency, Kabiru Adamu, says that the declaration of a state of emergency on food security by President Bola Tinubu is a demonstration that he listens to the people.

Also, an economist, Johnson Chukwu, said that the order will mean that the President now has powers to intervene as it relates to food production, distribution, and availability.

The experts, who spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, said food security is a critical component of the nation’s survival.

“What matters is that the average person can afford to feed himself and his family, which will help reduce the ability of threat elements to recruit from disgruntled pools within the community,” Adamu said.

Adamu stated that the element of food security is now brought to the forefront of governance and a long-term plan would secure everything that has to do with the requirement for food for access of average Nigerians.

Also, Chukwu noted that the key thing to look into is the root cause of food insecurity in the country, adding that Nigeria is not suffering from drought, infertile land, or land space but principally because the country is suffering from insecurity from the major food base of the country.

“If the President wants to effectively fight food insecurity, he needs to fight the insurgency in the Northeast and he needs to fight the bandits in the Northwest and he needs to fight the herder-settler conflict in the North-Central.

Chukwu lamented that monetary interventions from banks have not been able to impact on the agriculture sector.

“Production must be improved to drive down inflation, if we begin to see food inflation in lower regions in single digits we should have a lower level of inflation,” he said.