Hunger Crisis and Economic Hardship in Nigeria

Hunger is said to be a complex and multifaceted concept that can be defined in various ways depending on the context and perspective. Hence, hunger could as well be physical hunger, food insecurity, malnutrition, social hunger, emotional hunger, or spiritual hunger.
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines hunger as, “A state of being without sufficient food, leading to a series of physical and mental impairments including weakness, fatigue and decreased productivity”.
Similarly, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also define hunger as, “A condition in which people lack access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food, leading to malnutrition, poor health and reduced well-being”.
Thus, hunger is an issue that goes beyond physical needs, encompassing social, emotional, and spiritual dimensions.
While hardship refers to a state of difficulty, suffering or deprivation often characterized by economic, physical, emotional, social and environmental hardship, it can also be referred to a situation that is arduous, depriving, distressing and oppressive.
Meanwhile, hardship is said to be living in poverty or hopelessness, experiencing chronic illness or disability, facing discrimination or social exclusion, struggling with mental health issues such as depression or anxiety, coping with the loss of a loved one or a significant life change, living in a conflict zone or experiencing political persecution and finally, facing barriers in accessing basic needs such as food, water or healthcare.
Hunger has also been described as something every human being can relate and contain with every day that passes by, where one is bound to become famished at some point”.
It is saddening that there are a lot of urgent issues confronting the Nigerian state particularly, in the agricultural sector.
Today, food production in the country has reduced to the point where farmers can no longer go to their farms due to unrelenting attacks by Fulani herdsmen on daily basis. These days, the criminal elements are no longer known and addressed as herdsmen, but bandits who, kill and maim hapless and helpless farmers or even kidnap them for ransom without confrontation.
Farmers and rural dwellers have been reported to be paying “taxes or revenues” to these criminals in order to be able to live in their communities and have access to their farms.
Suffice it to say that, as the herders and bandits continue to unleash terror on farmers without abating, it sends wrong signals that continue to convulse the country as it comes to grips with the challenges of sliding into cataclysmic acute food insecurity.
Furthermore, the slow and ineffectual response of security agencies to attacks on farmers and rural dwellers have hitherto, necessitated food insecurity, now leading to hunger and hardship in the country.
Incidentally, this has also led to the creation of self-help, local vigilante groups and ethnic militias in some communities and states.
Besides, the rising cost of living in Nigeria has become so unbearable where countless Nigerians with vast and varied opinions seem to agree that getting on with their daily lives have been pretty difficult and indeed, the country driving on a very dangerous path. The situation deteriorated to the point where the average Nigerian family can no longer afford a good meal in their homes let alone, have three square meals per day, as universally recommended for every living soul. Hunger and hardship have pushed many Nigerians, especially the downtrodden in the country, to settle for the less and adulterated consumables that are dangerous and risky to their health.
Sadly, with the worsening hunger and hardship in the land, a lot of persons have resorted to cutting down their expenses on a number of things to minimize cost.
Quite a number of individuals have tales to tell of the sheer brutality of hunger which has become a grim reality for countless people on daily basis of their lives in the country.
It is therefore, worthy of note to state that insecurity and high inflation rates are aggravating acute food insecurity in the country, thereby inflicting pangs of pain on many Nigerians who are struggling to eke out a living from their petty livelihood sources.
I dare to ask, how and why should it be that a country so blessed with abundant human and natural resources, with those at the helm of affairs paying lip service on agriculture who are unable to provide basic amenities for the citizens?
It is indeed worthy to mention that hunger has been landing a deathblow on the populace in recent times with a countless number, starving with no sufficient food. People are dying on daily basis as a result of ‘no food to eat’.
Without mincing words, one can notice starvation on the faces of countless Nigerians walking on the streets, on daily basis searching for what to lay hands on for sustenance.
Accordingly, worrisome reports have been on the rise about food insecurity in the land, with the World Food Programme warning that 82 million Nigerians would likely face food crisis in the next five years.
Similarly, on January 27, 2022, The World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization released the Hunger Hotspots Report which highlighted soaring food insecurity across 20 countries and regions where conflicts, economic shocks, natural hazards, political insecurity, and limited humanitarian access are putting millions of lives at risk.
More also, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that, “133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor due to the lack of access to health, education and living standards, alongside unemployment and shocks”.
Yet, this is a country that is so blessed with abundant natural and human resources.
Permit me to delve into a scriptural context on why the nation has been enmeshed in this unfortunate hunger crisis, for us to fully understand that life is spiritual.
The Holy Bible records in 2 Timothy 3: 1, that, “in the last days, perilous time shall come”. I therefore ask if truly we are coming to the end of time and leave the answer to the reader.
Nevertheless, it is high time government at the federal level embarked on policies that would assuage the intense hardship and suffering of the masses, harshly harassed by unimaginable high cost of living now a crisis, that have made feeding, transportation, medical care among others, almost impossible.
In as much as it is said that security is everybody’s business, the business of securing of lives and property of the citizens is every country’s government’s primary responsibility.
Government at all levels, national, state and local, should raise to the challenge of tackling insecurity to ensure that the menace of hunger, hardship and killings in the country are curtailed to the barest minimum.
Finally, prevention of crisis they say, is better than its management and the time to act is NOW!
– By Cromwell Johnson