If nothing else does, the recent alarm by the United Nations (UN) on the prospect of thousands of Nigerian children dying of hunger should jolt the Federal Government out of its present inertia. According to the global agency, no fewer than 5,000 children in the war-ravaged northeastern Nigeria will die of starvation by October unless the world raises the necessary funds for intervention. John Mukisa, a nutrition sector coordinator for UN agencies, gave the warning while speaking with the press. As he noted, the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) needs $1 billion (N700 billion) this year to assist 5.5 million people, including women and children, with food aid in the three states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe. The OCHA, according to the report, had raised only 42 per cent of the required funds by the end of last month.

Going by the report, some international donors have now shifted funding to countries like Ukraine, Ethiopia and Afghanistan, which are also facing increased humanitarian needs. The fact is well known that farming sustains livelihoods in the North-East, but insecurity, the rising cost of fertiliser and diesel, flooding and drought due to changing climate have combined to make life a nightmare in the zone. And the situation is not helped by the Federal Government’s oft-repeated claim that it is winning the fight against terrorists in the North-East and that some areas have now been cleared of militants and are safe for villagers to return and farm.

Indeed, two months ago, the UN had similarly issued an alert over impending starvation in Nigeria. According to the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Mr. Matthias Schmale, to avert the dark prospect, $351 million was required. This, he said, was part of the overall request of $1.1 billion for the 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan, that was severely under-funded at 19.6 per cent. Schmale, while briefing member states of the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, on the needs, challenges and windows of opportunity in the North-East, said: “I cannot emphasise enough, we need the resources today and not tomorrow. This food insecurity is felt painfully across the region, especially as operations are so desperately in need of funding. In Yobe State, families have not received food assistance for up to eight months. Some people are left without food for days not knowing where their next meal will come from.” According to him, the March 2022 Cadre Harmonisé, a tool used to identify areas at risk from food insecurity and malnutrition in the Sahel and West Africa, projected that between June and September, 4.1 million people would be food-insecure.

It is actually a tragedy that in the face of the ceaseless warnings by local and foreign statistical agencies on the country’s virtual descent into the abyss in various sectors, the government has continued to give itself a pat on the back, pretending that all is well. In the present instance, the fact that millions of Nigerians, not just children, risk starvation in the North-East even with a government in place is more than disturbing. For years now, the valiant activities of officers and men of the armed forces not- withstanding, terrorists have managed to capture and retain control of vast swathes of Nigerian territory, making life nasty, brutish and short for law-abiding citizens. Indeed, latest reports suggest that the outlaws have become so daring that they are calling on long-suffering citizens to surrender their wives and daughters for rape or face the pain of death. And while it may not be a polite remark to make, the calls are actually being heeded by citizens paralysed by fear. If the government is not in control of the situation in the North-East, then it is elementary logic that it cannot give people of the zone, the majority of whom are farmers, any guarantee of safety on their farms.

The sad reality, then, is that portions of Nigeria critical to food security are controlled by outlaws while the government mouths control of the security situation. Disturbingly, foreigners and donor agencies seem to be more concerned about the grim situation in the North-East than the Nigerian government. In real terms, it does not appear that there is any serious thinking going on in government circles: no one is interested in doing anything to avoid the impending calamity that the UN is battling hard to forestall in Nigeria. At the end of the day, the government would have to shelve its extremely laid-back attitude and address the looming hunger not just in the North-East but across the country. It has to take the battle to the outlaws threatening food security and exterminate them completely. That is the only way to save Nigerian children from starvation in the North-East.

Update news