A new groundswell of looting across the landscape has become emblematic of Nigeria’s season of discontent. From the Federal Capital Territory to Niger State, hungry citizens are venting their ire on food warehouses to devasting effects. Warehouses stockpiling food in the FCT were attacked at the weekend, a rage reminiscent of the COVID-19 days in 2020.

It means Nigeria has not learnt its lessons from the invasion of warehouses and storage facilities during the pandemic. The Bola Tinubu administration and the security agencies should move fast to stop the looters and firmly secure both the government warehouses and the private food processing factories.

Over the weekend, residents invaded a warehouse belonging to the Agricultural and Rural Development Secretariat of the FCT Administration at Gwagwalada, looting food items and other valuables like motorcycles. After they were dispersed from there, they invaded other private facilities to cart away foodstuffs and other items in other areas of the capital.

A few days earlier, a similar incident occurred at Suleja, Niger State, where residents looted a truck laden with bags of rice, which was on its way to Abuja. This is pure criminality.

Citing hunger, high cost of living, and inflation, the deleterious act has begun to permeate many states. In Zaria, Kaduna State, cartons of spaghetti were looted from a truck on the Kano-Kaduna Expressway. In Adamawa State, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri proclaimed a curfew after looters and hoodlums stormed public and private shops and stores, looting food, and other valuables last year.

At the core of the looting is the food insecurity plaguing Nigeria. From 33.93 per cent in December, food inflation accelerated to 35.41 per cent in January, per NBS. A 2022 survey by the NBS calculated 133 million citizens as living in multidimensional poverty. In 2023, the removal of petrol subsidy and naira merger ballooned the figure to more than 140 million.

Simultaneously, farming is under enormous threat from climate change, Islamic insurgents, and Fulani-herdsmen attackers. Bandits are exacting levies and tributes before farmers can access their farms and are kidnapping and killing without remorse.

Also, Nigeria suffers from notoriously shabby infrastructure, especially in the rural areas. Of Nigeria’s 195,000 kilometres roads, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission says 135,000km is untarred, making it difficult to move produce from the hinterland to consumers.

To measure the gravity of hunger, the Federal Government said that no fewer than 88.5 million Nigerians were grappling with insufficient food consumption with the figure projected to increase by six million at the end of 2023. The 2022 Global Hunger Index ranks Nigeria 103 out of 121 countries, categorising the severity of its hunger level as “serious” at 27.3 points.

Alarmingly, SBM Intelligence stated that 47 per cent of farmers lack access to post-harvest storage facilities. To cushion the shortfall of the country’s food needs, Nigeria imports with $15 billion annually, per the CBN.

Crucially, a lot needs to be done to salvage the food shortage situation and de-escalate the tensions pervading the land. While Tinubu announced the release of 42,000 metric tonnes of grain to the states to cushion the high cost of living, some states claim not to have received the items. This further imperils the existing trust deficit between the government and citizens.

The Tinubu administration and state governments must be wary of politicising hunger and debasing the people. They must expedite the transparent and systematic distribution of food items to indigent households.

Nevertheless, this does not justify the looting spree. Social disorder is not the answer to the food shortages. All those implicated should be duly tried for stealing.

The government should deploy security personnel in strategic food storage centres in the country to deter hoodlums from sabotaging the fragile food security architecture of the country. It must also provide security support for privately-owned agribusiness operators.

Update news