Nigeria: That Famine Alarm

EDITORIAL

While this country was basking in the euphoria of a bumper harvest this year, Nigerians were surprised, shocked, annoyed and distressed that the Presidency issued a famine alert. Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity Malam Garba Shehu raised the alarm in an interview in Kano. He said on Pyramid Radio that the enormous demand for Nigeria's grains in the global market was creating an environment for the mindless export of Nigerian food across the borders and unless this is curtailed, Nigerian markets would run out of grains by January next year.

Shehu also said the Federal Ministry of Agriculture advised the president to call the attention of Nigerians to the issue which if not addressed promptly, could lead to a shortage of food in the country. The Agriculture Ministry, he said, estimates that 500 trucks loaded with grain leaves Nigeria every week. Shehu however said the country had a bountiful grains harvest, more than enough to feed the country and export to other countries but that there was a high demand of Nigeria's grains from countries as far as Libya, Algeria and Brazil. He said, "President Muhammadu Buhari is not in any way opposed to or intent on tampering with [free market system]. On the other hand, exporters also have a moral obligation to make their produce available to Nigerians who live within the country's borders, to ensure that our citizens have access to food."

Coming from a government that has made agriculture its main agent in ending dependence on oil, this alarm is frankly unnecessary. Now there is panic in the markets, which could cause the hoarding of grain by disaster profiteers. Government took a bold step this year in assisting rice farmers with loans under the Central Bank of Nigeria's Anchor Borrower Programme. There was a lot of optimism that bumper harvest, especially of rice, will emerge from Kebbi, Kano, Jigawa, Sokoto, Niger, Ebonyi and Anambra states. Bumper harvest of maize, sorghum and millet was also expected. Government's efforts and farmers' enthusiasm plus the restriction on food imports all gladdened Nigerians. That is, until Garba Shehu dropped his bombshell.

This country has been exporting large quantities of grain to our neighbours since pre-colonial times. There are many markets all across the country that specialise in loading truckloads of grains and tubers for export to neighbouring countries. Borno State for example was the route through which hundreds of food-bearing trucks regularly left for Cameroon, Chad and Central African Republic. The Boko Haram insurgency shut that route for many years but it is slowly resuming now. Rather than cause alarm, we should see that as a positive development. Exporting agricultural or any other products has never killed any country. Instead of raising an alarm, government should cash in on it and find ways to expand and cultivate our abundant arable land both in rainy and dry seasons.

As for possible shortage of food during the dry season, that is why government has Strategic Grain Reserves. It buys excess grain from the markets and stocks it in silos, and releases it for sale during the dry season in order to moderate prices and ensure supply. Government's fear is that farmers sell their entire harvest and leave nothing for their families to eat during the dry season. This is an unfounded fear because farmers are not that foolish. They must however sell part of their harvest in order to obtain the money to attend to some social and other obligations.

We suspect that Malam Garba Shehu's warning was not intended to convey the alarmist message that it conveyed. In future we advise government officials to choose their words more carefully. A famine is not a one day's event. It is caused by many years' accumulated crises due to drought, war or other dislocation. Nigeria is nowhere near a famine situation.

Credit: Daily Trust