Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2027 general election, Mr.Peter Obi, has blamed what he described as incompetent and irresponsible leadership for the worsening food crisis in northern Nigeria.
He argued that the situation was avoidable in view of the region’s vast agricultural potential.
Reacting to a recent warning by the World Food Programme (WFP) over rising hunger in northern Nigeria, Obi said yesterday that it was unacceptable that the country’s major food-producing region had become the epicentre of a deepening food emergency.
He maintained that the crisis was driven by insecurity and poor governance rather than a lack of natural resources.
The former Anambra State governor said more than 17 million people across nine northern states were facing crisis-level hunger, while over 35 million Nigerians could be at risk during the current lean season.
He described reports that more than 10,000 residents of Borno State had entered catastrophic hunger conditions as a national failure, insisting that Nigeria should not rank among the world’s hungriest nations considering its vast fertile land.
Obi identified insecurity and farmers’ inability to access their farmlands as the major structural causes of the crisis, noting that banditry and insurgency had displaced farming communities and severely affected food production.
He argued that securing agricultural corridors was essential to addressing the country’s food insecurity.
He also criticised what he described as the government’s reliance on superficial measures that failed to improve agricultural productivity or rural infrastructure, calling instead for policies that remove barriers to farming and promote agro-industrial development.
According to him, Nigeria must urgently shift its focus from consumption to production to tackle hunger and poverty.
The NDC presidential candidate urged the federal government and state governments to prioritise transparent investments in agriculture, provide smallholder farmers with accessible support, secure farming communities, and strengthen collaboration with the WFP to close funding gaps before the humanitarian situation deteriorates further.
Obi further argued that achieving a hunger-free Nigeria would require leaders who place the lives and livelihoods of citizens above what he described as grandiose road dualisation projects, insisting that the country has the resources to end mass poverty through productive use of its arable land.