Food Crisis And Nigeria’s Multi-Dimensional Poverty

 By Jerome-Mario Utomi

If there is any fresh fact that supports the claim by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, in November 2022, that Multidimensional Poverty Index, MPI, is higher in rural areas than in urban areas, it is my experience during a short visit to Agbor, a community which, according to Wikipedia, is the most populous among the Ika people, located in, and functions as the headquarters of Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State, in South-South geo-political zone of Nigeria.

Among many other observations, the referenced report puts the MPI in rural areas at 72% and that of urban areas 42%, thereby confirming that a much higher proportion of people living in rural areas, compared to those living in urban areas, are multidimensionally poor. The report further noted that 63% (133 million people) – that is about six out of every 10 Nigerians– are multidimensionally poor, with 65% [86 million] and 35% [47 million] of the poor living in the North and South of Nigeria respectively. The implication is that location matters with respect to poverty and unemployment, the report concluded.

Essentially, as a Nigerian resident in Lagos, I have come across so many reports that underlined Nigeria as a nation confronted with both food insecurity and crisis. Again, aside from witnessing commentators argue at different times and places that when food continues to rise in price, everyone feels it, but those with less money, understandably, feel it far more, as they have to spend more of their money on the essentials: housing and food.

I have also on the other hand, before embarking on that trip, seen parents go without food to ensure that children can eat. Particularly, as prices of staple foods in Lagos, such as rice, have reportedly morphed from N35.000 to well over N50, 000. Other items such as noodles have equally and appreciably added in prices as the smallest pack which used to sell for N100 now hovers between N130 and N150. 

While these heightened price regimes were considered worrying by Lagosians, new facts derived from my latest visit shows that if ongoing food inflation in Lagos is a challenge, the experience at local communities/small towns like Agbor is a crisis.

I arrived at Agbor in the evening and was adequately taken care of by my host and therefore made it straight to my hotel room without having any contact with food vendors within and outside the guest house.

The following morning, I thought it wise to take my breakfast before embarking on the assignment that brought me to the town. I approached the reception to ascertain what their breakfast arrangement looks like but was told in plain language that they have no provision/arrangement for such.

With that response, I stepped out onto Old Lagos-Asaba road and just a few buildings away from the guest house was a ‘fast food’ vendor. As it was breakfast that I needed, I politely requested that he should prepare two packs (the smallest size) of noodles and two eggs for me. And immediately, she replied: it will cost you N1200 to have it. How come?  If sold at this price, how can jobless Nigerians, particularly the youths, afford such meals? I queried. Then she replied: Oga, that is the amount; it is either you buy or leave me alone. The jobless Nigerians you are talking about are already aware  of the price regime. The rest they say is history.

Scene 2: In the afternoon of the same day while on my way back to the guest house, I saw a woman selling roasted yam by the roadside. The pieces of yam displayed were ‘wickedly’ cut into tiny framed sizes and could conveniently be likened to the worth sold for N100 in Lagos. I greeted the woman and thereafter, pointed at two pieces. She replied by saying it was N400. Without pressing further or seeking further clarification, I requested that she prepared it for me.

Handing over the yam to me which was garnished with three pieces of meat valued at N600 (N200 a piece), I innocently flashed one thousand naira note at her. Lo and behold, the woman told me that I have to give her an additional N200 as the total value of what I bought was N1200. How come? When? I asked at the same time. It was then that she explained to me that the two pieces of yam were actually sold for N800 at N400 per piece.

Also devastating and of course another reason for us to be alarmed is the awareness that this galloping inflation in Agbor, Delta State and its environs is not limited to food items alone but affects accommodation. In what is in some ways a more brazen move is that in Agbor, house rent is higher when juxtaposed with the experience in some parts of Lagos.

This is the challenge facing communities in our country. The high cost of food and accommodation in Agbor may have existed in overt manner, the experience in other towns and communities in the country may be worse but exists in covert forms.

Talking about food insecurity in Nigeria, many have argued that the food challenge in the country has been impacted especially by violent conflicts, including the insurgency in the North-East; armed banditry in the North-West; perennial farmer – herder conflicts in the North-Central, South-West and increasingly across the country; and separatist agitation in the South-East, among others.

To others, the challenge is exacerbated by natural disasters; in particular, the rising incidence and frequency of floods in large parts is a consequence of climate change impact, which continues to affect food production and the availability and affordability of food.

An example is the report by the National Emergencies Management Agency, NEMA, in 2022 which, among others, informed that floods led to the destruction and washing away of over 675,000 hectares of farmland. “One can only imagine the extent of the impact of this scale of destruction of farmlands on agricultural activities and food production across the country. Farmers, the majority of whom are small scale farmers, lost not only crops and harvests, but also farm animals, poultry, fishery, and farm implements to the raging floods’’.

Whatever the true picture may be, there are multiple reasons why the Federal and of course state governments in Nigeria should undertake strategic efforts to solve the problem of food inflation not just in Agbor but across the country.

Aside from the fundamental relationship between food crisis and inflation and its harmful effects in every economy, the human population in the country quadrupled and unemployment multiplied in the past decades and the average impact of this uncontrolled increase on the nation’s economy is tellingly obvious.

Undoubtedly, I believed and still believe that as a country desirous of achieving sustainable development, the recent decision by the Federal Government to launch the conditional cash transfer policy for 15 million households on October 17, 2023, will not resolve the present hunger challenge in the country. Rather, there are both specific and specialized reasons for the government to throw its weight behind agriculture by creating an enabling environment that will encourage Nigerian youths to take to farming. 

First, aside from the worrying awareness that by 2050, global consumption of food and energy is expected to double as the world’s population and incomes grow, while climate change is expected to have an adverse effect on both crop yields and the number of arable acres, we are in dire need of solution to this problem because unemployment has diverse implications.

Security-wise, a large unemployed youth population is a threat to the security of the few that are employed. Any transformation that does not have job creation at its main objective will not take us anywhere’ and the agricultural sector has that capacity to absorb the teeming unemployed youth in the country.

The second reason is that globally, there are dramatic shifts from agriculture in preference for white-collar jobs-a trend that urgently needs to be reversed. 

*Utomi, Programme Coordinator (Media and Policy), Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Lagos, wrote via: jeromeutomi@yahoo.com