By Steve Onyeiwu
Nigeria is no stranger to
riots and demonstrations. From the days of “Ali
Must Go” in the late 1970s, the SAP riots in 1989, the June 12, 1993
protests and the perennial outbursts by the various militant groups in Nigeria, the
country appears to have become accustomed to riots. While the Nigerian state
has managed to weather these storms, the country can ill-afford food riots. As
the saying goes, a hungry man is an angry man. Nigerians are already very angry
about the high level of corruption in the country, the ongoing recession, the
lack of inclusive growth, the high unemployment rate, chronic poverty,
infrastructural decay and the lack of economic opportunities. For many
Nigerians, a persistent increase in food prices would be the last straw that would
jolt them into food riots.
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| (pix: WB) |
Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s Vice
President, understood the severity of the problem when he established a
Presidential Task Force last February to address the problem of escalating food
prices. But long-term solutions require much more than the mere setting up of a
task force. Some of those solutions will be discussed later in this article.
