Urgent Need to Halt Soaring Food Prices

Prices of food items have been on a continuous rise in Nigeria in the past few years. But the spikes of the last few months are quite significant. Soaring food prices now deserve to be treated as a major crisis. In a country where 26.5 million people are officially classified as food insecure, where citizens spend 59% of their incomes on food and where 104 million people are classified as income poor, nothing can be more existential and more dangerous than sky-high food prices. The negative impacts on social stability, economic growth, human development and national security are simply too grave for the government not to swing into crisis mode.

To be fair, President Bola Tinubu, within two months of coming into office, declared a state of emergency on food security. He announced the roll-out a number of initiatives, including supply of fertilisers to farmers and grains to households, increased protection for farmers, identification of 500,000 hectares of land for cultivation, enhanced synergy between the ministries charged with agriculture and water resources, and the elevation of food and water issues as remits of the National Security Council, among others.

But six months later, these presidential declarations are yet to have the desired effect on food security and food prices. Nigeria’s food security map, as portrayed on the Cadre Harmonise dashboard, is still largely the same, with most parts of the country in the stressed and crisis categories. Prices of food items have continued to hit the roof, partly on account of the knock-on effects of some of the reforms introduced by the administration. Assuming that those emergency measures announced with fanfare back in July 2023 are being faithfully implemented, it is time to take more drastic steps, including implementing short-term boosts to food supply and reduction of tariffs on major food or food-related items.

The interplay of hunger and anger is usually combustible, and it seems, despite the deceptive calm, that we might just be a spark away from a conflagration. Nigerians are hurting and increasingly tetchy. Policy makers should not wait until what is simmering beneath the surface boils over. Concrete and consequential interventions are needed immediately.

There is enough evidence from official data and everyday experience to underscore the crisis of food prices in the country. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), food inflation was 33.93% in December 2023, compared to 26.98% when the president declared a state of emergency on food security. And there was definitely no let-up in January 2024. Food inflation seems to be no respecter of presidential declarations.

Last week, the NBS released the Cost of Healthy Diet (CoHD) report for December 2023. The basket of food items used for the calculation, according to the NBS, represents “the cheapest possible” and “the least expensive combination of foods that meets the daily requirements for a healthy diet for an adult.” In a way, this cost is the barest minimum, as the NBS adds that “to be able to afford a healthy diet, an individual must have a food budget that is greater than or equal to the Cost of a Healthy Diet.”

In December 2023, the cost of the healthy diet for an adult in Nigeria increased to N786. As expected, there will be zonal differences, with the lowest cost in the Northwest (N663) and the highest in the Southwest (N920). This means to that to eat basic healthy meal daily, an adult in Nigeria needed a food budget higher than or equal to N24,366 for the month of December 2023 while her compatriots in the Northwest and the Southwest would need N20,553 and N28,520 respectively.

This also means that a Nigerian adult on minimum wage without family or dependants on the average would need more than 81% of her income to afford a semblance of a healthy diet while the same individual living in the Northwest and the Southwest would need 69% and 95% of their incomes respectively. It can be assumed that these individuals would have other bills to pay, especially on accommodation, transportation and energy. If they have families or dependants, then healthy eating or eating at all becomes a challenge. Interestingly, there are graduates with professional qualifications who earn just about or slightly above the minimum wage, especially in the private sector. Government has all the reasons to worry if significant portions of the population are struggling to eat, and definitely has more reasons to worry when those portions concentrated in highly irritable urban centres.

The most staggering dimension of the crisis of food prices is the speed of price shifts. Sometimes, depending on the shock at play, changes occur within months or weeks, faster than the capacity to cope or adjust of a vast number of citizens who are mostly on fixed incomes. The Friday lead story of Daily Trust newspaper put these rapid upward shifts in perspective. According to an infographic on the front page of the newspaper, the price of a 50kg bag of rice jumped from N45,000 to N70, 000 within January 2024 alone. That’s a 56% increase within one month. Daily Trust also reported that a 50kg bag of flour rose to N44,000 from N35,500 and a 50kg bag of sugar moved from N62, 000 to

MURDERING MONARCHS

Two monarchs returning from a meeting in Irele-Ekiti were gunned down on Monday. Oba David Ogunsakin, the Elesun of Esun-Ekiti, and Oba Olatunde Olusola, the Onimojo of Omojola-Ekiti, were brutally murdered. This was the first time monarchs would be killed in this manner. School children were also kidnapped in Emure-Ekiti. This also looks like a first of its kind in Ekiti state. In nearby Ekiti local government in Kwara state, Oba Peter Aremu, Onikoro of Koro-Ekiti, was also killed in cold blood. I am no security expert but these killings do not look random. Suspects have been arrested, thankfully, but police must dig deeper to establish the real motives of these attackers. Abominable.

FIRST AID

FBN Holdings Ltd, the parent company of First Bank of Nigeria, on Wednesday appointed Mr Femi Otedola, the billionaire businessman and investor, as the new chairman of its board of directors. Otedola became the bank’s biggest shareholder two years ago when he increased his stake to 7.57 percent, but a lot has happened in the boardroom that has not painted the bank in good light. With the squabbles, everything started going dingdong. First Bank, as Nigeria’s oldest bank and one of the biggest financial institutions in Africa, should put its house in order if it wants to remain competitive in these times. I hope Otedola’s tenure will finally bring the needed healing and direction. Focus.

GO, EAGLES, GO

The Super Eagles beat Angola 1-0 on Friday to qualify for the semi-finals of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. Angola does not give me good memories — I always remember the death of Sam Okwaraji in a 1990 World Cup qualifier against them in Lagos. I also remember Angola knocking us out of the 2006 World Cup. I had a sense of satisfaction that we beat them to make it to the last four — our first since 2019. I must confess that these Super Eagles are nowhere near the most exciting teams we have had, but I am impressed with their discipline and work rate. As things stand, I would take any form of win. I wish the team all the best — meaning they should bring the trophy home. Goaaaaaal!

NO COMMENT

In the last few weeks, Governors Abba Yusuf of Kano, Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau, Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi and Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers all thanked President Tinubu for the supreme court verdicts that affirmed their elections. Yusuf and Mutfwang, in particular, thanked Tinubu “for not interfering in the judgments”. Since when did the apex court start taking instructions from the president before deciding how cases would go? Or was it tongue in cheek? Ironically, Tinubu did not say anything to dispel the notion. The implication, at least from an ordinary reading of it, is that he admitted interfering in supreme court proceedings but was only kind not to do so in these cases. Wonderful.