Emir Urges N’assembly To Pass The Right To Food Bill

TOguarantee food security among Nigeria’s teeming population, Emir of Argungu, Samai’la Muhammad Mera has called on the National Assembly to pass the Right to Food Bill without further hesitation.

He made the call while responding to a detailed presentation on the Right to Food Bill by the Chairman of Voices for Food Security (VFS), Gbolagade Ayoola, who led the coalition of civil society groups on advocacy to promote right of every Nigerian to food. Mera, who expressed surprise that Nigeria is yet to have food as a fundamental human right enshrined in the constitution, solicited for collective effort to make it happen.

Earlier, Gbolagade Ayoola who is also the president of Farm and Infrastructure Foundation (FIF) informed the Emir that, the latest World Hunger Index published by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) indicates that as at last year (2017), with an index value of 25.5, ranked Nigeria 84th among 119 countries in the category of “Serious Hungerprevalence”. This, he said, implies that about three quarter of its population (about 150 million people) presently suffers from adult malnutrition, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality, all linked to food insecurity of the country. Ayoola went further to buttress the fact that the universality of the subject matter also exists in the number of countries of the world that have adopted the concept of food as a right or passed a right to food bill as the basis for implementing food policies.