The planned suspension of taxes on importation of some food items is welcome
With millions of people struggling to feed or even starving, the federal government recently announced plans to suspend taxes on certain food imports including wheat and maize for 150-days, with a view to curbing food inflation. "To ameliorate food inflation in the country, the government has taken a raft of measures to be implemented over the next 180 days," Agriculture Minister, Abubakar Kyari said in a statement announcing the measures that we consider rather timely.
Although the federal government has spent considerable amount on money on 'palliatives', it has not achieved its intended purpose. In February, President Bola Tinubu directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to release 42,000 metric tonnes of maize, millet, and other grains in its Strategic Reserve. At the end, it made no difference. Besides, the mode of distribution in many states has led to criticisms, including from the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah. "We need to see a much more robust programme designed by the government to help us go away from just lining up and collecting palliatives when we are not at war," Kukah said. "I think it is the height of indignity to see Nigerians lining up every day under the sun and waiting to collect bags of rice, which probably never come, not because money has not been given but because everybody who gives out money in Nigeria from the federal government knows that a good part of this money is always stolen."
Indeed, all the recent reports from both local and international organisations point to the fact that millions of Nigerian families go to bed without any certainty as to where their next meals would come from as prices of foodstuff skyrocket. Rising food prices, according to the World Bank, are 'severely impacting Nigerian households' with dire consequences. and the ensuing global energy crisis, the situation has since worsened. Latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reveal that the annual food inflation in Nigeria surged to 40.87 per cent in June this year from 40.66 per cent in May, due to cost of such essential commodities as bread and cereals, potatoes, yam, meat, and fish.
Meanwhile, the United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) has warned repeatedly that millions of Nigerians are at the risk of hunger as prices of foodstuff are becoming out of reach. With angry citizens expressing their frustration about the daily hikes of staple foods, transportation costs, school fees, house rent and other inescapable expenses that are becoming impossible to finance, the federal government and authorities in the 36 states of the federation must wake up to the reality of the seeming hopelessness for a vast majority of our people. This is in a nation blessed with enormous natural and human resources, but which has consistently been held down by poor governance at virtually all levels.
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The minimum recommended amount of food by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for energy needs is based on 12-14 basic items that together would account for 2,100 calories per adult per day. Most Nigerians cannot afford that. Besides, using 'cost of food basics' analysis that compares the monthly minimum recommended spend on food per adult, most reports have placed Nigeria as one the poorest countries in the world in terms of food affordability. The irony of Nigeria is that some of the states where food prices have gone up are in major food-producing areas of the country. Unfortunately, available reports indicate that food price inflation is not likely to improve anytime soon if the predicaments facing parts of the country remain unresolved.
To change that narrative, authorities in Abuja and the 36 states must move beyond 'palliatives.'
