Nigeria’s food security is also in jeopardy as Nigeria’s breadbasket state, Benue State, is already beset by habitual violence, widespread displacement, and growing instability.Â
No longer the “food basket of the nation,” Benue is now in an open crisis and is fast losing its capacity to contribute a huge amount to Nigeria’s food basket.
The last few months have seen numerous instances of brutal attacks, mostly in rural agricultural villages across the state. The attacks, primarily culpable of arms supply to herdsmen against native settlers of the regions, have been guilty of farm burning, murders, and forcing tens of thousands into exile. Spurred by heightened insecurity, some farmers have been forced off their farms and homes, abandoning cattle and farms left unplanted.
A nation blessed with yam, rice, cassava, citrus, and soybeans is fast becoming a land on the move to a desolate land. The same Nigerians who feed millions of their own are struggling to feed themselves today. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps are being occupied by new residents, the larger number of whom not only lost their means of livelihood but also loved ones and assets.
According to relief reports and local sources, thousands of households are entirely reliant on relief food and relief items. However, relief will not stop the crisis. Food shortages accumulate by the second, and institutionalized malnutrition becomes the order of the day. It most often occurs in lactating women and children.
The state security agents are also constantly at the receiving end because the attackers attack them daily. Despite the government providing more security and intervention, there are parts of the public who note that interventions are too late, far too late. Since farm production has been kept in a waiting line of state government councils, specialists have raised a warning that Nigeria is on the edge of the precipice of a worse national food crisis unless emergency measures are implemented.
Ripple effects of the crisis in Benue are already experienced elsewhere in the nation. Prices of foodstuffs, especially high-staple foods like yam, tomatoes, rice, and maize, are partly responsible to be held liable due to dearth in the supply chain from the Middle Belt. At normal times, markets compelled to accept Benue fruits and vegetables are experiencing shortages and higher prices, contributing to inflationary pressures on consumers already stretched with economic conditions.
Besides financial loss, there is an enormous loss of human lives. Shattered families, orphaned kids, and abandoned villages paint a dismal picture of human loss. Women and girls are most vulnerable to gender violence and exploitation in the camps, and thus, they add to the trauma.
There is growing pressure from the state and federal government to move more towards taking bold action to restore stability and peace in Benue. There is pressure from the international human rights community, traditional rulers, and civil society to press the government to place on the front burner for immediate consideration solutions to the conflict’s root cause, which are competition for resources, access to land, and fragile security institutions.
The experts also suggest that, aside from security, other investments in restoring displaced farm communities, re-modeling their economies, and improving conflict-resolving mechanisms should be continued. Rehabilitation and food relief must be preceded by peace and justice measures in an effort to avoid a cycle of continuous famine and war.
Benue’s ill fortune is not of its own making, albeit national. If Nigeria desires to save its agricultural future and keep people alive, it has no choice but to act immediately to stem the looming crisis in its food bowl. Time’s up.
