Manypeoplesoldtheirboysandgirlsforalittlerice… Hunger stalked us…People of all ages began to die…. Everyone had to live with half-empty stomachs …People started looting, searching for food.”
Bijoykrishna, survivor of the Bengal famine in 1943, BBC. February 23, 2023.
The old man talking is reported to be 102 years old and one of the few survivors of the famine which killed millions in Bengal while World War II raged on around them.
The savageryof the warandextremelybadweather resulted in horrible harvests.
Suddenly, parents were “eating” their kids. Or what do you call selling your children to buy food?
It happened in Bengal in 1943; it can happen anywhere – including Nigeria. We are aware that some parents in Nigeria have been selling their children; heartless people run baby factories or phony orphanages as regular means of employment.
It might not have reached the alarming proportions experienced in Bengal in the last century. But, the truth is; some adult Nigerians are already eating children.
That preamble is, however, meant to draw the readers’ attention to the dangers we face as a nation with regard to food and famine.
To be candid, governments at all levels are not being honest with us.
Irrespective of which political party is in power at Federal and state levels, their reactions to the looming famine is, frankly speaking, shocking. Millionsof Nigerian lives are at stake.
PerhapsitisonlyacoincidencethattheFederalGovernment which encouraged herdsmen and bandits to drive millions of farmers off the field was headed by Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC – whose symbol is the broom.
Present and future historians, writing about how we ended up in this terrible situation, in which most Nigerians now live with half-empty stomachs, must lay the blame squarely on the door step of Buhari and the APC National Secretariat.
Buhari started the demolition job on our farms; and none of the members called him out. One official miscreantactuallyhadtheeffronterytogoontelevision to offer fellow Nigerians the Devil’s alternative – your land or your life.
That was the audacity of infamy which has landed us where we are with regard to food production.
No nation can live with lunacy for eight years without finally living on the bread of sorrow. We are now going to start dying like flies, swatted by a broom!!!
Forget The Lies About Food Palliatives.
“Every government is run by liars; and nothing they say should be believed.”
I F Stone
Can anyone remember how mant tonnes of food for palliatives were promised Nigerians in September lastyear? AnddoyourememberthatGovernorSoludo, APGA, speaking on behalf of the Federal Government and State Governors, announced that N5 billion would be given to each state? On account of a conspiracy of silence, NigerianswerenotinformedthatonlyN2billion wasactuallydeliveredandnotallthegrainseither. That should tell you the sort of leaders we are dealing with – they cannot be trusted to keep their words.
That iswhytheyhave more Commissioners of InformationandSpecialAdvisers(Media) thanthePremiers of East, North and West had during the first republic.
They are not appointed to shed light on issues, but to confuse Nigerians. Here is an example.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Mohammed Idris, in mid-February this year announced that PresidentTinubu had“ordered102,000metric tonnesof grains to be released from the National Reserves.
A week after, in my Monday article, titled FG AND THE 102,000 tonnes food swindle, I traced several promises previously made by this government.
None of them had been fully redeemed. Given my knowledge about the National Food Reserves, I concluded that article by stating that “I doubt if the FG has 102,000 tonnes of food in its reserves.”
On Thursday, February 22, 2023, Mr Idris, in a manner reminding us of George Orwell’s ANIMAL FARM, has changed the narrative. This time we were told that “The first one is that the Ministry of Agriculture and FoodSecurityhas been directedto release about (underlying mine) 42,000 MT of maize, millet, garri and other commodities in their strategic reserve so that these items will be made available to Nigerians; 42,000MT immediately.”
The careful reader cannot fail to observe how 102,000MT, pledgedtwoweeksearliershrankto42,000MT tobe releasedsuddenly. What happenedtothe remaining 60,000MT of food stuff promised earlier?
Thestoryhaschangedonthosetoo. Accordingtothe latest announcement from Idris, which might not be the last, “wehaveheldmeetingswiththeRiceMillersAssociation of Nigeria. Those who are responsible for this rice and we have asked them to open up their stores…They have told us that they can guarantee about 60,000 tons of rice. They will make that available to Nigerians…”.
Again, adiscerniblereadercaneasilyarriveatthree obvious conclusions.
One, the FG did not have 102,000MT of grains in its reserves when the first announcement was made.
Two, the government will even have to struggle to provide the about 42,000MT. Three, the 60,000MT of rice isuncertainof delivery; for the simple reasonthat there isnoguaranteefromRIMANtodeliver60,000MTof rice.
Insteadof thedeliberateattemptbytheFGtodeceive Nigerians, RIMAN’s position on the matteris quite clear.
According to the RIMAN president: “No, no, no, we don’t have enough paddy in this country. Farmers lack enough paddy to sell. A lot of farmers have withdrawn services on the farms due to insecurity. This is in addition to the effects of fuel subsidy removal.”
Obviously, MrIdris is once again spreading falsehood in order to buy time for the FG. I know who is lying on this issue because I spent years in the rice sector and some of my friends are still in it. They tell me the truth because I advise them on investing their profits – when they make profits.
That, unfortunately, takes us to the heart of the matter.
Nigerians are now dying like flies swatted by a broom; and most of the FG’S utterances have proved to be untrue.
How on earth can Tinubu plead for more time when his Ministers are busy telling us lies? To be candid, few will believe him – even if elder statesmen like Gowon plead for him.
Thepeoplewantthetruth– nomatterhowbad. Only faith in their leaders or tyranny can make the people in a country endure years of great hardship as in China and India.
The Consequences Are Already Here.
“Death is here and death is there/ Death is busy everywhere…”
Percy Byshe Shelley,
Peoplehavealwaysdied, everyday, everyhour, every minute and every second.
Deathbyitself isnotnew. Atalmost80, I aminsudden death period; so is everybody over 70 in Nigeria, where life expectancy is still about 52. So what makes death so special now? It is the spike in death rates. In about 70 years, sinceI firstbecameawareof theconsequencesof death, in no single year was it brought to my attention that up to four people known to me died in one month. The rise in death rate first attracted my attention in December last year when seven people were reported to have died. In January, the figure rose to nine. There was accelerationinFebruary. Today, February25,2023, asthis article is being written, the number stands at thirteen. Four of my CLUB members and a close cousin have perished in less than six weeks.
So, it was time to investigate – at the mortuary, at the cemeteriesandtalking tocasketsellers. Withfour friends as undertakers or casket sellers, it was easy to establish that, for them, business is booming like never before.
The only problem they have is with the low profile approach people now take to burials. Most families no longer buy expensive caskets. Times are hard.
A few of the recently departed souls were confronted with choosing between buying life-saving drugs or eating. There were no funds for the two.
They opted for food. At least two told me that before leaving us to our self-inflicted problems of food, drugs and other scarcities and the inflation resulting from too much demand chasing insufficient supply.
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