Buhari Supporters Lampoon World Food Programme Report On Hunger In Nigeria

Supporters of Muhammadu Buhari have debunked claims by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) that Nigeria risks sliding into a hunger crisis.

WFP had lumped Nigeria with Zimbabwe, South Sudan, Haiti, Central Sahel (Mali, Burkina Western Niger) and Afghanistan among countries it said faced a food crisis, but the pro-Buhari group is insisting that the claim is presumptuous.

The supporters under the aegis of the Buhari Media Organisaiton, BMO in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, described the UN agency’s position as hollow and not a true reflection of the situation in the country.

“Yes, there is a crisis in a part of the North East which was referenced in the report titled ‘WFP Global Hotspots 2020: Potential flashpoints to look out for in New Year’, but there has not been a recent upsurge in violence in the region of the magnitude reflected in the report.

“Besides, the crisis has been largely restricted to a part of Borno, which is just one out of 36 states making up the country and we do not see how that could be interpreted to mean that Nigeria may face a hunger crisis with the type of bumper harvests it has recorded in recent years.

“We also wonder how WFP managed to restrict its conclusion on Niger to a part of that country (Western Niger) in the report but sees a far bigger country with more arable land as a potential flashpoint.”

BMO noted that the claim of a potential food crisis is coming at a time Nigeria was confirmed as the largest producer of rice in Africa.

“The same country that WFP says is at risk of a hunger crisis has in the last three years witnessed a rice revolution to the extent that it was competing with Egypt.

“And now it has overtaken the North African country as the continent’s largest producer of rice with an average annual production of 4 million tonnes, according to the Africa Rice Center in Benin Republic.

“So as at the time those commissioned to do the WFP report were placing Nigeria among countries likely to face a food crisis, the country was steadily climbing up on the list of Africa’s top rice producers in only four years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s rice revolution.

“It is also on record that the World Food Programme has been buying grains from Nigeria and delivering it to other countries in the sub-region, so where did the authors of the report get the data for their doomsday report from, BMO queried.

The group urged the UN agency to take a second look at the report on the ground that it does not capture the real situation in the country.

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