The current level of hunger in Nigeria is alarming. In the 2022 Global Hunger Index, the country ranks 103 out of 121 countries. It scored 27.3 to fall under the ‘serious’ category. The five levels of hunger under which each country falls are low, moderate, serious, alarming and extremely alarming. In 2021, Nigeria ranked 103 out of 116 countries. In 2020, it ranked 98 out of 107 countries. Being a tool for measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional and national levels, the Global Hunger Index scores countries based on the values of four component indicators.
They are undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality. Child stunting has to do with the number of children under five who have low height for their age. Child wasting measures the number of children under five who have low weight for their height. For Nigeria, 12.7 per cent of the citizens are said to be undernourished; 6.5 per cent of under-five children are wasted; 31.5 per cent of under-five children are stunted; while 11.4 per cent of children die before their fifth birthday. These are reflections of acute under-nutrition.
In many other hunger and poverty indices, Nigeria also ranks very low. In a recent joint report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP), Nigeria was ranked among the hunger hot spots in the world. Other countries in that league are Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Southern Sudan, and Yemen. In Nigeria, the worst region is the North-East where over 4 million people are threatened by food insecurity. The worst states are Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
Essentially, four out of 10 Nigerians reportedly live below $2 per day. It is possible that many others may even fall below this $2 per day. Already, the country is the poverty capital of the world. Every minute, over six Nigerians join the extreme poverty rank. With climate change, global conflict such as the war in Ukraine and the economic effect of COVID-19 pandemic, the situation is projected to worsen. This is really alarming. Regrettably, prices of food items have ballooned beyond the reach of average Nigerians. The astronomical rise is over 100 per cent. The current rate of inflation is 20.95 per cent, the highest in 17 years. Meanwhile, the monthly minimum wage is N30, 000, which is below the cost of a bag of rice. Many state governments are not even able to pay it. Today, some Nigerians now scout for where there is one form of occasion or the other to beg for food because there may be none at home to eat. Some citizens have become ‘executive’ beggars, moving from one location to the other to secretly beg for alms. They do this because they have no tangible means of livelihood. The rate of unemployment in Nigeria is over 33 per cent.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the rate of insecurity has heightened in the country. Many youths who cannot find meaningful jobs have decided to create one for themselves in the kidnapping industry. They kidnap people and ask for huge sums of money as ransom. Those who can bail themselves pay and secure their freedom. The majority of others are killed. Tens of thousands of people have fallen victims. Millions of displaced people are currently living in different Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.
Natural disasters have joined in exacerbating the hunger issue. Many states such as Anambra, Bayelsa and Kogi are reeling under the scourge of menacing flood, which has displaced millions from their homes with the attendant food crisis. Many of those who are in the IDP camps undergo many other deprivations. This is why depression and mental illness appear to be on the rise in Nigeria. For some who cannot bear the trauma, they either commit suicide or engineer social unrest. Some try to escape from the country and even prefer to be refugees in other countries.
There is urgent need to address this problem. On the occasion of the 30th International Day for the Eradication of Poverty marked on October 17, 2022, the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, called for urgent global action to invest in people-centred solutions. The Federal and state governments should rise to this challenge. They should give farmers incentives. The strategic grain reserve should be used to cushion the effect of hunger. Let our agriculture be mechanised and let it be run as a business. As Nigerians prepare for a major general election in 2023, they should realise that leadership deficit has been the bane of our development. Hence, voters should consider voting for those who have, among others, robust plans to reposition our agriculture and eliminate hunger and poverty in the land.