Address the Devastating Hunger In Nigeria Before It Sparks An Implosion- Prophet El-Buba.

Audu Ogunenwa Jos

The Global President Evangelical Bible Outreach Ministry International (EBOMI) Prophet Isa El-Buba has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led government to address the current devastating Hunger In Nigeria before it gets out of hand .

Prophet El-Buba who is also the Convener of Initiative for Better and Brighter Nigeria(IBBN) in Nigeria in a statement issued in Jos on Thursday and a copy made available to Daily Independent said ” Certainly Nigeria has been over due for a revolution that for some reasons have not happened but will have to happen.”

Prophet El-Buba lamented that with the increasing spate of devastating hunger and excruciating poverty taking a toll on Nigerians, if left unaddressed will give rise to an inescapable full blown revolt by the suffering masses, saying “and this revolution will be so swift that it may not be televised”

According to him, a hungry man is an angry man and this can snowball to have severe consequences if not checkmated.

El-Buba lamented that despite government’s ‘state of emergency on food security’, efforts to curb rising food prices have not yielded results.

” with a foreign exchange rate that is rapidly turning the naira into a currency not worth the paper on which it is printed, pervasive inflation causing a month by month increase on food prices, neither have government stopped terrorists from chasing farmers away from their farmlands nor has it forestall
attacks and kidnapping for ransom on communities”he lamented

According to him,in states like Plateau and Taraba who produce bulk of Nigeria’s food, farmers have stopped carrying out agricultural activities owing to the massive displacement and movement of people from farming zones to IDP camps in the affected areas , stressing that every other part of the country is feeling this pinch of hunger and hardship due to the recent high cost of energy and its impact on transportation which all leads to an astronomical rise in the price of food items.

He called on the government to help alleviate the severity of hunger in Nigeria in the interim and immediate future so as to both avert an imminent implosion as well as save the future of millions of Nigerians and the stability of the country.

El-Buba suggested that in the interim, the federal Government should also release grains from its strategic reserve depots, and ensure the grains get to hungry Nigerians at affordable prices to crash the astronomic costs of grains in the market.

He however regretted that the Previous releases did not reach majority of poor Nigerians.

He advised government to take cue from China whom the World Economic Forum reported to have focused on supporting its 250 million small holder farmers that produce 80 percent of the country’s food through government and private sectors collaboration anchored on technology deployment and access to low interest credit.

He also called on State governments to refrain from the indolence of relying on the Federal government for poverty alleviation programmes but to develop and champion their own local initiatives for same purpose.

Prophet El-Buba Commended Governor of Taraba State Dr. Kefas Agbu for setting a pace that is worthy of commendation and emulation for developing a palliative market in his state where food and non-food items will be sold at cheaper rates to residents intentioned at bringing relief to families from hardship caused by petrol subsidy removal.

” Nigerian governors should please develop their own marshal plans that align to their local realities to bring relief to their people as state governments ought to be the main drivers of agricultural production and initiatives that should be complimented by federal support.”

” Government should invest in building rural road systems that links farms to local markets in real time, as well as storage and processing facilities to drastically reduce the post-harvest rot and waste of agricultural produce before they get to consumers, so that farmers won’t have to make up for loses. ” He advised.

Prophet El-Buba also suggested long term planning and investments as well as training, mentoring of youths, women, and rural farmers to engage in mechanized agriculture and modern farming techniques so that they can be able to take up farming careers which can boost food production and reduce poverty in the country.

He also called on Tinubu Administration to tackle the issue of insecurity in real time in Nigeria by consistently deploying leadership which he said is what others may call political will.

According to him , it’s either there is leadership or there is no leadership.

He added that the President should show leadership in containing insecurity or failure to do so might have ripple effect on all sectors of the economy.

He called on all Nigerians to come together to fight terrorism, insecurity in the country .

El-Buba called on the government to Resettle and restore farming villages in Plateau and Benue States to their ancestral farming villages with N20 billion grants to enable them pick up their farming lives and begin to contribute to food security efforts in the country

He equally called on Nigerians to go back to farming in other to collectively contribute to food production and self sustenance.