EBI ’NPAWA OOO: WE ARE STARVING OOOO!
Globally, Almost One In Ten People Go To Bed Hungry Every Night
By Babatunde Jose
‘Ebi ‘npawa oo’, is a cry of suffering and anguish, the call of the bedraggled and impoverished, the wretched of the society who having nothing to eat, and cannot afford the little food that is available, wail to their leaders to make known their state of desperation and want. For too long they have been left high and dry on the roadside of life. They did not just start being hungry, they were born hungry, and grew up hungry and will probably die hungry. Hunger accompanies them to school and on the playfields, they are still hungry. At home they go to bed hungry.
The last one year had been ‘shege’ for them, but it did not start last year. Hunger had been with them for the past many decades when their fathers and father’s fathers stopped going to the farm and migrated to the city for the bright lights and jobs as houseboys, truck pushers and other menial occupations, some even as thieves. Victims of rural-urban migration and its attendant consequences.
Their plight was exacerbated with the rise of insecurity occasioned by action of terrorists, kidnappers, herders and cattle rustlers, and the ubiquitous tribal engineered political conflicts. Going to the farm had become a dangerous proposition.
Bad weather resulting from climate change added to the milieu in the form of droughts, famine and on occasion flash floods and mudslides that washed away their farms and livestock.
Ebi npawa did not start with the current administration in Nigeria. Hunger had ravaged the land before its coming. It has been a hallmark of our people so much so that we have been classed among the 10 most hungry nations in the world, a pathetic situation when viewed in association with our current title as the poverty capital of the world. Yet, poverty and hunger are twins born of the same mother.
However, hunger is not an exclusive preserve of the Nigerian situation but a worldwide phenomenon. Hunger is a ‘feeling of pain, emptiness, or weakness induced by lack of food’. The main cause of hunger is not a shortage of food, but the ability to access it. The world produces enough food to feed all of its 8 billion people, yet 828 million people go hungry.
Millions live with hunger and malnourishment because they simply cannot afford to buy enough food. The problem is access and availability, both of which are disrupted by things like extreme weather, food waste, one’s gender and – worst of all – conflict. Therefore, ending hunger is the greatest challenge of our time, but it is solvable if we all work towards it. But are our leaders working assiduously towards it?
There are multiple causes of chronic hunger and food insecurity in the world. A few contributing factors include inflation and the concomitant decrease in the value of money, causing food prices to rise, forcing people to buy less food.
We are currently going through this phase in Nigeria. Our staples such as rice, beans, yam and gari are increasingly beyond the reach of the people. The cost of a bag of rice is more than the minimum wage. How can they cope?
Natural disasters: From floods to wildfires to drought and earthquakes, weather and climate change-related catastrophes destroy crops and farmland. This depletes food supply, increasing food prices.
Disease, war, or other disruptive events: Whether it’s an ongoing civil war or an infectious disease outbreak, events that damage infrastructure and the food supply chain often led to shortages that cause hunger crises. We currently do not have answers to them, or we have not deemed it a priority to address this issue. But ministries and MDAs can afford to schedule seminars and training programs outside the country and purchase very costly bullet-proof SUVs for their principal officers, while others wallow in hunger.
Unequal distribution of wealth: Some parts of a country may be affected by extreme poverty that lingers for generations, while others are more affluent. Unlike those who are more affluent, people in poverty don’t have savings to help them weather hardships.
Conflict is the number one driver of hunger in the world, and it’s entirely preventable. It uproots families, destroys economies, ruins infrastructure and halts agricultural production. 60% of the world’s hungriest people live in conflict zones or its periphery. 68M people are currently displaced due to conflict.
This is happening in our land too, in the conflict zones of the North. For more than ten years now, some people have not been able to access their farms, not to mention engaging in any productive activity. Insecurity in the Northern farming communities has been the greatest impediment to food security and the harbinger of hunger.
Climate change is another cause of global hunger, triggering frequent and intense extreme weather events. Over 80% of the world’s hungry people live in disaster-prone countries where flash floods, landslides and other vagaries of nature are wreaking havoc on people’s lives.
Now, for some disturbing statistics, according to Global Poverty report:
• 828 million people – or one in nine people in the world – do not have enough to eat.
60% of the hungry people on the planet are women and girls.
• Every year, developing countries are robbed of more than $1 trillion by their thieving, kamikaze leaders. Money that could fight poverty, disease, and hunger.
• Despite world poverty, between 1/4 and 1/3 of the 4 billion metric tons of food produced annually is lost or wasted.
• 98% of the world’s undernourished people live in developing countries.
• Of all the 26 countries where the rate of extreme poverty is over 40%, only 2 are NOT in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Poor people in developing countries spend 60-80% of their income on food. Americans spend less than 10%.
• Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million children each year. That is 8,500 children per day.
• A third of all childhood death in sub-Saharan Africa is caused by hunger.
• 66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone.
• Every 10 seconds, a child dies from hunger-related diseases.
• 165 million people suffer from childhood malnutrition.
• 75% of the world’s food is generated from only 12 plants and 5 animal species.
40% of all the food African farmers grow is lost due to insects, pests, and mold.
Hunger, poverty and food prices are inseparably linked. Not every person living in poverty is hungry, but almost all hungry people are living in poverty. Hunger can be viewed as a dimension of extreme poverty. It is often called the most severe and critical manifestation of poverty.
The only way for people to move beyond chronic hunger and their vulnerability to ever-rising food prices is to employ sustainable methods based on self-reliance. Empower rural communities to strengthen their self-resourcefulness, specifically in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, where the highest concentrations of hungry people live.
Among other methods, offer the tools and training to increase farm production at the local level; support them as they create, stock, and manage their own food banks; and encourage clusters of rural villages to develop sustainable, self-reliant, hunger-free communities. Here, funds meant for the alleviation of the conditions of the poor and hungry are embezzled and stolen by the overfed leaders.
*“We are facing hunger on an unprecedented scale, food prices have never been higher, and millions of lives and livelihoods are hanging in the balance. … Together, we can build a safer, more resilient, and inclusive world – and banish the scourge of famine and starvation once and for all. But we must act now.”* — _Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations_
The leaders know the solution to hunger is food and more food. The problem of growing more food is insecurity and conflicts: the menace of terrorists, kidnappers, and merchants of death. Unfortunately, they know where the terrorists hide and some of their sponsors.
Rather than do the needful, they leave leprosy and are treating ringworm. They embezzle money meant to purchase arms and ammunition to combat insurgents. If they can ‘chop’ money meant for armored personnel carriers, what will the monies meant for drones mean to them? That is pepper soup money!
A leadership of vipers, they have no regard for the feelings of the people. Our problem is not only one of leadership but that of a complacent followership; a followership that does not ask questions and is content to accept 2000 Naira at election time to vote for the idiots who make their lives miserable. There are 200 million solutions to our problems. Our attitude would therefore determine our altitude!
In the interim, let those who have a little patch in their homes grow something, pepper, cucumber, greens, lettuce, efo, and any other vegetable. Even tatase can grow and bear fruit from a sand bucket. Tomatoes grow in the backyard too including Plantain. When we cultivate the habit of growing some of what we eat, we would have shamed the demon called hunger.
In the words of Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, _“The state of pervasive insecurity continues to adversely impact agricultural production and the value it brings to the economy, especially in the Northern parts of the country._
_”Insecurity resulting from terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and cattle rustling has compelled many crop farmers and pastoralists to abandon their lands and relocate to the neighbouring countries of Niger, Chad, and Cameroun._
_“This has drastically caused a reduction in the production of food and skyrocketed prices of foodstuffs. Food scarcity in Nigeria is so dire that a report by Cadre Harmonize warns that between June and August this year, about 31.5 million Nigerians may face severe food shortages and scarcity.”_
But things can still be made right. However, in the words of Pat Utomi, _“Nigeria is a mess right now. A huge mess. Even the blind can see it. And the deaf can hear the cry of anguish of Nigeria’s children. Can the country be rescued? Possibly. But the myths, years of delusions of grandeur and criminal capture of the Nigerian state threaten the possibility.”_
Prayer!!!
*In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, The Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds; Most Gracious, Most Merciful; Master of the Day of Judgment. Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek. Show us the straight way, the way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, Those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray. (Quran 1:1-7)*
Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend
Babatunde Jose
