By Our Reporter
The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the last general election and former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, has decried the level of hunger among Nigerin populace.
Reacting to what was regarded as acute hunger in many quarters and among hundreds of familiies across the country, Obi, in his X handle, said: ”We are gradually descending to the level of survival of the fittest, where, driven by hunger and quest for survival, one loses every sense of order to do the unthinkable.”
Refrencing WFP, 2024, he said 18.6 million Nigerians are currently facing acute hunger, while 43.7 million Nigerians have shown crisi-level or above crisis- level hunger coping strategies, as of March 2024.
According to the presidential candidte in the 2023 presidential election, Obi said what was now very worrisome is that many Nigerians have lost their lives in their quest to find food, reflecting a very acute level of hunger not yet captured in the media.
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He said: ” While I have consistently and publicly voiced out my worries over this growing food crisis, which has continued to claim lives of ourfellow Nigerians, I belief that the needed urgencyrequired to address these issues cannot be over emphasized.
”The report this morning reads, in part, the number of food-insecure Nigerins increased significantly, from 66.2 million in Q12023 TO 100 million Q1 2024 (WFP, 2024), with 18.6 million facing acute hunger and 43.73 million Nigerian showing crisis- level or above crisis-level hunger-coping strategies as of March 2024.”
According to Obi, an earlier similar report by Cadre Harmonise stated that about 31.5 million Nigerians are projected to face acute hunger by June- August, this year.
He explained that the prediction may likely come to reality particularly in a situation whereby bandits attackes farmers successfully and abducted them from their farms, killed some or where the little number of farmers that are farmingfpay as high as N100,000 as levies to bandits before being allowed to carryout farming activities on their farmland.
He said: ”It is a matter of severe urgency, for the government to give all due attention to the problems of insecurity in the country. This will in turn reduce the problem of food insecurity and brign down the high prices of foodstuffs across the country.
