Abuja, March 13, 2024 – Peter Obi, the Presidential Candidate of Labour Party in the 2023 election, has decried the astronomical increase in prices of food items in the country.
He said the average Nigerian household now spent all his earnings on foods alone.
Obi made the observation in a statement posted on X handle on Wednesday.
Obi said he made the observation against the backdrop of a UNICEF Cadre Harmonisé report which projected that 31.5 million Nigerians at risk of acute hunger by August 2024.
Obi said that Nigeria was now ranked among the top 20 hungriest nations in the world.
He said the situation had become more complex with the high cost of living and high inflation rate which pervades our economy.
Today, with our ranking of 109 out of 125 countries measured on the Global Hunger Index, Nigeria is considered among the 20 hungriest nations in the world.
Many Nigerian households now spend almost all their income on food alone, leaving all other family expenses to anyone’s imagination.” the statement partly reads.\
Obi advised that there was the need to switch the nation’s economy from consumption to a productive one.
“I have consistently maintained that the surest way to fight hunger in Nigeria is by moving our nation from consumption to production, which entails aggressive investment in agriculture by fully exploring and cultivating the vast arable lands mostly in the Northern parts of the country.
“Now that we have been given notice of the impending danger – the additional number of Nigerians that will face hunger by June this year, I strongly urge that we work hard and put in place measures that will help us to avert it.
“We must take urgent steps to boost food production in the country to defeat the rising hunger and attendant anger in the nation.”
“With the high level of insecurity and terror attacks in many parts of the country hindering farmers from their agricultural activities, and management of our monetary policies impacting negatively on small businesses in the agricultural sector, the government must secure the farmers and give them adequate support for increased food production.
“Building a productive Nigeria remains our focus in the New Nigeria, which is possible.” he said. (GBN)
