…Nearly 17m Nigerians face food insecurity – Report
The various security threats in Nigeria have adversely affected food security, triggering high costs of food, Minister of Defence, Maj-Gen. Bashir Magashi, (rtd), has said.
According to Magashi, who stated this during the opening of a retreat for Defence Advisers/Attaches Conference, organised by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), yesterday in Abuja, said this poses a new dimension of threats to the country.
The conference/retreat was themed: “Advancing Counterterrorism Efforts through Enhanced Inter-Agency Cooperation: A Whole of Government Approach”.
He said the attacks by Boko Haram terrorists and Islamic State in West Africa Province, (ISWAP), in the North-East region as well as banditry and herder/militia in the North-West and Central, had continued to pose serious security threats to Nigeria.
According to him, the littoral states in the South-South region are plagued with illegal oil bunkering, piracy and militancy while the South-East is challenged with secessionist activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), adding that the South-West region is equally plagued by occasional tension between herders and farmers and secessionist agitation.
“In particular, food security has been adversely affected with the attendant rise in the prices of foodstuff across the country which portends a new dimension of threat”, he stated.
Magashi said that the Defence Advisers/Attachés system had crucial roles to play by forging understanding and cooperation with the security and defence architectures in their respective countries of accreditation.
The National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, said the Defence Attachés/Advisers were considered critical stakeholders in surmounting the myriad of security challenges facing Nigeria.
Monguno, represented by his Principal General Staff Officer, Maj.-Gen. Abubakar Ndalolo, said that Nigeria had been adopting both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches in dealing with security challenges, adding that both approaches had been yielding results.
In a related development, nearly 17 million Nigerians are projected to be either at crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity next year, according to a major report.
The investigation, the bi-annual Cadre Harmonise framework, was led by Nigeria’s Ministry of Agriculture with technical and financial support from the United Nations and NGOs.
Between October and December this year, more than 12.1 million Nigerians in 21 States were either at crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity, the report, published on Friday, stated.
That number is projected to increase to 16.8 million between June and August next year, it added.
