It’s World Food Day, but we’re not exactly throwing a party to commemorate the occasion because at least 41.8 million people in Nigeria can no longer afford to eat. Countries like Afghanistan and Kenya would probably be celebrating a day like this because they are slowly making it out of the food insecurity trenches, but there isn’t much to celebrate in Nigeria because we’ve now unlocked a new level in the global Hunger Games.
I was going to drop a little “it is well” line here but the World Bank’s new report shows that things are in fact not well. According to the report, the United Nations (UN) goal to end extreme poverty by 2030 is no longer possible, and countries with extremely weak currencies like Nigeria are at the worst end of this possibility. Don’t quote me, but it’s Tinubu maths when I say that people are only going to get hungrier in the coming years.
So, while Americans stuff their mouths with McDonalds to celebrate World Food Day, this is what Nigerians are going to be eating today;
Empty promises
On Monday, October 14, the Federal Government told Nigerians that there’s light at the end of the tunnel but maybe I’m the one with shortsightedness because I can’t see shit. In July, President Bola Tinubu finally decided to address the rising cost of food in Nigeria by temporarily removing duty and value-added taxes on basic food. The plan was for this to kick off on July 15 and last till December 21, 2024.
Just when people were starting to get their hopes up that the tax removal would drastically make food cheaper and help Tinubu beat the “tone-deaf” accusations, our president ghosted- the plan never took off, food inflation increased to 39.53% in July, and Tinubu went back to his overused “it will get better soon” script.
Nothing
“I hope you’re hungry … for nothing”. Nobody can tell me that this isn’t Tinubu’s favourite pop culture reference. You wouldn’t understand how high food prices are today until you compare them to 2023 prices.
Even Nigerians who earn reasonably above the minimum wage are now struggling to afford food items that they could easily afford in 2023. We are so cooked (this one is not pun, it’s real life).
Tinubu’s multiple persona designs
The only “light at the end of the tunnel” that I’ve been seeing lately are the T-pain-inspired designs that started rolling in after President Tinubu told Nigerians to stop calling him T-pain. Nigerians might face another Twitter ban soon but we can all agree that the designs eat before we start looking for the best VPN.
I wish I could tell you that we’d be going back to those 2023 food prices soon but the inflation rate just increased for the first time in three months. I hate to break it to you but we’re going to be stuck with Nigeria’s food insecurity problem for a while.
