President Bola Tinubu’s broadcast on Sunday to Nigerians on the fourth day of the hunger protests did not proffer immediate solutions to the demands of Nigerians.
The President merely made promises that included cultivating over 10 million hectares of farmland across the nation and expending billions of naira to order mechanised farming equipment from the U.S., Belarus and Brazil to facilitate crop growth; a solution that may not immediately yield any impact.
Prices of staple foods have increased within one year of Mr Tinubu’s presidency as a 50kg bag of brown beans as of July cost N145,000 from N26,000 in 2023, according to market surveys.
Mr Tinubu said he was meeting with state governors to provide fertile expanse of lands for not only farming purposes but also for job opportunities, noting that the government would have to employ hands and provide incentives to cultivate the lands which would reduce food prices.
He added, “I have been meeting with our governors and key ministers to accelerate food production. We have distributed fertilisers. Our target is to cultivate more than 10 million hectares of land to grow what we eat. The federal government will provide all necessary incentives for this initiative, whilst the states provide the land, which will put millions of our people to work and further increase food production.”
The President added that he was confident that the ordered farming equipment were already on their way to Nigeria.
He stated, “In the past few months, we have also ordered mechanised farming equipment such as tractors and planters, worth billions of naira from the United States, Belarus, and Brazil. I can confirm to you that the equipment is on the way.”
Despite ambitious initiatives, they don’t immediately solve the growing frustration amongst citizens who could no longer afford to feed with the rising inflation that drove food prices to about 400 per cent.
One of the protesters at the Abuja National Stadium told Peoples Gazette on Thursday that, “See common garri now, a cup of garri is now N200.We just dey suffer.”
