The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has condemned the President Bola Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) Federal Government over what it described as its “cruel indifference” to the growing humanitarian crisis caused by insecurity and economic hardship, which it said has displaced farming communities and pushed food beyond the reach of millions of Nigerians.

The party made the statement following a report by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), which indicated that more than 17 million Nigerians across nine conflict-affected northern states are facing acute hunger.

In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC described the report as evidence of a growing humanitarian disaster caused by what it termed the Tinubu administration’s incompetence, misplaced priorities and failed policies.

“The WFP has now confirmed what millions of Nigerians already know from painful daily experience: hunger is spreading, insecurity is winning, and this government has no plan,” he said.

Abdullahi stated that the ADC had consistently argued that Nigeria’s food crisis could not be solved through speeches, palliatives or reactive interventions, but required a coherent national strategy that treats food security as an issue of national survival.

“That is precisely why the ADC manifesto places food security and agriculture at the centre of national security and economic policy,” he said.

According to him, an ADC government would make food security a permanent agenda item of the National Security Council and coordinate a unified national response involving the Federal, state and local governments.

He added that the party’s manifesto prioritises smallholder farmers through investments in improved farm inputs, mechanisation, extension services and market access, stressing that Nigeria cannot tackle inflation without significantly increasing food production.

The party spokesman said an ADC administration would immediately revive the country’s 264 abandoned dams to support year-round irrigation, reduce dependence on seasonal rainfall and expand agricultural productivity.

He further stated that an ADC-led government would invest in aggregation centres, warehouses, cold-chain infrastructure and strategic grain reserves to reduce post-harvest losses, stabilise food prices and protect households during periods of economic hardship.

“These are not policies invented in response to today’s headlines. They are already contained in the ADC manifesto because we recognised long ago that insecurity, food inflation and unemployment are not separate crises. They are different consequences of the same failure of governance,” he added.

Part of the statement read: “The African Democratic Congress has received with profound concern the latest assessment by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), which confirms that Nigeria is now facing one of its worst food security emergencies in almost a decade.

“According to the WFP, more than 17 million Nigerians across nine conflict-affected northern states are now facing crisis, emergency or catastrophic levels of food insecurity. This represents an increase of almost two million people from previous projections. In Borno State alone, more than three million people are acutely food insecure, while the combined figure for Borno, Adamawa and Yobe has risen to 6.2 million people.

“These are not opposition figures. They are not campaign slogans. They are the findings of the world’s leading humanitarian agency on hunger.

“The WFP also identifies the principal causes of this unfolding tragedy: expanding insecurity, attacks on farming communities, mass displacement, restricted humanitarian access and declining support for vulnerable populations.

“In other words, the hunger confronting millions of Nigerians today is not a natural disaster. It is an APC-inspired, government-created humanitarian disaster.

“This humanitarian crisis is also the predictable outcome of a government that has failed to secure Nigerian lives, failed to protect Nigerian farmers and failed to address the cost-of-living crisis that it has created.

“For three years, the Tinubu government has repeatedly told Nigerians that the pain we are experiencing is temporary. The WFP has now confirmed what Nigerians have been saying all along: insecurity is spreading, agricultural production is declining, food inflation is worsening, and millions of Nigerians are being pushed deeper into hunger.

“What makes this tragedy even more painful is that it has unfolded under a government whose priorities have been fundamentally misplaced. While millions of Nigerian families are struggling to eat even one meal a day and parents are forced to decide which child eats first, the Tinubu administration has kept its head in the clouds. Only recently, a spokesman for the administration denied the tragic reality of acute hunger in the country while government officials continue to live in obscene opulence. The tragedy is that none of this was inevitable…” (Nigerian Tribune)

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