All eyes are on the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Wale Edun, to take personally, President Bola Tinubu’s food imports waiver policy implementation announced as a means of temporarily ameliorating the current extreme hunger in Nigeria.

Following the #EndBadGovernance and #EndHardship protests in early August this year, which erupted as a result of Tinubu’s economic policies, the president told Nigerians in a national broadcast that he had approved a zero import duty and zero Value Added Tax policy for a range of staple foods to be imported to fill supply gaps. It was to end in January, 2025.

Two months after the announcement, the policy has failed to go into effect, despite the early formal letter of its approval which the Ministry forwarded to the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS.

Nigeria is facing severe food shortages and widespread hunger due to several factors. Apart from insurgency, banditry, terrorism and the menace of armed herdsmen which threaten security of lives and property in our main food producing areas of the North, the rising cost of available food is tied to the harsh economic climate occasioned by the removal of petrol subsidy and floating of the Naira.

Also, the global threat of climate change, which results in massive annual flooding, displaces many farming communities and destroys crops and farmlands. The food import waiver was designed to bring in staples at relatively cheaper cost to the final consumer while we wait for the Tinubu administration’s ambitious mechanised farming template to hopefully restore food security.

At first, the Nigerian Customs Service was generally blamed for the failure to activate the food import waiver. Critics blamed the Service for prioritising the meeting of revenue targets for the Federal Government over providing relief for the people. This was more so as Comptroller- General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, grumbled aloud that the food waiver would deprive the government of N188bn revenue.

It has since been discovered that the main cause of this policy failure is red tape within the Federal Ministry of Finance, which is accused of creating “impossible” obstacles for importers. The Ministry is said to be more interested in ensuring the protection of local farmers and that only genuine importers are allowed to participate.

We strongly believe that these laudable concerns can still be met without sabotaging the urgent need for the activation of the food import waiver policy. The president resorted to this policy because of severe domestic food supply shortfalls.

We call on the Ministry to immediately implement this policy and provide the needed food relief, more so as we approach the year’s end and festive season.

We are tired of excuses. (Vanguard Editorial)