It is no longer news that Nigerians are facing hard times and the need for more proactive measures to address the situation of hunger in the country cannot come at a more appropriate time than now.
The recent stampedes recorded in some states leading to death during palliative distribution is a pointer to that fact.
The National Secretary of the Labour Party (LP), Alhaji Umar Farouk Ibrahim, said the stampede to death of about 65 Nigerians recorded in Oyo, Anambra states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is worrisome.
Alhaji Ibrahim said the stampedes had become one too many, and such magnitude of the loss of lives at a time when Nigeria is not facing any natural disaster was a pointer to the fact that hunger could be the worst epidemic a people can face.
It would be recalled that about 40 children were reported to have died during a stampede at a carnival in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital; 20 residents of the Okija community in Anambra State lost their lives in a similar stampede. On the same day, more than 10 people died following a stampede in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Sighting World Bank report, he said that in 2023, the poverty rate in Nigeria was estimated to be 38.9%, with 87 million Nigerians living below the poverty line. However, presently, the poverty rate in Nigeria is estimated to be 40.7%. This makes Nigeria the second-largest poor population in the world after India.
He said it was poverty that could make some Nigerians go scooping fuel from accident scenes, resulting in an inferno which brought about hundreds of casualties.
Similarly, he said, the National Bureau of Statistics survey revealed that more than 2 million people have been kidnapped in Nigeria in the last year, and Nigerians paid a cumulative $1.42 billion to kidnappers within the same period.
Also, the Archbishop of Anglican communion, Kaduna province, Most Reverend Timothy Yahaya, and the National Assembly should set up a forensic audit committee to probe the agricultural sector and uncover billions of naira that have sunk into it.
Also, the Catholic Archbishop of Kaduna, Most Rev. Matthew Man-Oso Ndagoso, has advised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reverse his economic policies, stressing that the recent stampede in Oyo, Anambra, and Abuja was caused by hunger.
