17m Nigerians Pushed Into Hunger By Policy Failures – ADC

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused the Bola Tinubu administration of creating a humanitarian crisis, following reports by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) that more than 17 million Nigerians are facing acute hunger across nine conflict-affected northern states.

In a statement on Monday by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC described the worsening food insecurity as “a government-created humanitarian disaster” caused by insecurity, poor economic policies and what it termed the Federal Government’s misplaced priorities.

According to the opposition party, the WFP findings showed that over 17 million Nigerians are experiencing crisis, emergency or catastrophic levels of food insecurity, with more than three million affected in Borno State alone, while the combined figure for Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states has risen to 6.2 million.

The ADC stressed that the figures were not politically motivated. “These are not opposition figures. They are not campaign slogans. They are the findings of the world’s leading humanitarian agency on hunger,” the statement said.

The party argued that the WFP identified expanding insecurity, attacks on farming communities, mass displacement, restricted humanitarian access and declining support for vulnerable populations as the key drivers of the crisis.

“The hunger confronting millions of Nigerians today is not a natural disaster. It is an APC-inspired government-created humanitarian disaster,” the ADC stated.

The party blamed the Tinubu administration for failing to curb banditry and terrorism, which it said had displaced farmers and reduced agricultural production, while harsh economic policies had pushed food beyond the reach of millions of Nigerians.

According to the ADC, the humanitarian situation was “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.”

The opposition also criticised the Federal Government’s handling of the economic situation, saying repeated assurances that citizens’ hardship would be temporary had not materialised.

“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 us, the Nigerian people, are being pushed deeper into hunger,” the statement added.

The party further accused government officials of showing “cruel indifference” to the suffering of citizens.

“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 heads in the clouds,” it said.

It added that the Presidency’s recent official denial of widespread hunger contrasted sharply with the reality on the ground.

Presenting its alternative approach, the ADC said its manifesto places food security at the centre of national security and economic policy.

The party pledged that an ADC government would make food security a permanent agenda of the National Security Council, prioritise support for smallholder farmers through mechanisation, improved inputs, extension services and market access, while reviving the country’s 264 abandoned dams to boost irrigation and year-round farming.

It also promised investments in aggregation centres, warehouses, cold-chain infrastructure and strategic grain reserves to reduce post-harvest losses and stabilise food prices.

The ADC maintained that the proposals were already contained in its manifesto and not conceived in reaction to the latest WFP report.

“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,” the statement concluded.