Why can’t we feed ourselves?

Abraham Maslow in his theory of psychology explained human motivation based on the pursuit of different levels of needs. He identified the most basic necessity for human existence – Food! He could not have put it better. Indeed, food is the foundation of economic and social well-being and prosperity for every society. The colonial lords […]

Abraham Maslow in his theory of psychology explained human motivation based on the pursuit of different levels of needs. He identified the most basic necessity for human existence – Food! He could not have put it better. Indeed, food is the foundation of economic and social well-being and prosperity for every society. The colonial lords travelled thousands of kilometres across seas to Africa in search of food, and in the process took advantage of many other discoveries when they set their feet on the rich African soil. In their climes, farmers, teachers, and the military often command the most respect, not for their wealth, but for the existential roles they play in society – feeding, nurturing, and protecting the rest!

My father, grandfather, and great grandfather were farmers and indeed they lived a fulfilling life. Indeed, I was raised and educated with proceeds from the farm. Most of the past wealthy families in Nigeria were those with vast land to farm. At a time in Nigeria, food was never a concern for most people, if not all – it was given! People only worried about the perks of life, but not whether or not they would have food to survive. In fact, when I was growing up, everyone was barely a farmer because most people had vegetable gardens in their compound or farms they cultivated at the subsistence level.

Today, vegetable gardens have been replaced by foreign flower beds. It was almost impossible for anyone to buy some vegetables in the past because even if you didn’t have them in your garden, you could get them for free from your neighbour. If anyone had said lemon grass, waterleaf, and bitter leaf would now be so expensive like “gold”, I would have denied it because nobody would dare sell these items when I was growing up because it was like a free good that nobody would pay to get.

Fast forward a few decades to today. Our pride of arable land in Nigeria now ends on paper, as the nation cannot even feed itself, not to talk about exporting food. We remember the musician who sang that there are no more farmers because the son of a farmer has taken his father to the city and that the rural dwellers have resettled in the city.

It’s a great feat for a society to urbanise, but it becomes a problem when that distorts the productive base requisite for the existence of urban dwellers. Perhaps, policymakers paid no attention, as everyone moved in drones to the city in search of an evasive better life that some people have tagged as an illusion. Despite the glamour of the city, many people would likely be better off in the villages than going through the suffering in the city. Still, our society continues to demonise the village sometimes. It was not so with our founding fathers: Obafemi Awolowo Nnamdi Azikwe and the Sardauna, Ahmadu Bello, who developed the rural areas by putting roads, electricity, healthcare, and schools there. Today’s politicians don’t even know that people exist in the villages except when they need their votes.

It’s a convenient argument to say insecurity in the villages is the reason for people moving away from the farms but that’s like a reality show reflecting the neglect of farms. Unfortunately, it’s like a chicken and egg situation. Many youths are not interested in farming any longer, but you necessarily cannot blame them. Our rural areas are not just insecure to live in but life is also seemingly harsh there. Urbanisation is good but it should not be at the expense of developing the rural areas.

Kudos to the northern youths, many of whom still see and understand the tremendous value in the agricultural sector, even when bandits would not allow them. It is so sad that in the South, where farms may still be considered to be relatively safe, a false perception of tertiary education as a ticket to white-collar jobs that are unfortunately nonexistent, continues to undermine the interest of the youths in agriculture. Even those who are uneducated would rather seek daily income riding Okada or remain unengaged than to see opportunities in agriculture because they just do not see it as a lucrative venture.

It is sad that the story and perhaps reality that many youths see today is that of farmers being poor, even though farmers were the richest Nigerians until a couple of decades ago. Indeed, this is why some people have said that democracy stole our enterprise and productivity, especially in the agricultural sector. Today, if you announce an audition for a musical concert, everyone wants to be in the race, but if you put up an advert to recruit for a commercial farm, you are probably wasting your time.

Our boast of being an oil-producing nation is almost becoming history if the current official export numbers are anything to go by. And I say official exports because another 50% or more of the official exports move in tug boats and big ships out of the country, courtesy of the daylight robbery no longer done by supposed “militants” but by powerful cabals who are perhaps the same people stealing proceeds of the official exports. We say we have one of the largest gas deposits in the world and indeed we are ranked high on deposits of many mineral resources, but what do we make of them? As Professor Amatya Sen, Nobel Laureate Economist, succinctly summarised in his “Sens Capability Theory”, it is not what you have that matters but what you make out of it”.

Russia threatened to cut off the gas supply to Europe and its supposed “enemies” started changing the tune of their chorus. In fact, the Russian Ruble rather than losing strength during the war period has rather gained against most currencies of the world to rank as the best performing currency in the world. That is what it means to be a relevant country in the scheme of things and that is what it means to be missed if you are not there and that is when the world would take you seriously because the globe cannot afford to miss you.

Why is it difficult to retrace our steps? Why is it that our youths would rather seek opportunities in riding “okada” or worse still, being thugs to politicians rather than seeking productive opportunities in farming?

For Nigeria, even if we can’t export food, we should be able to feed ourselves. That is the greatest security anybody can give to his people after the protection of lives. If we are productive and everyone can have food on the table and hope to have food tomorrow, nobody would have a sleepless night. We should not rely on smaller countries to feed us either through handouts or imports of basic food items. Why can’t we rebuild our farms and go back to our basis?