Nigerians continue to grapple with food inflation despite the promise by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, that food prices would crash in 180 days.

In July 2024, Kyari raised hopes with the assurance that strategic measures would be put in place to address the high food prices nationwide.

According to him, some of the measures include the suspension of duties, tariffs, and taxes on food items such as maize, husked brown rice, wheat, and cowpeas.

Our administration has unveiled a series of strategic measures aimed at addressing the high food prices currently affecting our nation. These measures will be implemented over the next 180 days;

1.150-Day Duty-Free Import Window for Food Commodities
•Suspension of duties,… pic.twitter.com/cdhCGikzjs

— Sen. Abubakar Kyari, CON (@SenatorAKyari) July 10, 2024

He also promised that the Federal Government would import 250,000 metric tonnes of wheat and 250,000 metric tonnes of maize to be supplied to small-scale processors and millers across the country.

To strengthen dry season farming and boost productivity, the minister assured Nigerians that the government would embark on aggressive agricultural mechanisation.

These measures, calculated to calm food inflation in 180 days gave Nigerians a sense of hope that by the first week of January 2024, the prices of essential staples would have crashed.

Food prices

Unfortunately, 180 days after the minister’s lofty promises and assurance, implementation of the measures is yet to be seen as food prices continue to soar.
As things stand, a 50kg bag of rice sold for N85,000 when Kyari unveiled the measures now sells for over N100,000.

Besides the agriculture minister’s yet-to-be fulfilled promises, the government had earlier highlighted other factors that hinder its efforts to control food inflation.

In his last Monetary Policy Committee meeting, Yemi Cardoso, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, identified “the rising cost of transporting farm produce; infrastructure-related constraints within the distribution network; security challenges in some food-producing areas; and the impact of exchange rate fluctuations on the prices of imported food items” as some of the factors that the efforts to control food inflation.

Meanwhile, as food inflation surged to 39.93% with Nigerians looking up to the government for immediate solutions, the Ministry of Agriculture has not offered any explanation as to why the measures it promised have not been implemented yet.

Why govt failed – CSOs, farmers

Speaking with Vanguard on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, they pointed out that the government failed to put a whole lot of issues into consideration including insecurity, high prices of farm inputs, the exchange rates, high interest rates, flood impacts, holistic planning, and others.

The Chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, Federal Capital Territory, FCT Chapter, Nkechi Okafor, asserted that the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security had a very good intention to crash food prices but that lack of appropriate actions slowed the process.

Okafor said: “I can clearly say that the Honourable Minister’s promise was made with the mindset of a better Nigeria. But unfortunately, a promise can’t be achieved if there are no effective actions in place.

“Food prices cannot just go down overnight especially with the multiple taxation faced on Nigeria highways by transporters, which is just one out of numerous challenges faced by agricultural value chain actors in Nigeria.

In his view, the Managing Director, EA Daniels Farm, Engr Daniel Ijeh, explained that one of the major causes of failure to meet the 180 days declaration by the Federal Government was due to lack of importation of food and other measures that were not implemented.

Ijeh said: “If they want to import to crash the price of food, what the minister is saying is the cost of importation is way lower than the cost of purchasing from the local market. And if you check the price of grain from that time till December, there was no any sign that there was importation at all because there was steady increase.

“That is why I doubt whether there was importation at all. Then the exchange rate was too high because I remember very well that around August, I bought some Dollars with N1,600. Now, I think around November Dollar was selling for N1,700. So foreign exchange rate will never favour importation because the price will be too high, and, you know, the people who want to do that, they will still be thinking of how are they going to make profit?”

‘All careless talks’

Rafsanjani said: “We just want to advise that public officials should be mindful of saying things that they have no control over, especially when his (Kyari) principal says that he does not believe in price control.

“So, it is not good to raise the expectation of citizens, and the government is not there to intervene. This is the very reason why some people don’t want to believe in the government’s statement. Whenever the government says something, people don’t believe in it because they don’t rarely see any sincerity about it.”

Corroborating Rafsanjani’s sentiment, the Executive Director, Global Rights Nigeria, Abiodun Baiyewu said Kyari’s comments were careless and only further erodes trust in the government.

According to him, it was a poor attempt at rallying support for the Tinubu administration by giving false hope, adding that the minister ought to apologise to Nigerians for his ‘careless remarks.’

“It should have been clear to him that the reduction in import taxes were not sufficient to deal with the short fall. The exchange rate was still inordinately too high for private importers, and the time it takes in clearing them from the ports only further exacerbates their ordeal and raises their fares.

“With the rise in the cost of fuel, the cost of transportation and preservation also rose exponentially.
“If he is committed to ensuring food security, there is a lot the administration can do and he should work on implementing these,” Baiyewu submitted.

Felix Morka, the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has clarified his controversial statement and alleged death threat insinuation against Peter Obi and his family.

The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election recently alleged that Morka’s reaction to his New Year message has led to threats against his life and family.

It would be recalled that following Obi’s New Year message, the APC chieftain during an interview on Arise TV said “Obi has crossed the line so many times” adding that “whatever he has coming to him, he should manage it.”

According to Obi, since Morka made the statement on TV, he has been receiving all sorts of messages including threats to his life and that of those around him.

However, Morka while appearing on Arise TV’s The Morning Show on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, explained that his statement did not suggest any threat to Obi’s life.

He clarified that the comment was a direct response to the question about Obi being labeled a voodoo economist and prophet of doom.

Morka said his comment on Obi getting whatever comes to him is predicated on his belief that the ex-governor of Anambra State has crossed several lines of truth, adding that he deserved whatever names he’s called because he speaks “a lot of falsehood.”

The APC chieftain said, “If Peter Obi was called a prophet of doom or was called a voodoo economist, he has it coming to him because he has crossed several lines of truth, end of story. There’s nothing else to suggest (threats) in those words that I said in the moment of the interview. Peter Obi is speaking a lot of falsehood.”

While dismissing Obi’s death threat claim, Morka asked the Labour Party chieftain to produce evidence of the alleged threats against his life and his family members.

“He who alleges must prove. If Peter Obi says anyone threatened him, he must beyond just saying I’ve been threatened. For a man in his standing, I think he should supply some evidence of those who threatened him because if anyone threatened Peter Obi, we should not be having a conversation in your studio. The law enforcement system should be looking for those who threatened Obi’s life,” Morka said.

The APC Publicity Secretary maintained that he did not threaten Obi, insisting that his comment was about him being deservedly labeled a voodoo economist because he “crosses several lines of truth.”

The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, says that telecom tariffs will soon increase but assures Nigerians that it will not be the 100 per cent that telecom operators are pushing for at the moment.

The Minister disclosed this at a stakeholders’ meeting with Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) on Wednesday in Abuja. He said consultations and engagements were ongoing to arrive at an acceptable rate, assuring that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), would soon approve the new tariffs and make it public to Nigerians.

“You have seen over the past weeks that there has been agitation from some of these companies to increase tariff. They are requesting for 100 per cent tariff increase.

“But it will not be by 100 per cent. We are still looking at that study and NCC will come up with a clear directive on how we will go about it.

“We want to strike the balance as a government to protect our people, but also protect and ensure that these companies can continue to invest significantly.

“We need to ensure that as a sector, we get our acts together, ensure that from the regulation side, we put the right regulations in place that can ensure the growth of this sector.”

The Minister also noted that the Federal Government would no longer leave investments on infrastructure in the sector to private companies alone.

“As a country, over time, we have left this investments in the hands of the private sector. They typically invest where they can see returns in the short to medium term.

“We will not want this conversation to just be about tariff increase. I think what the world is talking about today is meaningful connectivity.

“You want to have access to very good quality service.

“A part of it that the consumers may not be aware of is the investment that needs to go into the infrastructure that is used to deliver these services,” he said.

The Executive Vice-Chairman (EVC), of the NCC Dr Aminu Maida said that the meeting with stakeholders was about the sustainability of the industry.

“We have looked at all of these factors, and that is why, like the Minister said, it is not likely that we are going to approve 100 per cent tariff increase.

“I know that Nigerians are agitated to hear the exact percentage approved. There is still some stakeholder engagements that we are going through, but you will hear from us within a week or two.”

He said that the NCC had put a number of tools and instruments into place by revising its quality of service regulations for compliance service quality.

He said that the MNOs must comply simplified templates to show Nigerians charges per minute for voice calls, SMS and a megabyte of data.

“We are moving away from the regime where you will have a main rate, then you will now have a bonus which is at a different rate.

“It makes it often complicated and difficult for Nigerians to actually understand what they are being charged for.

“This is one of the things when we took a lot of time over the past year looking at data there is this agitation that the MNOs are stealing our data,” he said.

The CEO of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh, represented by Femi Adeniran, Airtel media spokes person, noted that for the telecoms commitment to delivering superior connectivity and fostering digital inclusion, there is need for tariff increments.

“The economic realities of rising operational and capital costs, necessitated the proposed tariff adjustments.

This is aimed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the sector while unlocking significant benefits for Nigerian consumers,” he said.

Bashir Ahmad, former Special Assistant on Digital Communications to former President, Muhammadu Buhari, has argued that Almajiri children should not be regarded as out-of-school kids. 

Ahmad shared this in a tweet on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, affirming the sentiment of the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Saidu on the matter. 

Almajiri is an Hausa word which means a group of people or children who leave their homes in search of Quranic knowledge. However, the term has been colloquially expanded to refer to any young person who begs on the streets and does not attend secular school.

In his submission, Bashir called for the integration of the Almajiri education system into the national educational framework.

The ex-presidential aide argued that the Federal Government’s recognition of the Almajiri set up as a system of education could make the north become the region with the least number of out-of-school children in the country.

“The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Saidu, is absolutely correct that Almajiri children should not be classified as out-of-school children, as the Almajiri is a system of Islamic education. However, I believe the best way to address this is by integrating the Almajiri education system into our national educational framework or ensuring it is officially recognized by the system.

“Once this is achieved, the northern states could become those with the lowest numbers of out-of-school children, as it is rare to find a child in the north who does not attend either formal or Islamic school,” he said.

He added that Almajiri children are visible on the streets primarily because the current system does not adequately provide for their needs. 

“If Almajiri schools were given treatment in terms of support and structure similar to that of boarding schools, the narrative would change entirely,” he said.