last week declared an immediate “State of Emergency” on food insecurity in the country.
In the recent past, there have been cases when constituted authorities declared a state of emergency due to civil unrest, armed conflict or epidemic across different areas/parts of the country. The situation worsened further due to the aftermath of government policies such as the immediate removal of petrol subsidies leading to increased transportation costs, and the move to unify forex rates, among others.
The report hinted that for the past three years, the trend in the overall food security environment has reversed. In 2022, an estimated population of 88.4 million people in Nigeria lived in extreme poverty, data on the website showed. While the number of men living on less than $1.90 per day in the country reached around 44.7 million, the count was at 43.7 million for women.
Last year, Nigeria witnessed one of its worst floods in the last decade as hundreds of villages and urban centres were submerged in waters, displacing over 2.4 million people. The high level of post-harvest losses being recorded worsens food availability due to Nigeria’s growing population, making it difficult to meet the increasing demand for food. Despite not producing enough to complement domestic consumption, a large chunk of food grown by farmers gets damaged due to supply chain disruption and logistic challenges.
In percentage terms, the highest allocation to agriculture in the past two decades by any government to date was in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Since then, Nigeria has struggled to reposition its agricultural sector, with the numerous policies introduced by different administrations. Kazeem Oyinwola, an Abuja-based legal practitioner at Amofin Solicitors, said by the reading of section 45 and and section 305 of the 1999 Constitution, a declaration of a state of emergency is within the purview of the powers of the executive president.
“This, therefore, goes without saying that the announcement of the ‘proposed’ state of emergency on food insecurity made by Mr Dele Alake, the presidential spokesperson, cannot be said to constitute a valid proclamation of a state of emergency yet,” Mr Oyinwola told PREMIUM TIMES in an interview.
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