By Myke Uzendu, Abuja
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has accused the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of creating a humanitarian crisis through what it described as failed economic and security policies, following reports that more than 17 million Nigerians are facing acute hunger.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) had recently reported that over 17 million people across nine conflict-affected states in northern Nigeria are experiencing crisis, emergency or catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
In a statement issued on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party said the growing food insecurity across the country was the result of government failures rather than unavoidable circumstances.
According to the report, the number of people facing acute hunger has increased by nearly two million from previous projections, with more than three million people affected in Borno State alone. Combined figures for Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states were put at 6.2 million.
The ADC said the WFP findings confirmed longstanding concerns over the worsening humanitarian situation in the country.
“These are not opposition figures. They are not campaign slogans. They are the findings of the world’s leading humanitarian agency on hunger,” the party said.
It blamed the worsening food crisis on persistent insecurity, attacks on farming communities, mass displacement, limited humanitarian access and declining support for vulnerable populations.
According to the opposition party, the situation reflected the Federal Government’s inability to secure farming communities, curb banditry and terrorism, and address the rising cost of living.
The ADC also criticised what it described as the government’s response to the crisis, alleging that while millions of Nigerians struggle to afford basic meals, public officials have continued to deny the scale of hunger in the country.
The party argued that the food crisis could not be resolved through palliative measures or official assurances, insisting that Nigeria required a comprehensive strategy that treats food security as a national security priority.
Highlighting its policy proposals, the ADC said its manifesto places agriculture and food security at the centre of national economic planning.
The party said an ADC-led government would make food security a permanent item on the agenda of the National Security Council while coordinating responses among the federal, state and local governments.
It also pledged increased investment in smallholder farmers through improved farm inputs, mechanisation, extension services and better market access to boost food production and combat inflation.
The party further promised to rehabilitate Nigeria’s 264 abandoned dams to support all-season irrigation, expand agricultural productivity and reduce dependence on rainfall.
Other proposed interventions include investments in aggregation centres, warehouses, cold-chain facilities and strategic grain reserves to reduce post-harvest losses, stabilise food prices and strengthen the country’s food supply chain.
The ADC maintained that insecurity, food inflation and unemployment were interconnected challenges arising from poor governance, adding that the latest WFP report underscored the need for urgent policy reforms.
“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 added.
