It’s no longer news that the federal government is set to disburse twenty-five thousand naira (N25,000) to about twelve million homes across the country, often referred to as the most vulnerable and multi-dimensionally poor, to cushion the impact of hunger ravaging the country. While we continue to ruminate how the government arrived at the amount and the number of beneficiaries, the crux of the matter is that Nigeria never had it this bad, economically in the recent years. It is disheartening that six months after this government came to power; the people are yet to feel the impact of good governance. It is more disturbing that what we see on daily basis are government officials who are more interested in going about distributing few cups of rice to the people, rather than sitting down to work which was why they were appointed in the first place.
We also see a government struggling to convince her citizens why these and that are happening, rather than renewing the hope of the people it promised to bring back from the brink. The free fall of the naira which is now one thousand two hundred naira (N1,200) to a US dollar, may likely go higher according to analysts, by Christmas and in the New Year. Making the economy work and the naira to appreciate different from what obtained in the last administration which this government promised to do, but regrettably today, the signs are not what exactly it should be. That is why the government is talking about sharing money to the people, instead of coming up with ideas that would stimulate the economy for the general good.
It is no longer news that the Global Hunger Index (GHI) listed Nigeria among the nine countries prone to food crises, hunger and acute food shortage in 2023. This also corroborated the survey carried out by the World Bank through what it called food security update, which reported that millions of Nigerians will be at high risk of food insecurity which is already the case. Making food available for all citizens is one of the primary functions of any government. In fact, it is not negotiable except in Nigeria where those in authority lord it over the people, abandoning their primary responsibilities. With the seeming inability of the government to provide food for the people, it should ensure that farmers who were driven from their homes owing to insecurity are returned to their ancestral homelands with adequate security provided for them. We want to see some radical reforms.
With the largest cabinet ever, this administration should wake up and be alive to its responsibilities. It is alarming, and indeed, a crying shame that many families in Nigeria go to bed on empty stomach. More worrying is that the so called N25,000 largesse which the Federal Government is poised to distribute because of poor run of the naira against the dollar has further compounded the woes of many families that cannot buy basic food items under the present circumstances.
By and large, the inability of the Federal Government to fix the economy is the reason the economy and the people are struggling. This situation will continue except those appointed to revamp the economy wake up to the reality of things, and not dishing out handouts that are like drops in the ocean. Government at various levels should stand tall, rejig the economy to avoid the looming danger staring the people in the face.
