The temptation to remain immersed in Nigeria’s endless cycle of political theatre is strong, especially for those of us who track the nation’s pulse. The contradictions and confusion in our political formations continue to amaze even the most seasoned observers. In the last few days, we saw Peter Obi once again aligning himself with a faction of the Labour Party he had previously disowned, campaigning in Anambra for a candidate from the Abure-led faction, despite his public embrace of the Nenadi Usman caretaker camp. These inconsistencies reinforce the idea that our politics is often not driven by principle, but by convenience and access. While it is tempting to dig deeper into this confusion, doing so will only distract from what should be occupying our collective national attention—the urgent crisis of hunger and food insecurity engulfing the country.
Nigeria’s greatest threat today is not political disunity. It is hunger. It is the inability of a majority of our people to afford three meals a day, and for many, even one. The prices of staple foods have risen beyond the reach of most Nigerians. The cost of garri, rice, beans, yam, and maize has more than doubled. Protein-rich foods like fish, chicken, beef, and eggs are luxuries. Food inflation in Nigeria is not just a statistic—it is a daily crisis that is pushing millions into poverty, malnutrition, and desperation. Food insecurity undermines national security, education, health, and productivity. A hungry people cannot be patriotic. They cannot be peaceful. They cannot dream of a future when survival is not guaranteed. Our national conversation must therefore move from who becomes the next president to how we feed the people today and build an agricultural future that guarantees food for generations.
To fix this, Nigeria must declare a national agricultural and food security emergency. This should not be just another press release or empty policy promise. It must be followed by a structured National Agricultural Transformation Masterplan that lays out the strategy for increasing food production, creating jobs, boosting rural incomes, and making Nigeria self-sufficient in food supply. The masterplan must begin by addressing land access. We cannot grow food without land. State governments must map and release public lands for farming, offering low-cost leases to youth cooperatives, women’s groups, agropreneurs, and agribusiness firms. Traditional rulers and communities should be incentivised to release land for farming under negotiated community-benefit agreements, and a legal framework should be enacted to secure such land for agricultural use without fear of arbitrary revocation.
The second urgent reform must focus on massive investment in rural infrastructure. Farmers cannot produce at scale when roads are impassable, water sources are seasonal, and power is unavailable. The government should roll out an Agricultural Infrastructure Corridor Program (AICP), focused on building rural feeder roads, solar-powered irrigation schemes, mini-dams, storage silos, grain banks, and rural power hubs near major production zones. These investments will not only reduce post-harvest losses, but also de-risk farming and make it commercially viable. Each local government should be tasked with producing at least 10% of its staple food requirement within three years, and provided with funding and technical support to meet that target.
Financing is another critical bottleneck. Current agricultural financing mechanisms are plagued by politicisation, misallocation, and poor monitoring. What Nigeria needs is a National Agro-Finance Corporation (NAFC), a public-private hybrid institution dedicated solely to agriculture, with a strong governance board and strict lending guidelines. This corporation should offer single-digit loans tied to verifiable production targets, with crop and livestock insurance integrated to protect farmers from natural disasters and market shocks. More importantly, loan disbursement must be based on actual farm profiles captured in a nationwide digital registry of farmers. This registry must contain GPS mapping of farm locations, details of crops cultivated, and credit history. That way, Nigeria can track where its food is being grown and who is growing it.
Mechanisation must also be prioritised. Farming by hoe and cutlass is no longer an option for a nation of over 200 million people. The government must subsidise access to mechanisation services through regional tractor leasing centres and farm equipment pools managed by private operators under public supervision. In each senatorial district, there should be a fully equipped agro-service hub offering ploughing, planting, harvesting, and processing support at affordable rates. Youths can be trained and certified as tractor operators, irrigation technicians, farm drone pilots, and agri-input distributors, creating a new class of skilled agricultural workers.
Another area of massive potential is the reorganisation of livestock and animal protein production. The Federal Government must finally enforce the transition from open grazing to ranching. The proposed National Livestock Transformation Plan should be redesigned and implemented with state buy-in. Government ranches should be established in each geopolitical zone, with well-managed grazing fields, vet clinics, milk collection centres, abattoirs, and cold chains. These ranches should be business-oriented, attracting investors while creating rural jobs. A targeted plan should also be implemented to introduce improved animal breeds with higher yield in milk and meat. The same strategy must apply to poultry. Government must co-invest in feed production plants, hatcheries, and poultry farms across the six zones. Feed input control is key to stabilising prices of poultry products. Private investors should be given tax waivers and land if they build feed mills locally.
Fisheries and aquaculture must also be scaled. With over 850 kilometers of coastline, Nigeria should not be importing frozen fish. The government must end fish importation by 2030 and replace it with domestic aquaculture. This requires investment in hatcheries, fish feed plants, and inland fish farms along rivers and lakes. Aquaculture zones should be created and managed as clusters with processing facilities and distribution channels. Youth and women should be the key beneficiaries of these programs, and the Bank of Agriculture should develop fish-specific loan schemes with a moratorium during production cycles.
All of this requires people. Nigeria has an underutilised population of agriculture graduates, NYSC members, polytechnic technicians, and trained but unemployed youth. A National Agricultural Human Capital Scheme should be launched. It will deploy thousands of these graduates as agribusiness managers, extension agents, quality control officers, and cooperative leaders. During NYSC, agriculture graduates should be deployed to commercial farms, agro-processing zones, and innovation hubs. The Ministry of Agriculture, working with NYSC, should establish NYSC Agro-Battalions across states to manage large-scale youth farms. Those who wish to start their own farms after service should be granted start-up land, tools, and access to mentorship. In the same vein, government should reform technical colleges and reintroduce farm practice as a core national curriculum from primary to tertiary level, backed by functional school farms.
The expected fiscal and economic impact of a restructured and revived agricultural sector is immense. By targeting 10 million hectares of land across Nigeria for staple food production, the country can create over 5 million direct farm jobs and 12 million indirect jobs across processing, logistics, and marketing. If implemented strategically, the agriculture sector alone can contribute up to 30% of Nigeria’s GDP within the next 7 years—up from the current 23%. This translates to over ₦55 trillion in annual GDP contribution by 2031. Furthermore, structured agricultural value chains can increase internally generated revenue (IGR) for states by at least ₦500 billion cumulatively per annum through land leases, produce taxes, market levies, agro-processing permits, and local logistics fees. States like Benue, Niger, Ebonyi, Kebbi, Cross River, and Oyo could become billion-naira agro-economies in their own right, independently generating between ₦20 billion and ₦50 billion annually from the agriculture sector alone if well coordinated.
Private sector investment in agro-industrial parks, poultry clusters, fish hatcheries, and irrigation schemes can attract over $10 billion in domestic and foreign direct investment over the next decade. This will relieve pressure on oil revenue, improve balance of trade, and position Nigeria as West Africa’s food basket.
What Nigeria needs is not another policy document or media launch. We need action. Food production must become a national priority, above all other considerations. Security begins with food. Prosperity begins with food. Human dignity begins with food. We must grow what we eat and eat what we grow—or we risk losing everything else. Let us stop talking. Let us feed Nigerians.
