The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government to end their insensitivity and take urgent steps to address the worsened food insecurity and the attendant hunger and starvation across the nation.
The PDP, in a statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan said the worsened food insecurity was killing Nigerians.
The PDP lamented that under Buhari, over 82.9 million Nigerians can no longer afford their daily meals due to the failure of the administration to take practical steps to grow and protect the food sector, thereby leading to severe food scarcity with prices soaring beyond the reach of Nigerians.
“Due to the misrule of the APC and Buhari administration, our country now ranks as 98 out of 107 in Global Hunger Index, with an agonizing food shortage, collapsed purchasing power; alarming 33.3 percent unemployment and 22.95 food inflation rates as well as increased morbidity and mortality rates.
“Today, under the APC, a bag of rice which sold for N8,000 under the PDP now sells for N30,000, a measure of garri and beans which sold for N150 and N250 now sell for N500 and N800 respectively; a measure of maize and guinea corn which sold for about N150 now sells for N400 while a kilo of meat which sold for about N800 now sells for about N2,300,” the party stated.
The party also noted that the current food crisis is occasioned by the failure of the APC administration to recalibrate the agricultural sector as well as to take decisive steps to address the violence, terrorism and banditry in food production areas.
It stated that Nigerians recall how the APC administration had remain insensitive to calls by the party and well-meaning Nigerians asking it to address the escalated violent attacks and killing of farmers as well as livestock producers, by bandits, terrorists and criminal herders resulting in desertion of farms in various parts of our country.
The party further stated that under the APC and Buhari watch, farmers now overflow in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps as their fields and farmhouses have been overrun by bandits and terrorists including political mercenaries brought into the country by the APC to assist in unleashing violence to rig the 2019 general elections.
It asked Buhari to take urgent steps to address the urgent issue of hunger by opening silos to cushion the situation and push down prices.
It said the Federal Government should also realign the agricultural sector by beefing up security in food production areas so that farmers could return to their farmlands.
The PDP also urged Buhari to provide direct stimuli to small businesses as incentive to pay salaries, revamp production and boost purchasing power.
