A political economist and 2007 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Prof. Pat Utomi, has advised President Bola Tinubu on ways to tackle Nigeria’s surging inflation and food security crisis.
Tinubu, in his New Year address, pledged to prioritise food production and achieve economic stability by implementing policies aimed at reducing inflation and ensuring food security.
The President also pleaded his administration’s commitment to reduce inflation from its current 34.6 per cent to 15 per cent.
But Utomi said the success of the President’s goals would depend on his administration’s ability to tackle insecurity, provide incentives for farmers, and implement effective agricultural policies to create a stable and sustainable food production system in the country.
Utomi, who spoke in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, cautioned against the idea of massive food importation as a solution, warning that it would worsen Nigeria’s foreign exchange problems and undermine local agricultural production.
He argued that imported food would remain costly due to unfavourable exchange rates, maintaining that any subsidy on such imports would harm the nation’s capacity for sustainable food production.
Utomi said, “There is hunger, real hunger in the land. One of the biggest causes of inflation is food price inflation and it is central to how people feel and their abilities to do other things.
“To address this, the government needs to make a deliberate policy to push down the cost of food by investing in agriculture, giving massive incentives to young people to make farming attractive to them and check insecurity as quickly as possible.”
To address insecurity, Utomi proposed the creation of special agricultural security forces, forest rangers”, to protect farmlands and prevent clashes between farmers and herders or attacks by bandits.
He called on the government to support farmers to embark on irrigation schemes to enable year-round farming.
“The government should create schemes for unemployed youths, provide them with one hectare of land each, supply inputs, and train them in modern agricultural practices. In 90 days, we could see a significant increase in food production that would force down prices,” Utomi explained.