system of Nigeria.
Such bottlenecks include six main types namely: inadequate voice and accountability, political instability and occurrence of violence, government ineffectiveness, poor regulatory quality, lack of rule of law, and uncontrolled corruption. All these are issues of serious concern to the UN, which the fund may be deployed to fix the hunger problem rampaging the region in the medium to long term.
“The amount appropriated to the agricultural sector in the 2024 budget is N362.9 billion representing 1.2 per cent of the national budget. This is further broken down into a capital budget of 252.7 billion, N102.1 for personnel, and N8.1 billion for overhead costs. This amount is grossly inadequate and does not demonstrate the federal government’s commitment to addressing food insecurity in the country.
“That against this background, there is an urgent need for a mind, policy and practice to change the philosophy behind the process, from the traditional philosophy of human need to the contemporary philosophy of human rights.
“Towards this end, the strategy for dealing with food insecurity in the north east should be anchored on food as human right but not mere human need any longer. Incidentally, the much-awaited Right to Food Bill has now been passed into law (Act No. 34 2023), which grants formal recognition to food as a human right in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in S. 16A.
The Act presently awaits official acknowledgement by government at national and state levels to be followed by its faithful implementation for the benefit of people living in protracted suffering from hunger and malnutrition in Nigeria.” He added: “That the right to food regime is anchored on three obligations of government, which covers all instruments to be deployed using the UN fund: Obligation to respect the right to food—i.e. to recognise it in policy and practice, which stipulates the state’s exercise of power to refrain from acts capable of destroying people’s access to food through unfavorable public policies.
“Obligation to protect the right to food—i.e. to protect it at all times from injurious practices to, which entails regulation of the activities of state and non-state actors including private sector that are inimical to people’s food entitlements; and obligation to fulfil the right to food—i.e. to help people in protracted suffering from hunger and malnutrition with physical provision of food at critical times, which entails the provision of food assistance to vulnerable groups (children, lactating mothers, etc.) and other such people as those that are temporarily displaced from their natural habitats.”
He stated that it was needful that the human right approach to addressing hunger and malnutrition in the North East ensured that the farmers and other rural poor participate fully in the policy process, and its application is perfectly general spanning the different aspects of public support of the food system including extension system, irrigation system, mechanization and rural infrastructure.