Somehow, disheartening and tragic happenings have become our daily companions as a people. In yet another very sad development, I am disheartened by the reports of the death of some students from Nasarawa State University (NSUK) in a stampede while struggling for food palliative from the state government. Just a month ago, about 7 Nigerians, in a similar sad situation, lost their lives while trying to buy rice cheaper from a customs warehouse in Lagos. The very worsening level of hunger in our nation has continued to claim the lives of innocent citizens.
Earlier in the month, a report by UNICEF indicated that about 31.5 million Nigerians will face acute hunger and severe food crisis between June and August this year. This is, unfortunately, happening in a country that is richly blessed in human and natural resources, with vast arable lands for agriculture. Nigeria should have no business with hunger and poverty if we the leaders were caring enough. It is unimaginable how we have sadly descended to a level where people now take unthinkable risks in order to survive.
Now again, our children who were sent to study in a university, challenged by hunger, have lost their lives because of our national unproductivity. I do hope that these ugly incidents will nudge our government into taking urgent measures to end the current food insecurity, by moving the nation from consumption to production. We cannot be accepting food aids from war-torn Ukraine, when we have the energetic population and vast uncultivated lands to feed our nation and the rest of Africa.
Time has come for Nigerians to unite in purpose and solve the challenges facing us. Hunger, as I have maintained, knows no tribe or religion.
I commiserate with the bereaved families of the deceased students, the entire Nasarawa State University and the government of Nasarawa State over this painful incident.
May God give all of us the fortitude to bear this loss and grant them eternal rest. -PO
Peter Obi
