Deep Thought

 Precarious Food Security in Nigeria: Can President Tinubu Change Narrative? II By Prof. MK Othman   My last week's piece closed with a poser: Are the two Ministers of Agriculture and Food Security, Senators Kyari and Abdullahi, capable of breaking the jinx of poverty and hunger associated with Nigerians? Answering this question requires an in-depth analysis of Tinubu's policy and direction toward achieving food security for Nigeria. Petroleum subsidy withdrawal skyrocketed the fuel price by 217% that caused astronomical cost of living. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared a state of emergency on food security on July 14, 2023, to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal. As I wrote in this Column, the declaration of emergency is the best policy pronouncement of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT). The declaration was a comprehensive intervention plan on food security, affordability, and sustainability, taking decisive action to tackle food inflation. The intervention plan sta...

 Precarious Food Security in Nigeria: Can President Tinubu Change the Narrative? By Prof. MK Othman   Food security refers to the situation when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle. Food security is a state in which food is quantitatively and qualitatively available, accessible, and affordable to meet the nutritional needs of the people over a given period. People are food-secured when they have physical and economic access to enough food for active and healthy living. Therefore, food security for people in a community, state, or nation is entrenched in four pillars: quantitative, qualitative, accessibility, and time. The difficulty of attaining food security surges with increased population and economic meltdown, making achieving food security in Nigeria arduous. What has been the food security situation in Nigeria? Considering th...

 Sasakawa-KNARDA-KSADP Model for Achieving Food Security: A Scalable Experiment By Prof MK Othman Agriculturally, Kano has been a lucky state. Four decades ago, a non-nonsense and visionary Governor, Police commissioner Audu Bako of blessed memory, built a multi-million Naira Tiga dam with a capacity of 1.9 billion cubic meters of water through direct labor. Then, it was the biggest dam in Nigeria. The dam was built to irrigate 64,000 hectares of land and supply water to several communities. In addition to the Tiga Dam, Audu Bako equally built the Thomas Dambatta and Minjibir dams, irrigation schemes, and the Kafin Chiri dam. A decade later, under the democratic dispensation, another visionary governor, the charismatic Abubakar Rimi, emerged with an unsatiable appetite for developing agriculture and rural development. He built over ten dams across Kano State, and four of such dams are located along Dayi – Gwarzo – Kano Road, which is evidence of his excellent stewardship. Still, in...

 Kaduna NIPR Annual Lecture: Talban Minna's Moment of Glory at Information Minister's Platform By Prof MK Othman Something amusing played out as entertainment, but under harsh economic conditions in Nigeria, it was a comic relief while the event lasted. Two diametrically opposed political camps led by two prominent Nigerians from the same state sat side by side, seeing eye to eye to share their thoughts and experiences but representing different generations and perspectives. I expected a Tsunami to erupt when I heard one of the camp leaders saying, "I should be given a right of response," referring to the likelihood of an insinuation to score a political goal by the opponent at a veritable platform. However, the event ended like a professorial inaugural lecture where, traditionally, questions are not entertained. In such lectures, the speaker leaves his audience in suspense with their questions unasked. This scenario was played at the 2023 Annual Public Lecture and Aw...