THE organised private sector (OPS) recently protested the looting of trucks conveying food and raw materials, cautioning that it could lead to a shutdown of industries across the country. The media has been awash with news of hungry Nigerians hijacking trucks conveying food items and other materials in Ogun, Kano and Kaduna states. Similarly, some youths stole food items from trucks stuck in traffic along Kaduna Road in the Suleja area of Niger State. In another incident, hoodlums attacked a warehouse belonging to the Agricultural and Rural Development Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory Administration at the Dei-Dei area of the capital city where they looted grains and other relief items. Several attacks on trucks and warehouses have accompanied the food inflation and cost of living crisis that have gripped the country. Most of the attacked facilities and trucks are either owned by the government or the OPS.
The president of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Gabriel Idahosa, has warned that the attacks can worsen the problems of companies and lead to their shutdown. The OPS is apprehensive that the current economic hardship is ushering in anarchy as people are pushed to a state of desperation. These desperate and hungry people have not distinguished between public and private resources in their bid to access food and supplies by every means, a situation that is quickly turning into anarchy. The manufacturing sector, especially food and beverage companies, have suffered losses and threats, leading to frustration. Manufacturers have had to lay off many workers because their companies have closed down or reduced capacity utilisation as a result of the high cost of production owing to devaluation of the naira, petrol subsidy removal and other difficulties associated with the supply of energy. The current trend, if not checked, could lead to a deepening of the crisis due to loss of investors’ confidence. The Head of Corporate Affairs of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Moshood Lawal, indicated that the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the agency, Charles Odii, recently met with the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, to address the security of small and medium enterprises’ properties. Also, the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Muda Yusuf, expressed worry that the recent trend could significantly damage investors’ confidence.
Evidence from some of the scenes shows that hoodlums and criminals are cashing in on the situation to commit crime. In the attack on the storage facility in Gwagwa town in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) owned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), stored food items such as bags of maize and other grains were not only looted, the roof and fence of the warehouse were removed and carted away. Furthermore, the attackers during some of the incidents were armed with dangerous weapons, including guns and machetes. In the case of the hijacking of trucks in Sagamu, the attackers were reported to have inflicted injury on the drivers. Hunger and extreme poverty seem to be pushing vulnerable people into criminal activities. Poor people often must choose between a rock and a hard place. Whatever be the case, the government bears responsibility for the massive hunger in the land, having rolled out austerity policies without making provisions to cushion the effects of such policies on the livelihoods of poor Nigerians.
While we condemn the looting of trucks and warehouses, we believe that the government could have acted proactively to address the hunger in the land. Whereas the outcry of the people about the dire circumstances created by government policies has been long, the government has been slow in responding to the outcry. People stormed the streets protesting the skyrocketing food prices but the government dismissed the claims of hunger and the demonstrations as the machinations of opposition politicians. It therefore took too long for the federal and state governments to commence the distribution of palliatives. Furthermore, the palliatives released by the Federal Government did not reach the targeted population in time. In many instances, they were seized by public officeholders, especially politicians and their supporters, many of whom are not part of the poorest of the poor population.
The government’s lackadaisical attitude may be due to the belief, as expressed by the Minister of State for the FCT, that the ongoing looting spree in the country is more a reflection of criminality than hunger. This perception does not reflect a robust perception of the complexity of the situation and the task and responsibility of governing the Nigerian space. How can the government deny the intensity of hunger and claim it is trying to combat it through the distribution of palliatives? If there is indeed hunger in the land, could it not result in some form of looting along the way, the people having become desperate for any food items to quench their hunger? Would the resort to looting as hunger bites harder not inexorably be an opportunity for criminals to strike?
Of course, the government must secure trucks and warehouses. But it should also review its method of distributing relief items to Nigerians. The process should be fast-tracked and properly monitored to ensure that the items get to the poor. Government agencies such as the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Department of State Service (DSS) could work with non-governmental humanitarian bodies to ensure that the grains and other palliatives get to the right people in the right packages and quantities. We call on the government to be more focused on addressing hunger in the land by massively shoring up production through a more conducive environment for companies. It must also provide schemes to enable Nigerians to cope with biting hunger and poor purchasing power as a result of food inflation. The current situation shows very clearly that the government is yet to put in place effective social security and safety nets to guarantee basic needs, especially food, for the poor and most vulnerable Nigerians. The social investment and social protection measures that the previous governments claimed to have put in place have either been ineffective or non-institutionalised.
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