PUNCH
Across Nigeria, many poor citizens are battered by hunger pangs, forcing them to abandon decency and steal food in public places. Some have also resorted to serially begging for food and seeking palliatives in a bid to put an end to the seemingly endless cycle of hardship in the country, VICTOR AYENI writes
The knock on the metal door at the unexpected hour was feeble, yet persistent. The time was a few minutes to 6 am.
The early morning darkness was gradually being swept away by the light of sunrise while many residents of Ojodu, Lagos State, were still in their beds.
Mrs Yetunde Oyadiran’s hands trembled as she knocked on her neighbour’s door – not from the cold, but from the burden of her decision.
This was the last place she could ever imagine herself to be, standing at someone else’s doorstep on a cold Saturday morning to beg for food.
“I am really sorry to disturb you this very morning,” the mother of two said, as she embarrassingly avoided making eye contact with her neighbour, simply known as Sunday.
“Please, I need your help. Help me because of my children. I gave them the last food in the house to eat yesterday evening. They have nothing to eat,” she said in Yoruba language, as tears welled up in her eyes.
Her clothes, faded and threadbare, clung to her body like shadows of better days. Her husband had been out of work since February, ever since the company he worked for laid off its employees.
In his desperate attempt to provide for his family, Oyadiran’s husband took up labour work at a food factory, earning N2,000 a day – a meagre amount that barely covered his needs, let alone those of his family.
Oyadiran, a teacher in a private school, had not been paid for two months and had been burdened with loans from friends and family.
“Please, I would appreciate any help from you to help me feed my children. I can still manage myself, but I don’t want my children to starve,” she added.
When Sunday offered her an appreciable quantity of raw foodstuff with some money, Oyadiran was so flustered that she nearly ran out of the right words to speak.
An admixture of prayer and gratitude flowed out of her lips as her eyes shone in surprise.
“I couldn’t sleep all night. I kept wondering, are we going to starve to death amid this hardship? I told myself, even if the worst should happen to me, I would go out and look for help for my children,” the mother said with an emotion-laden tone.
Like Oyadiran and her husband, millions of Nigerians are uncertain where their next meal will come from, as the country grapples with a relentless surge in food prices.
Across Nigeria, children, youths, and the elderly are battling the pains of hunger, as soaring food prices and limited financial resources make survival increasingly difficult.
‘I eat once on most days’
When Peter Onuoha sold his farm in his village in Imo State and came down to Lagos last year, he thought he had found a legitimate investment job.
Realising later that he had fallen victim to an investment scam, he struggled to find a job which provided accommodation.
Eventually, Onuoha found a security job, but just as he was about to get on his feet, he lost his mother.
“I became indebted due to the funeral, and my salary of N46,000 couldn’t even cover anything or help me get on with life. Now, I eat once a day most times, while frantically searching for a job.
“I have a younger sister who also found a job, but with the high food prices coupled with our low income, we have nothing to live on. There are days, I have to beg for money and give her all because as a girl, I don’t want her to fall prey to bad men because of lack of food or money,” he told Saturday PUNCH.
Like Onuoha, on most days of the week, the pangs of hunger wrack through Tokunbo Adeseye’s slender body as he struggles to find employment.
The graduate of Microbiology told Saturday PUNCH that he relocated from Osogbo to Lagos in July hoping that he would find a white-collar job.
But having navigated the state of aquatic splendour, his efforts to get a job have been fraught with frustration.
“I currently squat with a friend. It was in a bid to survive that I recently took a loan to start selling clothing and accessories. But affording food is now a serious task. Sometimes, I eat once or twice a day.
“Only the rich can afford to eat thrice in this country now. Things are so tough and sometimes, it’s hard to have hope. The only good part of it is the support I receive from my church welfare. There is so much suffering in Nigeria. Who did we offend?” Adeseye queried.
Widespread frustration
Voicing her frustration, a mother of one, Bola Owoade, lamented that the increase in food prices has taken some foods off her table.
“I can’t afford to buy yams, beans or even plantain anymore because they are now expensive. Eggs too are gradually disappearing from our table.
“A crate of eggs now is N8,000. Each week, the prices of food keep increasing and my income is still the same, for how long will all of this continue? They should just tell us when this hell will come to an end,” Owoade said.
A food seller, Rachael Olubumi, told Saturday PUNCH that it is not only buyers who are affected by the soaring prices.
She noted that even sellers are not making much gain in selling foodstuffs because of poor sales and low profit.
“I just bought a bag of rice two days ago. A bag of long-grain rice is now N130,000 whereas the short grain is N70,000. By the time you do the calculations, you just realise that people would rather buy the latter because it is cheaper.
“At the end of the day, you find out that you make a marginal profit, but when you tell people they won’t believe it. The profit that we are making on selling food is shrinking and it’s affecting us too.
“At first, they said dollar exchange was responsible, now what excuse do they have again? On some days, I wake up and just wish I could go into another profession because we are not making profits anymore,” she stated in a sad tone.
Hunger crisis
The removal of the long-standing fuel subsidy by the Federal Government in June 2023 triggered an economic reality which led to a sharp increase in the prices of food among other commodities.
As of September 2024, the World Bank’s food security report ranked Nigeria as the fifth country hardest hit by food inflation in the world and the third in Africa, trailing Malawi and Liberia.
Similarly, according to the World Bank’s Food Security Update Report, the number of Nigerians facing acute food shortages has increased by 28 per cent since 2023, placing the country among the top five globally for the most significant rise in hunger.
This assessment is reflected on the global hunger ranking chart, with Nigeria emerging 110th out of the 127 countries in the 2024 Global Hunger Index. With 28.8 points on the Index, Nigeria is among countries with “serious” hunger levels.
Recently, the World Bank also released the Nigeria Development Update report, which offered a bleak outlook on poverty in Nigeria, stating that over 129 million Nigerians now live below the national poverty line.
