The arrogant Southern Nigerians, especially of the Yoruba stock, nearly got their derriere exposed when the (disingenuous) ill-wind, blown by Northern Nigeria traders, nearly blockaded transport of foodstuffs and cattle down South.
For the South to truly say, Never Again, to the Northern affront, provocation, blackmail and vice grip to their gastronomic jugular, they and their fumbling, probably confused, governors must urgently review their attitude and relationship with their soil, go back to the farms with zeal.
They must appreciate that those who effected the blockade of the (perishable) food items did them a great favour; they now need to consider the wisdom in the words of Juju music maestro, Ebenezer Obey: “Agbe í gbin ‘sú, ìyẹn a j’iyan. Àgbè i gbìn ‘gbado, ìyẹn á j’ eko. Èyí kò ko’be, iyẹn a ra ‘sú.”
If you translate this into the English language, it means that the farmer that plants yam will eat pounded yam. The one who plants maize can have cornmeal. But the one who fails to cultivate the soil will perforce buy yam from others.
According to the German Board of Health, the 1914-1918 food blockade of Germany, during and immediately after the First World War, by the Triple-Entente Powers, which the United States of America joined in 1917, led to the death by starvation of 763,000 Germans.
According to international relations scholar, Hans Morgenthau, “A country that is self-sufficient, or nearly self-sufficient (in food supply), has a great advantage over a nation that is not, and (therefore) must be able to import the foodstuffs it does not grow, or else starve.”
The World Food Conference of 1974 defines food security as “availability of adequate, nourishing, diverse, balanced and moderate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuations in production and prices.”
In real terms, food security suggests that all households within a country have access to food for an active and healthy life. It also implies that the citizens will not live in hunger or with the fear of starvation.
The one-day beef boycott, “Anything But Cow Day,” or “#ENDCOWVID-21,” held Friday, March 5, 2021, in Southern Nigeria, is good. But it must move Southern Nigerians beyond the symbolic to concrete action of self-sufficiency in the production of food crops and livestock.
If Northern traders attempted to blockade foodstuffs to Southern Nigeria, but failed, they may try it again. The Yoruba usually counsel that vigilance is the armour of senior citizens. Also, the Bible admonishes that in all thy gettings, get wisdom.
The time for the People of The South to act in their own interest is now. They should regard the, albeit failed, blockade by their own compatriots as a dress rehearsal of something worse that may happen in the future.
As much as the blockade caused a loss of revenue to the economy of Northern Nigeria, it also led to temporary increase in the prices of foodstuffs and, albeit, mild dislocation to the Southern Nigerian economy.
If you have read economics textbooks written by J.L. Hanson, O.A. Lawal, Areoye Oyebola and Adekunle Ojelabi, in the secondary schools of the 1970s, you would have learned that where supply of goods is inelastic, no matter how temporary, prices spike, especially when demand is desperate to stock up on the scarce items.
This is the time for Southern Nigerian governments to revive those farm settlements and livestock ranches that were established by their First Republic political progenitors, but which have been wilfully abandoned, to their collective chagrin.
In addition to providing foodstuffs, these facilities can provide cash crops for export and raw materials for the agro-allied industries that have been neglected. You get no prize for correctly guessing that an increase in agricultural produce will result in other advantages.
It will reduce Nigeria’s reckless importation of consumer goods with its triple consequences of squandermania of foreign exchange, continuous sliding of the naira, and considerably high prices of essential consumer food items.
There is no doubt that a revival of the agricultural industry should relocate many of the sturdy and intelligent, but unemployed, youths, daily pounding the streets of urban Nigeria aimlessly, to the rural areas that should actually be regarded more like the countryside, assuming that the necessary amenities would be provided.
Taking these youths off the streets will reduce the stragglers, drug addicts, ne’erdowell area boys and criminal elements that daily terrorise their compatriots and generally constitute a nuisance to the nation.
Government must provide habitable housing, motorable roads, standard guage raillines, potable water, electricity, hospitals, (primary, secondary and tertiary) schools, recreation and entertainment facilities, directly or through private initiatives.
It must be possible for an individual to opt to live in the countryside without envying those who live in the urban areas, enduring tough hustles, grimy environment, snarling traffic, criminality, violence and housing shortages.
It is imperative for the merchant class, the trade unions and the professionals in Southern Nigeria to own the renaissance of the agriculture and agro-allied sector of the economy of the beleaguered region.
They cannot leave this all-important assignment to the bumbling politicians who have woefully failed to use the sovereign power given to them to improve the quality of the lives of the people. All that many of the clueless governors seem to do is build white elephants or simply steal the money through the special-purpose security votes.
This trinity should encourage themselves by founding and funding political parties that will recruit and sponsor competent individuals who will contest electoral offices, with a view to adding good value to governance.
That is a safe way to guarantee the shaping and delivery of policies that will move the region and Nigeria forward. If other regions are not interested in making meaningful economic progress, the South should consciously move itself forward.
There are two more things that need to be done to ensure the economic progress of the region: Evolve a credible security architecture to safeguard lives and property of those who choose to go back to the land in Southern Nigeria.
Also, review the education infrastructure and redirect the orientation of the people, in order to position them to effectively take full advantage of the new technology and add value to the agricultural sector of the region’s economy.
One more important thing they must do is to be prepared to stand up to federal officers and their collaborative non-state actors, who may attempt to shout down this regional initiative, the way they almost shot down the Amotekun security initiative that was introduced by the South-West in 2020.
Remember Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami, and the late Kaduna State Governor, Balarabe Musa, whom many swore was a progressive, came hard against an initiative designed to protect the lives and livelihoods of everyone resident in the South-West, regardless of their ethnic nationality.
The governors and peoples of Southern Nigeria must not blink in the attempt to produce and provide enough food for all within their borders. They must not allow anyone, or any group, ethnic or whatever, to blackmail them into abandoning a clearly existential matter.
The Southern electorate must vote out political parties that may want to wait on the Federal Government before they can advance their economies.
