There is no threat of famine in Nigeria, says Agric Minister
The Federal Government has denied the
reports by some United Nations (UN) agencies of imminent famine in
Nigeria, saying there is no threat of starvation in the country.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural
Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, made the denial when he featured at a
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
NAN reports that three UN agencies —
Food and Agriculture Organisation, World Food Programme and
International Fund for Agricultural Development –reported that
Nigeria would suffer famine, food shortage and malnutrition.
Ogbeh stressed that it was virtually
impossible for Nigeria to face famine or starvation because the
country remained a major source of food for other African countries
such as Algeria, Libya and the rest.
“I think there’s a danger of mixing
the situation in the North-East with the situation nationwide; I have
seen that on CNN, starvation in Somalia and Nigeria, and then they go
on to talk about the civil commotion in the North-East
“I don’t think that the rest of
Nigeria is facing any threat of famine. That is not true and I think
these agencies have to be a little more careful in their prognoses.
“I think there are challenges in the
North-East because this is a huge part of Nigeria which for five
years has not engaged in food production.
“That’s not the same in the
North-West or North-Central or South-West or South-South.
“So, I think there is some degree of
exaggeration and a mixture of situations, there’s no threat of
starvation because we have been feeding Africa.
“People come down from Algeria to buy
food in Nigeria, they come from Libya, they come from Sudan and they
come from Chad.
“So, to suggest that this country
that is feeding the rest of Africa is almost to go totally hungry is
not true. “
As regards malnutrition in the country,
the minister conceded that this could occur as result of unbalanced
food nutrients ingested by some people, wrong approach to food
processing and materials used for packaging of food.
Ogbeh stressed that his ministry was
trying to re-engineer food processing procedures in the country.
“As for malnutrition, there is that
possibility, the simple reason being that there is a difference
between eating much and eating well.
“And there is also the problem of our
diet which the ministry is beginning to work on for the first time
seriously.
“Eating well means taking all the
nutrients the body requires; vitamins and proteins and carbohydrates
in an even balance.
“And there are other threats to
health — the way we process food. We have to totally re-engineer
the processing of food in this country.
“We are trying to remove import
duties on stainless steel, using only stainless steel even in the
grinding machines in the markets and in the grinding machines for
corns and millet and what have you.
“Bits of ferrous oxides are getting
into food and metal poisoning is deadly; these are the issues we are
looking at.
If you ingest a lot of ferrous oxide,
your kidney and liver begin to fail, there is nothing any doctor can
do to help you
“And now we have brought back the
three Universities of Agriculture under our ministry.
“One of the faculties of colleges we
are going to insist that each of these new universities should embark
upon is the School or College of Food and Health Sciences.
“We need to know more about what we
eat and the effect it has on our system, so that we can spend less
and less on our hospital bills; these are the issues we are looking
at.
“If for instance, you use plastic
cups to drink your tea or you eat `moi-moi’ (a local beans pudding)
made in cellophane or a plastic container put in a micro wave.
“When you eat that kind of food, you
are exposing yourself to nearly 50 possibilities of poison.
The minister urged the citizens to use
only non-toxic materials for preparing or packaging their cuisines.
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