Former Anambra Governor and presidential candidate Peter Obi has sounded the alarm over a “preventable” food catastrophe engulfing northern Nigeria, as a new UN report reveals that over 17 million people across nine states are now facing crisis-level hunger the worst in nearly a decade.
Taking to his X handle on Saturday, Obi didn’t mince words, blaming the tragedy on what he called “incompetent and irresponsible leadership,” pointing out the bitter irony that the North remains Nigeria’s agricultural heartland.
“More than 35 million Nigerians nationwide risk slipping into hunger during this lean season,” Obi warned. “And over 10,000 residents of Borno State have already entered ‘catastrophic’ hunger conditions a profound national failure.”
The crisis, according to the World Food Programme, stems from two structural failures:
Rampant insecurity— banditry and insurgency turning farming communities into displacement zones
Farmers locked out – unable to access their own lands to plant or harvest
Obi called for urgent, transparent investment to secure agricultural corridors and support smallholder farmers with resources not just political rhetoric.
“Until we secure our agricultural areas, we cannot secure our future,” he declared.
With the lean season worsening and humanitarian funding drying up, the WFP warns that millions more especially children could die if action isn’t taken immediately.
