Catholic Bishops faults FG’s food importation as counter productive

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) has faulted the Federal Government’s resort to food importation as a strategy to curb rising food prices.

The bishops on Thursday in Abuja in a communiqué at the end of its First Plenary Meeting held at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Durumi, said that the policy undermines local farmers and weakens national food security.

The communiqué was signed signed by the CBCN President, Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, and Secretary, Donatus Ogun.

According to the bishops, rather than import food, government should prioritise protecting and empowering Nigerian farmers to produce enough for the nation.

The CBCN noted that Nigeria is richly blessed with abundant natural and mineral resources, which, with good leadership, could significantly drive economic growth and development.

They also said that many farmers across the country are unable to access their farmlands due to persistent insecurity, including banditry, kidnapping and insurgent attacks.

They warned that importing food to reduce prices, while local farmers remain vulnerable and unsupported, could further discourage domestic agricultural production.

“Rather than importation of food as is currently being done by the government to lower the prices of food, which invariably has negatively affected the local farmers, we demand that the government provide adequate security and grant sufficient subsidy to the farmers to enable them to produce enough food for the nation,” the communiqué stated.

The bishops also linked economic hardship to broader issues of insecurity and illegal exploitation of mineral resources, noting that proceeds from illegal mining and other organised crimes are often used to fund criminal activities.

They urged government at all levels to adopt more aggressive and technology driven measures to tackle illegal mining and other forms of economic sabotage, including the deployment of modern surveillance tools to monitor remote and high risk areas.

The bishops equally urged leaders to place the welfare of citizens above sectional and selfish interests, stressing that sustainable food security can only be achieved through strategic investment in local agriculture and meaningful support for farmers.

Speaking on the state of the nation’s politics, the CBCN expressed concern about Nigerians’ increasingly low interest in the electoral process that often culminates in the emergence of new political leaders for the country.

The bishops warned that such a development could portend great danger for Nigeria’s democracy, as it could mean that only a few persons would participate in choosing political leaders for millions of Nigerians.

They urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), National Assembly members and the security agencies to seek ways of regaining the trust of Nigerians in the electoral process, leveraging the coming 2027 general elections.

“In 2003, over 60 per cent of registered voters came out to participate in the election. But recent data from the INEC indicated that only 23 per cent of registered voters exercised their franchise in the 2023 general elections. This is a significant decline from participation in previous elections.

“Again, the recently concluded FCT Area Councils election, touted as a full-dress rehearsal for 2027, fell to an abysmal seven per cent of registered voters, a strong indicator of increasing voter apathy. This calls into question the legitimacy of elected officials in a democratic dispensation.

“But to save democracy in our nation, there is a need to respect the will of the people and promote free, fair and credible elections in our nation. To this end, we demand that the National Assembly review its recent stand on the electoral reform.

“We urge our lawmakers to revive the confidence of voters by ensuring that the Electoral Act provides for the mandatory transmission of election results in real-time from the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) at the polling unit to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

“This will prevent any human interference with the expressed will of the people. Failure to do this will only aggravate voter apathy. At the same time, we continue to urge all eligible voters to come out en masse, vote, and ensure that their votes count,” the bishops said.

On tackling the growing insecurity in the country, they said, “To deal with the problem of insecurity, we advocated more proactive measures to secure Nigeria. Governments at all levels are encouraged to invest more in modern technological equipment for surveillance.

“There’s also the need to strengthen intelligence-gathering measures by security agencies to enable them to proactively perform their duties. Governments should also ensure that culprits involved in insurgency, banditry or kidnapping, and those who fund and support their activities, are quickly arrested, prosecuted and punished under the law to deter others.

“There is the impression that the government is complicit when there is a delay in the prosecution of arrested terrorists or when there is an outright pardon and reintegration of so-called repentant Boko Haram adherents and other criminals into the security forces.”