 The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, recently released consumer price index data for January 2024 revealing a significant escalation in the cost of imported food within the Nigerian economy. Over a span of four years from January 2020 to January this year, the average price index for imported food witnessed a staggering increase, more than doubling from 337.8 to 692.6. This marked an unprecedented rise of 105.03% in the period on the review. The CPI is a critical economic indicator and it measures the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services, including food. My guest brings Wally Bama Oikoya, the MD-CEO of Bama Farms Limited, who is a former chairman at the Greek and non-Oil sector at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He joins me now to look at the food insecurity and recent developments in the nation. Good morning to you, Prince Oikoya. Good morning. Nice for having me. Yeah. Let's start with one that is on the lips of everyone since I'm Saturday or so. Nigeria is actually getting over 20 helmetry tons of grains from Ukraine that is supposedly in a war situation. What does this really tell about them also? We are so much in poverty and we are also indirectly at war. Well definitely what Ukraine has done is on humanitarian grounds and that means that they have access. It's only when you have access that you are able to give out. So that shows that there is something fundamentally wrong with our system in Nigeria. If a country in a one-ton can still be looking out for a country like us that is not at war, giving us grain, giving us food, that means our system needs to be overhauled, that means a state of emergency needs to be declared in terms of food production in Nigeria. And if you remember how long we've been talking about food shortage, food crisis for almost about 10 years now, but we are having leaders that are not really focused or that does not have the visions for tomorrow, the only plans they have may be short-term terms like 2 years or 4 years. When we're talking of food production, you have to be having a long-term plans like 20, 30, 50 years that what is going to happen to my people in the next 50 years, but if you don't have such a plan, what is happening now is bound to be happening because if you look at what is really happening, it's a very simple thing because we have the most beautiful atmosphere to produce all these things. We have a lot of vast land, arable land to produce some of these things. And I keep on saying that we don't have to produce everything, like these rice we are talking about and wheat, there are so many substitutions for it. We plant cassava, we plant yam, all these things could be substituted, but there are so many things that are really affecting us in this country, especially the security. We try the security most farmers have been displaced in their locations. Most farmers are retired voluntarily and involuntarily and look at what is really happening in the North East. If you look at most of the food we eat in the South comes from the North, but now if the North cannot even feed themselves, can they begin eating to the South West? So the South side was the South East. This is where the South really need to buckle up, that if care is not taken, what happened at Boogia, where my citizens have to go into the government warehouse? It happened everywhere. I don't think it happened, but believe me, with the way it is going, there is hunger in the land. I will be talking about this hunger a long time ago, but there have not been any provisions in order for this thing to be avoided. Okay. And just recently, the African Development Bank, I said in my intro, is pledging to support Nigeria's agricultural sector with a whopping $134 million investment in that enhancing food production. My question right now is that, how far would this go in terms of reaching the exact farmers who really need this all? All the political farmers that you always talk about, because according to addition of the President of the AFDB said they want to help to cultivate 300,000 hectares of rice and maize and 150,000 hectares of cassava and 50,000 hectares of soybeans during this year's planting season? I think we'd be hearing this long, for a long, long time that we have not been getting anything to the tables of the farmers. As you say, yes. What does it get to? It doesn't get to the hands of the farmers. It's just like it's money for some people in the government. Especially when they hear that dollars coming from abroad. It's like they don't take agricultural serious in this country. And that is why we have been hungry. And that is why they always say a hungry man is always an angry man. They have not said anything yet. If this trend continues, you will see so many uproar over there, because people are really hungry and people are really angry. Because all this money coming in, yes, will be heard by the international donors. They are really getting to the right source. There's nothing wrong to borrow, as every nation needs to borrow. But when you get that money, what do you use the money for? Is it for the money for the boys or people in the government? Whereas you neglected where the money is supposed to be shunned into. Because I believe in successful government, I'll be doing the right thing. Nigeria have no business, been begging for food. We have no business looting what we have in the reserve. Because there are so many trends. A lot of Nigerians want to go into farming, but the environment is not conducive. I'll just give you an example of what happened to our own people. Let us hear it. Our own people, our own farmers in Lagos State, December 10th the military majors came into our farmland. Almost about 30 farmers have been displaced right now. They said the land belongs to them. But how did we get to this land? The Lagos State government allocated this land to us. When we were being displaced from where we were before, at Afero, all of a sudden the media came, they said they'd be looking for their land for the past two years. That the Lagos State government have no business or have no right to have allocated the land to us. We've been trying to cry to the Lagos State government up to this moment. Through the minister of agriculture or through their Greek landholding or through the governor's office, I've not been able to get rich to us. Now we are talking about food shortages. We are talking about food crisis. How many people are even in these farm businesses? In the people that are doing it, you are displacing them. You are not making them happy. You make them jobless. You make them to lose their investment. A lot of directly and indirectly, about 500 workers have been displaced. So a lot needs to be done so that we can do more to bring food to the table of every Nigerians. All right, it's still business insight on Plus TV Africa. We'll take a quick break right now and we'll be back with more talk on food security in a moment to join us again. All right, welcome back. It's still business insight on Plus TV Africa. We're looking at food security in the country and how we can mitigate against them the high cost of food inflation. And I still have a Prince Wali where you call your Barma farms with me. And before we took that break, we're talking about the challenges that are mitigating against the flourishing of agricultural and farming in the country. Now, specifically, you talked about what has happened in terms of land allocation in Lagos state and what the challenges some farmers are having with the military. So over time, have you been able to reach out to the Lagos state government and what comments or what reactions have you gotten so far? Even before the military invasions, right from the time the land was given to rubbed by the last regime, 2015, 2016, we'd be having a lot of challenges and we'd be trying to let the Lagos state government know that. We have not been joining this land. How their money will come, the property developers will come. So many. Sometimes we have to pay the Lagos state government for security because the way their money and these property developers have come, it's like they're taking over the farm and that even leads us to some of the money that we're supposed to use for farming. We have to use for fencing in order for us to get security. We are talking about high-smart security. Now we are talking about moneyless security. Now we are even talking about Lagos state government that is giving us a land that does not even have a comfort because we are not even enjoying the land at all. This is the second time we have been displaced. So who knows what is going to happen next? But we cannot just hold our arms and the government will be saying that we need to feed our people that there is a food shortage in the country and you are displacing people that are even interested. That's why the fact that we are not even getting anything from the government to even assist us. Right from the over 10 years we've been business in this place in Motako, which is along the talking and nearby houses. We have not been getting anything from the government. Even the little world that we are doing and we are getting displaced and the government is not even looking to rate. So something needs to be done with our government in order for us to get full supply. Let's just hope the Lagos state government looks into this and so that people who are willing to farm can actually farm in peace. And of course, the issue of our food security can be addressed. But another story that is a development that is trending right now, that federal government is initiating distribution of 42,000 metric tons of grains to kick-start dry season farming. How far can that go? See, there are so many political statements going on. Just the same of palliative they've been talking about. How many people even enjoy this palliative? How many people who have been given these palliatives? I think there should be a time that the government need to see that these people they're lying to, they're already wise up. Why are we lying to them? What can we do the right thing? How many state governments are giving out the palliative that the federal government gave to them? And I keep on saying that we should stop blaming the federal government. What about the state government? Why are they there for? With all the allocation they're getting for the federal government, with all the IGR they're generating, with all the security votes they're getting, we see having all this kind of insecurity all around. So what are we doing with all this money instead of them to focus on the state on how they can feed their own people, they keep on governising around the country, around the world? It is a bad time for us to hold our governors and the local government chairmen accountable because they are the most people that are very close to the masses, not the federal government. So the federal government have no business doing business in agriculture. It's the state government. And if you remember the 1978 Lai Yus Act, it gives the power to all the state governors on how they can use the land especially in terms of agriculture. Most of the rural lands that have been converted into urban development. That way, most of the people that are supposed to be doing farming have been displaced. So it's a bad time for us to hold all our state governors accountable to them. This thing, we told you this morning, you people are making. We have no business being in Congress, probably in Nigeria that in the olden days, in the 60s, 70s, you remember the granite pyramids, you remember the coco, you remember the robber. We used to be the first ten shots in terms of agricultural produce, but look at it now, we are behind the schedule. Okay, so what do we begin to do now because I need to find out solutions in the short term because as it is right now, if you go to the market each day, for instance, they tell you what do they call this container now for buying Gary, a paint of guy. They tell you it's about, I don't even know how much it is, but if you go for small measures now, they tell you it's about one for the price of beans. You know, it's against what used to be sold at 500, 609. Most people cannot really buy Gary or beans that used to be like normal staples or the food that people can actually just manage and not. But right now it's almost becoming luxurious to even feed in Nigeria. As I said, it shows the systematic failures of our previous governments. Yes, and the price we keep on going on because we are not producing, let us face the reality. That is why there is hunger in the land. We are not producing. And as I said, the people that are producing, they have been displayed by the heist men, by the kidnapper, by the Bokoara. Everybody government is self because what happened to us is by the government. It's not by heist men. So if we keep on continuing, the trend we keep on continuing on, see all the three tiers of government could sit down at the round table and say, listen, what are we doing wrong? It's a battle for us to be able to feed our people, not just consuming or embezzling all this money. And most of the funds, most of the intervention funds that are coming are not really getting to the farmers. We will be discussing this in time with numbers. And if this money will be shared and be given to the reform, we will not be having all this money we are having. But now everything is going to the face of everybody now. So the federal government is crying. The state government is crying. But I hope their cry is genuine. Because it is not genuine. We still come back to the same table of hunger. So to me, I believe it's doable with all the human resources we have, with all the human capacity we have, with all the natural resources we have. We have no business begging for food. We have no business for other countries to pity us, to feed us, where we can do the same thing. You know, before we used to occur by a family farming. Family farming is being done all over the world, that if private homes is being encouraged to plant anything in their backyard, you'll be able to eat and feed your family. Substance farming, which is the center of family farming, is made practice in China, US, UK. And the rest, what happened to the rest? You don't treat it, you take it to the market, which is what they call free market to help your community. Until this thing is back, and gone are the days that you expect the youth of nine days to go to the farm with cutlass and hoe. It's the back time to modernize what we are doing. And with a population of almost about 300 million, we are being deceived because there have not been no sensors in the last 10 years. So the government does not even know how many people they are feeding. And if you don't know how many people you are going to feed, it's going to be a problem. They say at the back of their mind that we are seeing under 200 million people, which is not. So all these things are affecting us and climate change is another thing. Climate change is affecting the whole world. But what is each government doing to really cushion the effect? Are we practicing irrigation during the dry season? The answer is no. We are nothing but a real fed agricultural nation. So with time irrigation, what is going to happen? Most of these vegetables are supposed to take three months. It will only be done in another six months or nine months. So with time, the government tackling the climate change are giving out funds. And at the same time, to give a conducive environment to the farmer, we keep on having the food shortages as we are having today. All right, Tom. Thank you so much and Prince Wally or Yukonia. But I just must ask very quickly in 30 seconds, so I could just get this out of my head. So are we saying that right now, in the immediate time, maybe in the next three months, we cannot see a reversal of prices of food stuff that maybe in the next three months, we can go back to the market and buy beans again for like $6,994. It's not possible and it's possible if you have to import. We have to open our borders. With the way things are, as I said, I keep on saying that we are not producing. As I give advice on other platforms, open your borders or else you are going to starve your people. Like rice now is almost about $100,000. But if you open your borders, I bet you the price will be slashed now. And some of these states, they have these rice milling equipment. Allow them to bring the rice party for them so that they can be processing and they can crash the price of rice in the country. I thank you so much, Prince Wally or Yukonia. I mean, when we talk about food, when we talk about good culture, either everyone has to be involved because at the end of the day, if there's no food in the stomach, things like the lutein and insecurity will continue to grow in this way. But then I hope the government listens to some of this advice that have been put forward and just create some sort of a turnaround. I would do appreciate your time on the show this morning. Thank you for having me. It is indeed a pleasure. That's as much as we can take care. My guest has been Prince Wally, we acquired the MDCEO of Bama Femmes. And we have been looking at the issue of food insecurity. And of course the main thing that Nigerians are talking about right now is the Ukraine feeding us per se and the federal government distributing 42,000 metric tons of grain to assist in the dresses and farming. My name is Justin, after the new business Insight will return to us, could again, same time. Many thanks for being there.