To declare that many Nigerians are hungry, suffering, and struggling to survive under hard economic conditions imposed by several economic factors including record-high inflation rates is simply a restatement of the most obvious. While the terribly depleted purchasing power of the citizens continues to bite, the purported reduction of food prices has made little sense to millions of impoverished citizens as the all-season inflation continues to cripple micro and small-scale businesses; eating up entrepreneurs’ hard-raised capitals.
Whether as entrepreneurs, low-income earners, or employers of labour, Nigerians as individuals or corporate entities are currently passing through difficult times. The hustling to meet up with their daily subsistence needs has put most family heads and homes under intense financial pressure. The comparatively worthless value of the naira has further turned most low-income earners into off-street beggars.
Reacting recently to the retention of interest rates at 27.5 per cent by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), entrepreneurs and business owners cried out that their businesses cannot survive on double digits’ interest rate. Thus, they called on the CBN to come to the aid of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) by bringing down interest rates to single digits or by creating a special intervention fund for them.
As direct or remote consequences of the burden of survival, starvation and malnutrition have since become threats to the health and survival of citizens including a large population of children particularly in some northern states of the country. Earlier in April 2025, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had predicted that 33 million people in Nigeria including over 16 million children will not know where their next meal will come from in 2025. We are already there.
Nutrition experts attribute the persistent malnutrition crisis in the northern region of the country to a variety of factors including inflation, food insecurity, insufficient healthcare infrastructure, cost of transportation, ongoing security challenges and disease outbreaks compounded by low vaccine coverage. President Donald Trump administration’s cut to foreign aid is also a plausible factor. More life-threatening to the wellbeing of citizens is, indeed, the country’s ailing economy.
The Cadre Harmonisé Food and Nutrition Insecurity Analysis, led by the government of Nigeria, with support from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and other partners, had earlier projected that 33.1 million Nigerians would face high levels of food insecurity during the June–August 2025 lean season. About 1.4 million of this figure constitutes Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in north-eastern Nigeria who would be at the risk of starvation following the withdrawal of humanitarian funding by the United Nations (UN).
The Save the Children International (SCI) had also said that about 1.8 million from the statistics is likely to experience Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), which is the deadliest form of malnutrition that compromises children’s immune systems. SAM also turns otherwise treatable illnesses such as diarrhoea to become potentially deadly. The most vulnerable in the hunger crisis are breastfeeding children as their underfed mothers are unable to produce the milk needed by children for their health and growth. Some of the states with escalating levels of malnutrition in children include Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi, Kano, Sokoto, and Zamfara.
With the long history of basic education on a receding tide in the country, the effects of this deplorable situation on school-age children is better imagined as it could deepen further. Malnutrition is a risk factor for low school enrolment, high absenteeism, early drop-outs, and low academic achievement. Similarly, malnourished children are prone to infections and illnesses, which affect school attendance. This is in spite of the hypothetical federal government funded school-feeding programme, which like many other government schemes, has evidently fizzled out. The continuous escalation of survival challenges in the country illustrates a clear disconnect between leaders and Nigerian citizens as if hardship were a virtue.
Quick intervention measures that may help reduce hardship include the immediate suspension of Value-Added Tax (VAT) and other sundry taxes payable on all food commodities and beverages including noodles; a drastic reduction of payable taxes on drugs and medical equipment; and a reduction by half in the over-all number of taxes currently being paid by Nigerians in order to lessen the burden arising from these levies.
One direct-impact intervention would be the immediate release by government of substantial tons of grains from its strategic reserve silos across the country for instant sale at subsidized rates to the general public. The grains, we recommend, should not be for free as witnessed in the sharing of rice and cash as palliatives in the past. We also call on philanthropists and indigenous donor foundations to augment government support with interventions that would address the hard times that is weighing down Nigerians daily.
State governors, who can do a lot to tackle the combined crises of hunger, malnutrition and hardship, do not obviously seem to be doing enough in confronting the trio challenges. Synergising with the federal and local governments, governors through deliberate intervention measures can ease the current hardship in the country. A country of hungry citizens, if overlooked, could be is a recipe for crises of under-development.
•Daily Trust Editorial
