… Chike Okafor hails the House leadership for setting up the specialized Committee which focuses on food security and nutrition.
In line with the House of Representatives’ vision to be responsive, results-oriented and effective in performing its constitutional mandate towards the security and welfare of Nigerians, the Speaker, House of Representatives Inaugurates House Committee on Nutrition and Food Security.
Inaugurating the committee, the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen Ph.D who was unavoidably absent but ably represented by the Leader of the House, Hon. Ihonvbere Julius describes the committee as very crucial to the vision of the House to “be responsive, results-oriented and effective in performing its constitutional mandate towards the security and welfare of Nigerians’.
Speaker Abbas tasks nutrition, food security, legislative response to food insecurity
The Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas has changed the House Committee on Nutrition and Food Security to provide legislative response to the worsening food insecurity and malnutrition in the country.
Abbas, who was represented by the leader of the House, Professor Julius Ihonvbere, gave the charge at the inauguration of the committee on Thursday in Abuja.
He urged the committee to effectively oversight policies and Programmes of government to successful address the twin issues of nutrition and food security especially as the President had declared a state of emergency on food insecurity.
He also asked the committee to review existing legislation and suggest new legislative frameworks that affect agricultural production and the food supply chain.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Chike Okafor applauded the House leadership for setting up the specialized Committee which focuses on food security and nutrition.
REMARKS BY THE SPEAKER, HOUSE OF REPS AT THE INAUGURATION OF THE…
“This is the first time in the history of the Legislature in Nigeria that the leadership of the House thought it necessary to set up a distinct and exclusive Committee for greater legislative attention to critical interventions in the cross-cutting issues of food and nutrition.
“The creation of this Committee would serve as a swift response to the present economic realities, especially the current unaffordability of basic foods in Nigeria arising from uncontrolled inflation and scarce means,” he said.
The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, whose ministry is a key partner of the committee restated the government’s commitment to put in place measures that will ensure adequate nutrition and food security for Nigerians.
According to him, “Nigeria has done very well and supported by different stakeholders, particularly the government of President Bola Tinubu, have appreciated the nutrition and food security challenges.
“We have the National Food Security Council Chaired by no less a person than the Vice President, Kashim Shettima. We are participants in the United Nations Food System Transformation as well as the institutional alignment through the Ministry of Agriculture being recognised as the Ministry of Agriculture and that of Food Security.
“This is commendable. We recall that in the last administration under former President Muhammadu Buhari, a national security council was created chaired by the President himself and I was privileged to be the Vice Chair of that council.
“What led to it is the recognition that food security is not an agriculture issue, not a health issue, not an environment issue, not a physical security issue. It is all of it. So we need to have stakeholders around the table so we can appreciate, we can do better. The same thing with nutrition.
“The House of Representatives is helping in addressing the challenges. Mr President has recognized these issues and is committed to addressing them.”
Further in his remark during the inauguration ceremony, Abbas said the committee is very crucial to the vision of the House to “be responsive, results-oriented and effective in performing its constitutional mandate towards the security and welfare of Nigerians’.
He noted that Nigeria, like the rest of the world, is experiencing a food crisis, exacerbated by climate change, rising inflation and pervasive insecurity. Hence, the decision of the House to set up a Committee that would be dedicated to fashioning legislative and measures, actions to tackle the menace of food insecurity and malnutrition affecting our people.
Abbas said “According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) about 26.5 million Nigerians would be grappling with high levels of food insecurity in 2024 while the country is said to have the second highest burden ofmalnutrition in the world, with 32% of children under the age offive stunted or chronically mainourished.
“Malnutrition currently impacts 35 million children under the age of five, among whom 12 million are stunted, 3 million are wasted, and 23.5 million suffer from anemia. An additional 17.7 million individuals are facing hunger, with 2.6 million children confronting severe acute malnutrition in 2024. Among women of childbearing age, 7% experience severe acute malnutrition. These figures may exacerbate due to the current food inflation rate, which stands at about 33.7% (according to the Central Bank of Nigeria).
“Furthermore, the World Food Programme’s September 2023 publication of the ‘Nigeria Hunger Map’ estimates that 24.9 million Nigerians are in an acute or critical stage of hunger, categorized as an emergency, while 85.8 million Nigerians have insufficient food consumption. Among this population, 47.7 million Nigerians resort to crisis-level or above- crisis- level food- based coping strategies
“The above data paints a very gloomy picture requiring urgent legislative action. This is particularly so given that some of the causative factors are issues within the legislative competence of the House to deal with. The food and nutrition crisis affecting us as a nation is partly caused by global warming and climate change, pervasive insecurity across the country which prevents tarmers and herders from engaging in their various agricultural activities, poor Irrigation, outdated land tenure system, crude and traditional farm practices on subsistence levels as well as a myriad of other challenges.
“It is in the light of the foregoing that this Committee finds relevance and becomes very significant. As a committee, you are expected to provide a legislative response to the worsening food insecurity and malnutrition in the country through effective oversight of policies and programmes towards addressing these twin issues especially as the President had declared a state of emergency on food insecurity, review existing legislation and suggest new legislative frameworks that affect agricultural production, the tood supply chain, etc.
“Your task becomes more crucial and urgent in the face of rising food prices and high cost of living occasioned by the withdrawal of government subsidy on petroleum products. I have no doubt in the capacity of the Chairman and members of the committee to deliver on this onerous task of providing immediate solution to the growing food and nutrition crisis in the country.
” I urge this committee to enlist the support and collaboration or relevant stakeholders to achieve success in the overall interest of Nigeria. I have confidence in the competence of the chairman and members of this committee to rise to the occasion and be able to come up with effective legislative roadmap on how to deal with this ugly situation. I wish to urge every stakeholder and experts in this area to provide the needed support and partner with the Committee to meet the objective for which it was established.”
He re-emphasized the position of the House to improved food and nutrition for the people their resolve as a House to tame hunger and malnutrition, pursue food security and sustainable development.
“We prioritized agricultural development as a key legislative agenda based on our strong
belief that agricultural sector is a critical factor in growing the nation’s economy and scaling down poverty rate. Besides, We are committed to enacting policies and legislative trameworks
towards supporting farmers with subsidies, access to credits and modern agricultural equipment to stimulate enhanced agricultural productivity. This will also have a far-reaching Impact in addressing the multifaceted challenges of food insecurity and malnutrition.
“I am honored therefore to formally inaugurate this Committee as part of our legislative response to food insecurity and malnutrition in Nigeria.”