Banditry, Kidnappings and Insurgency still posed serious threats to food production and security despite House of Representatives promises

In April 2022, TheCable Index, the data and research arm of TheCable reported that One thousand, seven hundred and forty-three (1743) Nigerians were said to have been killed due to insecurity in the first 3 months of 2022 alone, Niger state had the highest number of casualties with 448 reported deaths. The data reviewed showed that an average of 19 Nigerians died daily in various violent attacks as reported in the media between January and March 2022. In February 2023, Humangle reported that as at August 2022 over 25,000 people in Nigeria are registered  missing with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The article says “The cause of the problem is primarily the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria’s northeast that has led to the displacement of over 3.1 million people, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Families get separated during raids where members are abducted by terror groups while hurrying to escape from attacks and Boko Haram occupation or as a result of arbitrary arrests (and detention) by the Nigerian military or other militias assisting with counterinsurgency.”

 Also a January 2023 report by UNICEF states that nearly 25 million Nigerians are at risk of facing food insecurity, this is a projected increase from the 17 million currently at risk. The main driver of this shortage is insecurity and climate change. Food access has been affected by persistent violence in the north-east states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe (BAY) and armed banditry and kidnapping in states such as Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, Benue and Niger. Because of this, farmers cannot access their farm land.

This and other security-related events have posed a significant obstacle stopping the Gbajabiamila-led House of Representatives from keeping their promise on dealing with insecurity. The House of Representatives(HoR) promise as pledged in its revised legislative agenda meter, is aimed at empowering and equipping security force in the country. While its primary function is law making, the enactment of relevant bills and strong oversight would have assured the legislators meaningful progress on its promise.

Promise: Empower and Equip Security Forces to: Ensure the government is able and equipped to effectively deal with the various security challenges in the country, including the Boko Haram insurgency, farmer-herder clashes, banditry and kidnappings, that have posed serious threats to food production and security.

Since the start of the 9^th Assembly, there have been efforts to achieve this pledge by the legislators, however, it has not yielded results. In March 2021, the House of Representative led by Gbajabiamila set up Special Committee on Security which is made up of 30 legislators and charged them to present a report to the executive arm.  In recent years, discussions about insecurity have topped conversation in the floor of the House of Representatives. Legislators in the 9^th Assembly have also sponsored various bills aimed at addressing the current security challenges in the country.

On of the bills passed which is aimed at addressing security threats especially those related to food production is the Nigeria Hunters and Forest Security Service (Est) Bill, 2022. With the passage of the bill, the Nigeria Hunters and Forest Security (NHFSS) is expected to also consolidate the effort of the other security agencies by combating illegal activities that are carried out from the forests where most agricultural production happens.

Further, under the current assembly, Nigeria’s security sector saw its highest allocation with a total of N2.49 trillion ($5.4 billion), representing about huge chunk of the total budget. According a report by Punch, in 2021, N1.86 trillion was allocated to the sector, out of which N964.05 was allocated to defence and N455.13 billion to the police force. The sector also got a supplementary budget of N802 billion but the allocation doubled in 2022, a move which further reinstate the commitment of the legislators in the 9^th Assembly.

However, despite all of these positive moves, poor oversights have been a stumbling block in ensuring government is able and equipped to effectively deal with various security challenges in the country. We rate this Promise Broken.

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