The African Democratic Congress has accused President Bola Tinubu\u2019s administration of manipulating food prices and weaponising hunger against Nigerians amid the worsening economic hardship across the country.\n<\/p>\n
The party described the reported drop in food prices as artificial.\n<\/p>\n
In a Monday statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party questioned the logic behind hoarding imported food while millions of Nigerians go hungry, describing it as a deliberate attempt to weaponise poverty for political advantage.\n<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the Federal Government attributed the recent decline in food prices to improved local production, targeted interventions, and the onset of the harvest season.<\/p>\n
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Aliyu Abdullahi, disclosed this in Abuja during activities marking the 2025 World Food Day.\n<\/p>\n
According to him, key government initiatives such as the National Agricultural Growth Scheme Agro-Pocket were beginning to yield results through increased production and support for farmers.\n<\/p>\n
Reacting, the ADC dismissed the government\u2019s claim, alleging deception over what it described as a \u201cmanufactured\u201d decline in food prices.<\/p>\n
The statement read in part, \u201cContrary to what is being celebrated in official circles, the reality on the ground, as confirmed by the voices of struggling farmers and families across the country, is that the Tinubu government is manipulating food prices and weaponising hunger for political gains. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe reported drop in the prices of some food items is artificial, and a result of import waivers that have flooded the market with cheap foreign food. It is neither evidence of sound policy nor proof of increased local production.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd while that may offer momentary relief in food prices, it has, and will, come at the heavy cost of sabotaging local farmers who can no longer compete due to soaring input costs, especially fertilisers, and worsening insecurity.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAdditionally, we find it particularly strange and dishonest for the government to claim that its policies are encouraging domestic production at a time when many farmers have been displaced by bandits, and those who remain are barely able to afford the cost of planting. How can production be increasing when the rural economy is under siege by bandits, and the costs of planting are now beyond the reach of the average farmer?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The party described the government\u2019s narrative as propaganda, insisting that the drop in food prices was temporary, unsustainable, and driven by panic rather than deliberate planning.\n<\/p>\n
ADC also faulted the government\u2019s claim that no imported food had been released into the market.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we are to even momentarily entertain this falsehood, it begs an even more damning question: why is the government hoarding food while the people go hungry? What sort of administration stores food in warehouses during a hunger crisis?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ADC condemns in the strongest terms the weaponisation of hunger and calls for a complete overhaul of the current agricultural approach. We must protect local producers, address rural insecurity, and invest in long-term food sovereignty, not temporary political optics.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Nigerian people deserve truth and food, not manipulation and a false narrative of renewed hope,\u201d the statement added.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The African Democratic Congress has accused President Bola Tinubu\u2019s administration of manipulating food prices and weaponising hunger against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-229363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}