Nigeria is broke, weak and on the brink of famine

UN says 4.4 million people are suffering from malnutrition in Nigeria, but the country doesn’t have the resources to tackle the problem alone
– The international communities say Nigeria is in need of $164 million in humanitarian funding to prevent thousands of deaths from malnutrition
– 50,000 children may die before the end of 2016
– But according to managers of Nigeria’s economy, the country is in technical recession
“Where do I go from here? I have lost everything after all these years of labour. I can’t believe my eyes, could this be real?” Pius soliloquised after running the race of his life.
Like an artist, he had painted a gloomy picture of a catastrophe as he watched his shop razed in fire, following an attack by gunmen.
The gunmen suspected to be dreaded members of Boko Haram sect, invaded the Bulabulin ward of Biafara area in Maiduguri, Borno state, and opened fire on civilians.
Many were caught by stray bullets as several shops and residential buildings were razed.
Boko Haram fighters
Although Pius survived the ugly incident, his small shop stocked with building materials, was brought down to ashes.
“This is exactly four years, I and my family relocated from Maiduguri back to our village in Imo state.
“It has been hard for us after we lost all our properties in Borno due to serial killings of people and attack by Boko Haram,” Pius told NAIJ.com
Recounting his ordeal as he struggled to steel himself not to cry, Pius said: “The morning of July 15, 2012, was when it all started.
“I was about to open my shop, when gunmen stormed our area and started shooting sporadically.
“As I ran, I saw many dead bodies lying in front of different shops as the gunmen set many building ablaze.
“Till today, I don’t know how I was able to survive that horrible experience.”
Pius is one of the many people of Igbo descents who escaped death from the hands of the dreaded members of Boko Haram sect in Borno.
According to him, Borno state has been worst hit by the crisis as many Igbo traders and businessmen have withdrawn all their businesses from the state.
He said that not only as the state suffered damages worth billions in housing alone, it has also suffered huge damage in terms of livestock which brings about the need to restore agriculture in the state.
His assertion looks to have been confirmed by Laolu Akande, the senior special assistant to the vice-president on media and publicity, who said Borno state suffered a loss of $6billion naira between 2011 and 2015.
According to Akande, at least 20,000 people were killed by Boko Haram in Nigeria between the four years.
Akande also said that about 1.8 million people were displaced from their towns and villages by the sect.
But as days go by, the number of displaced persons soars. Unfortunately, the on-going fight between Nigeria’s military and the Boko Haram insurgency is the main reason for the growing numbers.
Today, there are over 2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), mostly women and children, from the insurgency in northeast Nigeria, according to figures from the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
But despite the growing numbers of IDPs, the Nigerian military have continued to hunt the Boko Haram fighters as they look to set more hostages free from the terrorists.
However, with recent reports of food shortage in camps for IDPs, there is hullabaloo going on within and outside the country.
Nigeria on the brink of famine
If reports by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is anything to go by, then Northeast Nigeria could well be on the brink of famine.
According to MSF, food shortages in the camp for IDPs in Borno state has resulted to starvation, acute malnutrition and deaths.
More devastating is the report that a humanitarian catastrophe is underway in the war-torn Borno state, where at least 500,000 people are in urgent need of food, medical care, water, and shelter.
Boko Haram members, who have flooded the area, are to be blamed for the impending crisis.
The terrorist group has destroyed planting and marketplaces, killed more than 20,000 people and rendered over 2million people homeless.
In a statement by Toby Lanzer, the U.N.’s regional humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel,
“4.4 million people in Northeast Nigeria are severely food insecure, but the country doesn’t have the resources to tackle this problem alone.”
Lanzer says Nigeria is in need of $164 million in humanitarian funding to prevent thousands of deaths from malnutrition, even as he urged international donors need to step in to stop thousands of deaths from malnutrition.
He said: “We’ve got as many as 250,000 children in the northeast of Nigeria who are severely acutely malnourished and we could lose up to 50,000 children before the end of the year if we don’t scale up right now.”
Recession hits Nigeria’s economy as famine looms
The famine in the northeast can be traced to global fall in the price of oil, Nigeria’s top export. This has led to significant revenue shortfalls for the country.
The country has also been hard-hit by militant attacks on its petroleum infrastructure that have dropped production from around two million barrels per-day to about 1.5 million barrels.
Over the last 4 decades, the nation has largely operated a mono-economy as every facet of life rides on the exchange rate and price of a single product – crude oil.
Nigeria depends on crude exports for 70% of government revenue and some 90% of its foreign exchange earnings.
What is even more devastating is that the country may be in technical recession.
According to Senator Udo Udoma, the minister of Budget and National Planning, if Nigeria experiences a negative growth in the second quarter just like it did in the first, then the country will be in technical recession.
He said: “Recession is basically when you have two quarters of negative growth. We had a first quarter of negative growth and we are still waiting to get all the figures for the second quarter which has just ended in June.
“The National Bureau of Statistics will be giving us all the figures but if as we suspect, the second quarter is also negative, then of course technically you could say that we are in recession if those figures turned out to be so.
“But even if we are not, the situation in the economy right now is one that of course we are addressing.”
Confirming Udoma’s assertion, a seemingly sober Godwin Emiefiele, the CBN governor, recently told Nigerian senators that if the present situation in the country continued, the federal government might not be able to pay salaries of its workers with effect from October this year.
He also said Nigerians would be forced to pay general taxes which would not exclude petroleum products.
The CBN governor told the senators that it was frightening that the nation was experiencing economic stagnation and inflation at the same time.
But as the ugly reality sets in for Nigeria’s economic managers, the fiscal situation has shown that the country is stretched and may be forced to run to the international communities, to avert cases of severe malnourishment and deaths in IDP camps.
IDPs dying of malnutrition in camps
Last month, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state paid a visit to Bama camp upon receiving reports that hundreds of malnourished people recently rescued from Boko Haram captivity were dying in the camp.
After seeing the critical condition of the refugees, Shettima ordered the relocation of 61 children with acute malnutrition to the intensive care unit of the Umaru Shehu Ultramodern Hospital in Maiduguri, where they are currently being treated.
Angered by the reported cases of malnourished children and dying IDPs in Bama camp, President Muhammadu Buhari, met with top officials of the state government, seeking explanation into the issue.
Soon after the meeting, report had emanated that Buhari called for a probe on the alleged diversion of relief materials meant for IDPs.
Governor Shettima of Borno state also directed the police and the state security services to go after the officials involved in the alleged diversion of relief materials, after a video clip and pictures surfaced on social media showing bags of rice purportedly from NEMA being re-bagged by officials of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency.
Can Nigeria breathe hope into the success of Ebola?
Nigeria has a system for dealing with health crisis, which has worked quite well in the past.
Although the issue of malnutrition is not only shortage of food, but also the issues of disease and lack of clean water, the Nigeria health system had faced more severe issues in the past.
The last health crisis Nigeria had to face was Ebola, and the government was effective at eradicating the illness. That is an indication that success against the Northeast’s impending famine could be achieved, if the government address this huge humanitarian need the same way it did with Ebola.
If the government can take responsibility for dealing with the IDPs according to international best practices, Nigeria will attract more foreign assistance and collaboration.
And with support from humanitarian groups and donors, the impending famine crisis in the northeast can effectively be eradicated.