NIGERIA: North-South Food Supply and the Threats of Blockage

Against the backdrop of quest for resource management by states where such resources are found, and recent threat by some South-South leaders to cut off food supply to the North, LEADERSHIP SUNDAY probes into the claims that aside petroleum products which are sourced from the South-South states, even the food that the North consumes also comes from the South-South. GEORGE OKOJIE, Lagos; STANLEY UZOARU, Owerri; Nnamdi Mbawike, Enugu; David-Chyddy Eleke, Awka; Abba Abubakar Kabara, Gusau; Onyekaozulu Ofoma, Abakaliki; Mathias Nwogu, Umuahia, and Salisu Ibrahim, Kano, file in these reports on the food distribution between the North and the South.

The threat to impeach the President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, by the House of Representatives, before the National Assembly went on recess, drew the ire of some South-South leaders, who saw it as a ploy to shift power to the North, hence their decision to throw a hard knock on the northern part of the country.

Prominent among those drawing the sword against the North is Alhaji Mujahideen Asari Dokubo, the leader of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF), who argued that it was part of a "Northern Agenda" against the Ijaw president. Among his threat was the cut-off of food supply to the North.

Dokubo threatened to teach the "arrogant North" a lesson by blocking the region from the sea and cutting off supplies of fuel and food from the region.

However, the natural disasters that have befallen the country due to global climate change have already put the food supply issue in the front burner.

If you had been out of food stock recently and had gone to some markets in Lagos and other states of the federation, you would have noticed the nominal price hike in food stock which the people have to contend with.

LEADERSHIP SUNDAY visited not less than 10 markets last week in Lagos and some other South-West states, and noticed the experiences of some marketers and consumers, which were not too palatable.

The development, especially as it concerned foodstuffs like beans, which price had risen almost 100 per cent, has shown that the hike was as a result of crises in the North.

Lawrence Ovhuehor, an economist, said: "Today, break the country elements are currently manifesting in Boko Haram menace and terrorism in the Northern part of the country. This is threatening to ruin the economy of the North and the North undisputedly is the food basket of this country.

"Agriculture has been adversely affected and traders from the South are afraid to go to the North to buy foodstuff. That is why prices of foodstuffs had gone up in the South. Both side must complement each other and embrace dialogue."

Markets visited in Lagos, Ogun and Edo states included Sango-Otta, Ifo, and Agbara main market. Markets visited in Benin City included Uselu, Eki-Osa and New-Benin markets. The Lagos markets were the popular Mile 12, Iyana-Iba, Iyana-Ipaja, Agege, Oshodi, Mushin, Daleko and Bariga markets.

In these markets, a basket of fresh tomatoes sells for between N15,000 and N20,000 in Mile 12 market in Ketu, Lagos. It sold for about N10,000 between May and June, this year. Market price variation reared its head when the same basket of tomato sold for between N12, 000 and N17,000 at Mushin market.

Medium-size basket of pepper goes for between N6,000 and N6,500 in Mile 12 against the old price which stabilised at N5,000 few months back.

Mrs. Nike Ayansanwo, a tomato seller at Mile 12 said the increase has its root in the problems in the North, pointing out that inability of the government and stakeholders to resolve the issue affected the supply of tomatoes and pepper.

"The problem of insecurity has also been compounded by deteriorating roads across the country which has made the cost of transportation to be very high," she added.

Corroborating earlier claims, Mrs. Eniola Bakare, another tomato seller at the Mile 12 market, said the current price hike of tomatoes was higher than what obtained throughout 2011.

Bakare, who also traced it to effects of climate change, said farmers they usually bought the commodities from in the North attributed the increase to heavy rainfall and flooding of their tomato farms.

Prices of beans, an important source of protein, have also increased by over 100 per cent in the South. Traders who spoke with our correspondent in some markets fingered insecurity challenges in the North as the cause of the soaring prices.

At Daleko market where most of the food products are supplied, the traders said they had been subjected to pressure from their customers to sell at a reduced price, pointing out that they could not sell below their regular profit margins, as the food item had been purchased at higher rates from their suppliers from the North. A bag that sold for N8,000, now sells for between N13,000 and N15,000.

Mrs. Daramola Catherine, a Lagos civil servant, called for quick resolution to the crises in the North to curb the price increase.

According to her; "The Hausa people are the ones bringing foodstuffs like beans, yams, tomatoes and pepper all year round to the South. Those South-South people have oil, but not food; even they don't have fish because of the pollution of their environment.

They should stop causing problems in the country. Look at the consequences now, beans is the only affordable protein food the poor people in this country have access to in order to balance their diet. Now the poor cannot afford it again because of politics."

Interestingly however, meat seemed to be insulated from the soaring price of foodstuff, as Chicken, turkey and meat maintained their prices simply because many of the stock that formed the bulk in the markets were also derived from within the western region.

In the Eastern part of the country, the story is the same. In Owerri, the Imo State capital, Miss Angela Obiajunwa, a tomato and pepper seller at the Relief Market, said she got her supplies from the North, adding that her business would suffer if Dokubo's threat becomes a political problem, and the North decides to retaliate.

"We need each other. If we keep our palm oil, are we going to eat it all? We need food items such as yam, tomatoes, groundnut, beans, cattle and others, which come in large quantities from the North," she added.

According to Barrister Uche Wisdom Durueke, the acting National President of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO); "Such statement should not have come from Asari Dokubo, who was granted amnesty by the Federal Government. The statement makes nonsense of the whole amnesty programme.

How can he cut food supply from the South to the North? Does he have the power to do so? That means, he is going to use arms, and that is violence. His threat is against the unity and peace of this country. Asari Dokubo should have been cautioned. If the statement was from MASSOB, there would have been public outcry."

Investigations in Enugu revealed that most foodstuffs consumed in the state come from the North.

According to sellers of foodstuffs at the Ogbette Main market in Enugu, food items such as garri, yam, palm oil, bananas that are produced in the South-East and taken to North are very infinitesimal when compared with the volume of food items from the North to the South-East.

A foodstuff dealer in Kenyata Market, Enugu, Mr. Obinna Anuyua, said "how can such a threat make an impact. Most foodstuffs are brought into the South from the North. It is only the threat of the North that can make impact here."

A food trader, Mrs. Blessing Obasi, in Awka added that the two divides complement each other with supplies of food items, as most food items not grown in the southern part are grown in the North.

Obasi mentioned beans, yams, sugarcane, groundnut, onions, oranges, pepper, tomatoes and cattle, among others, as foodstuffs from the North. She attributed this to Northerners interest in farming.

In Ebonyi State, the agricultural state and food basket of the South-East geopolitical zone, foodstuffs like rice, yam, palm oil, cassava (both raw and processed gary), different vegetable seeds are produced. The state is popular for its rice production.

According to the SSG, Chief Fidelis Mbam, "before the civil war, our rice went up to Senegal. Since after the civil war, the oil boom put paid to agriculture, it has eliminated agriculture indirectly. So this administration decided that we are still good farmers, we are still good producers of staple food in Nigeria; rice. Abakaliki has the greatest rice mill cluster in Nigeria."

However, the rice and yam from the state are exported to states in the South-South and South-East, such agricultural produce are not exported to the North. The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Elder Stephen Orogwu, also stated that palm oil is heavily exported to the North from Ebonyi State.

Also, the former chairman of Ebonyi Rice Mill Limited, Mr. Tony Muoneke, stated that palm oil, Ogbono seed and Okro are heavily supplied to the North. He said that rice goes to the South-South and South-West.

A survey carried out in Umuahia, Abia State, revealed that the number of food items traded between the zone and the North tilts in favour of the North as only palm oil is the major commodity that the North depends on from the South. It was gathered that food items from the North to the South-East are in larger quantities.

At the Good Shade Market, a dealer in palm oil, Chief Onyemachi Ahu, said any stoppage of oil supply to the North will be too much, as they almost entirely depend on the South for that product. He added that there was hardly a day without more than 20 tonnes of oil leaving Umuahia to the North, adding that since the Boko Haram insurgency, the volume has decreased by about 50 per cent, because traders are afraid to take palm oil to the North.

However, a large-scale farmer and chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) in Kano, Alhaji Muhammad Sabo Nanono, has said that the North feeds the nation, and has no reason to fear any empty threat from any section of the country. He said the North is capable of feeding itself, while feeding the rest of the country.

Nanono said while the battleground will soon shift from oil to underground water, which he noted is available in the North, he added that "agriculture is contributing 40 per cent to the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which in practical terms means contributing to total production wealth of the nation more than oil, construction, banking and tourism, put together.

In economic terms, the oil contributes only 15 per cent to the nation's GDP, because the entire business in the oil industry is done by foreigners, since they only pay salaries and wages to their workers and do the major business in the industry."

Nanono, who has worked in the banking sector for most part of his life, said "at least 70 per cent of food is being produced in the North, and there is no question about that. And by simple inference, the way livestock and food items are being transported from various parts of the North to the southern part of the country will show you how the North is feeding the country.

"When you look at the figures of food and livestock transported to the South, without apology to anybody, the North is the food basket of the country. The North produces virtually all the grains the nation needs. The availability of oil in the South is simply by climatic condition. I don't know what the South is producing. I have not seen one. Even mangoes and oranges are produced more in the North than in the South," he stressed.

Nanono, however, attributed the slow development in the North to bad leadership and said that our leaders must brace up and do the right thing to harness the resources available in the region and make the people highly productive.

"The people in the North are very productive. Whenever you travel from Ilorin to Ngru, hardly you see where people are not working. That's a sign of productivity, showing you that the North is capable of standing alone, since it can feed itself and even go beyond that level. We have all the technical conditions to produce rice that the country needs. Niger and Taraba alone can produce the rice requirement of the country," he added.

Nanono therefore called for the total re-vitalisation of the railway system to enhance the distribution of fertilisers in the country, saying the call was necessary to ensure efficient distribution to farmers across the country.

"If there is effective railway system, where you can transport fertiliser at cheaper cost, the cost of the commodity will reduce by between 20 per cent and 25 per cent," he said, adding that "we have to really take agriculture as a national security item, because the best way to secure ourselves is to feed ourselves."

Supplies from states within the North-West zone indicate that the South largely depends on the North for food items. Indices from Kebbi, Sokoto Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa and Kano states underscore these areas as part of the largest northern suppliers of assorted food items to the South.

The North-West Zonal Chairman of the Cow Dealers Association, Alhaji Bello Bungudu (Sarkin Zango), said there are more than 1,000 cow dealers in Gusau Town, Zamfara state, who jointly transport to the South, an average of 30,000 cows daily. He said average daily supply from Kano and other large cities like Sokoto and Maiduguri is 100 trailer-loads, while from other towns like Zaria, Kebbi, Gusau and Katsina, an average of 30,000 cows are transported daily to the South.

Mallam Ladan Musa is the publicity secretary of Zamfara State Vegetable Dealers Association, who said from Zamfara alone, an estimated number of 30 trucks loaded with assorted vegetable items like onions, tomatoes, pepper and other related items are supplied to the South on a weekly interval.

Also the Chairman of the Grains Dealers Association, Gusau branch, Alhaji Ismaila Abubakar Samrawi, disclosed that major types of grains like guinea corn, maize and soya beans are supplied to the South daily. He said though these products are cultivated in the North, more than 80 per cent of them are consumed in the South, particularly soya beans, which is used as industrial raw material for the production of powder milk, cooking oil, and many other products.

He further explained that from Gusau, an estimated number of 50 trucks of soya beans are supplied to the South on weekly basis, while more than 200 trailers of sorghum, used in the production of beverages by industries in the South, are also transported on daily basis.

Written by George Okojie, Nnamdi Mbawike, David-Chyddy Eleke, Stanley Uzoaru, Abba Abubakar Kabara, Salisu Ibrahim, Mathias Nwogu, and Onyekaozulu Ofoma/Leadership Newspapers.