Peter Obi has once again drawn national attention to the worsening hunger and poverty crisis in Nigeria, warning that these challenges are far more than the cold figures and percentages often presented in reports.
For him, hunger is not an abstract concept—it is a daily reality for millions whose faces and stories remain hidden behind official data.
Obi lamented that over 34 million Nigerians are facing acute food insecurity, while more than 133 million are trapped in multidimensional poverty.
He stressed that these are not exaggerated claims but urgent human tragedies playing out across communities. “We cannot continue to reduce the suffering of our people to numbers on a spreadsheet,” he said, noting that the situation requires decisive action rather than political speeches.
Across the country, the signs of distress are everywhere. In Katsina State alone, at least 652 children have died from malnutrition between January and June 2025, according to Médecins Sans Frontières.
These deaths come amid shrinking humanitarian funding and worsening insecurity that have cut off entire communities from essential aid.
The World Food Programme has warned that 300,000 Nigerian children could face severe malnutrition in the coming months, while more than 1.3 million people in the northeast depend almost entirely on emergency food assistance—aid that is rapidly running out.
In Mokwa, Niger State, heavy flooding earlier this year swept away farmlands and destroyed homes. Rice fields were submerged, food supplies washed away, and thousands were displaced.
Families now face the dual threat of hunger and disease, with little hope of recovery before the next planting season.
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In the northwest, poverty has pushed some parents into marrying off their underage daughters simply to reduce the number of mouths they must feed.
Elsewhere, young people take dangerous and degrading risks to make ends meet, including scavenging in abandoned graves and sites associated with ritual practices.
Obi said the government’s handling of the crisis has been worsened by an overreliance on faulty or manipulated statistics, which paint a picture disconnected from the suffering on the ground. “We cannot feed our people with false data. No one eats numbers. Nigerians need food, jobs, healthcare, and security—not empty claims of progress,” he warned.
The cost of living has soared beyond the reach of many. In Umuahia, the price of a single tuber of yam, which sold for between ₦1,500 and ₦2,500 last year, now costs up to ₦8,000.
This is in a country where more than 40 percent of food produced is lost to waste because of poor storage, transportation, and market infrastructure.
Obi called it a painful irony that so much food rots away while millions go to bed hungry.
He further linked the poverty crisis to Nigeria’s growing insecurity, arguing that hunger fuels desperation, and desperation in turn fuels crime and instability. “Every naira we invest in our people today is one less bullet we need to fire tomorrow,” he said.
He urged the government to focus resources on education, healthcare, and agricultural development, insisting these sectors are the lifelines that can lift millions out of destitution.
For Obi, tackling hunger and poverty is not just about social welfare—it is about restoring dignity to the Nigerian people.
He believes that genuine leadership must first recognise that behind every statistic is a human being with dreams, hopes, and the right to a decent life.
Without that recognition, policies will remain disconnected, and the cycle of hardship will continue.
As the crisis deepens, the call to move beyond statistics and confront the human reality of poverty is growing louder.
Whether the political leadership will heed this call and act with urgency remains to be seen, but for millions of Nigerians, the clock is already ticking.
