In certain parts of the country a security guard who can’t afford food wants to marry four wives – Former minister Audu Ogbeh gives reasons Nigerians are hungry

Former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has said that population growth is one of the reasons Nigerians are suffering from hunger and starvation. 

“20,000 children are born daily in Nigeria now. That is 6,000,000 a month. Six million babies a month. If that figure is accurate, it is a scary one, especially in certain parts of the country where your security guard tells you he still wants to marry four wives and every month, you are helping him with school fees, food and so on, but he says his religion says he can marry four wives. Religion didn’t say he must marry four, but he wants to marry four wives, so he produces these kids and definitely can’t look after them and leaves the burden on their mothers and their mothers, many of them, many s

Ogbeh, who stated this in this exclusive interview with Sunday Sun in Abuja, also blamed it on institutional policies such as interest rates to farmers, the absence of subsidy for some agricultural products or commodities like what obtained in other climes, coupled with other limitations associated with the small-scale farming system in the country like non-availability of mechanised implements and fertilizers. 

He also said that lack of attention to agriculture both at the state and local government levels, saying that all of them added up are responsible for the hunger in the country. 

“First of all, there are many issues. I mean, the farmers in Nigeria are 90 per cent small scale, and very few of them can manage one hectare of land. A hectare is a football field. They cannot. They can’t afford to rent a tractor. If they do, the cost is too high, so it has to be the hoe and cutlass. And with the hoe and cutlass, there is just so much you can do,” he said.

“They can’t cope with weeds; a bag of fertilizer today has gone way beyond their capacity. They have very little access to improve seeds and in those days when we grew up, we followed our fathers to the farms and we supported them in some little ways. They showed you how to weed. Now, most of the young boys are mainly in school and can only be available during the holidays. So, you find the man alone or he and his wife. 

“Their output can only be so much. Today, even though Nigeria has well over 970,000 hectares of land, it is just about a million hectares. Less than four per cent is under cultivation. People don’t know this. When you travel, look left and right on either side of the road or when you are flying and you are about to land, look down. It is nothing but wilderness. 

“So, we are really not planting enough, with all the other issues I have raised – soil – even soil management, I have a little kit here. If you are going to plant anything anywhere, do a soil test. If you are growing seeds, if you are growing…, apart from the fact that the farmers are few and ageing and that their capacity to cultivate is reducing, there are other issues like I raised – fertilizer, chemicals and so on, soil type. 

“You don’t just plant anything anywhere. If you are going to grow anything in Southern Imo and Abia, you have to do your soil test because the soil is extremely acidic. So, you have to select a particular type of fertilizer and do some liming of the soil before you apply fertilizer. Lime mops up the acid and you will get a good yield. The yields are reducing, the average age of a farmer is rising, and the support by family has totally disappeared. 

“Like I said, those days when we were younger, we helped weed; your father showed you what to do, not now. So, production is dropping. Then, there is population growth. The figure I have now, I don’t know how accurate it is, is that 20,000 children are born daily in Nigeria now. That is 6,000,000 a month.

“Six million babies a month. If that figure is accurate, it is a scary one, especially in certain parts of the country where your security guard tells you he still wants to marry four wives and every month, you are helping him with school fees, and food and so on, but he says his religion says he can marry four wives. Religion didn’t say he must marry four, but he wants to marry four wives, so he produces these kids and definitely can’t look after them and leaves the burden on their mothers and their mothers, many of them, many states now, are on Tramadol under stress. So, this is it.”