A one-day National Security Summit was recently held in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, to deliberate on issues threatening the security of the nation.
The place of food security in national security has not been tops on the agenda for discussion in Nigeria generally. It is therefore one for deeper deliberation at this time and in line with the security summit. Food Security is said to exist when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
However, although national security has long been recognized as a notoriously ambiguous phrase, experts agree that it is anything that threatens to degrade the quality of life of a people, whether of foreign or domestic origin. Whereas the term, national security, conjures up images of the military and arms, there is increasing concern over threats from non military sources. Former U.S President Harry S. Truman rightly said “national security does not consist of an army, a navy and an air force. It rests on a much broader base; a sound economy”.
Studies reveal that conflict is greater and more frequent in areas of poverty prevalence and high food insecurity. This agrees with a known adage “a hungry man is an angry man”. The sector thus impacts on internal security, political stability and so strongly on national integrity. Its role has also become evident in strategies for international relevance and diplomacy. It is, therefore, a critical weapon of effective governance in a democratic dispensation. Its absence has a direct widespread impact on the state of the nation.
U.S. Rep. McGovern reacting to how cuts to food programs affect America’s national security, said “food issue isn’t a question of charity. It’s an issue of national security. “What now happens when desperate people can’t find or afford food and the anger that comes from people who see no future for their children except poverty and death”?McGovern asked. The answer is evident in the internal instability/ disquiet that rocked over 40 nations in 2007 / 2008; leading to the overthrow of some democratically elected governments. Food security is now increasingly being recognized as a nation’s first defense against anarchy and revolutionary conflicts.
Countries globally are recognizing this. World power, America, has further elevated food security from the portfolio of mere national security to the rank of national priority. Vice President Biden says “Investments made to ward off food insecurity and prevent its recurrence can prevent the vicious cycles of rising extremism, armed conflict, and state failure that can require far larger commitments of resources down the road.” To America’s former secretary of state, Hilary Clinton, “ending hunger is not only possible, it is both a moral and strategic imperative.” For her “Food security is not just about food. It is about security”.
For most African countries, Nigeria inclusive, it is a double delight – the absence of external threat and ‘Agriculture, our main economy’. Revisiting the International Encyclopaedia of 1968, which defined national security as “The ability of a nation to defend its internal values from external threats”, Nigeria needs to defend its internal values from internal threats.Solution to issues that could cause national trepidation and threaten internal disquiet can be found within the food sector. Food security is consequently our arsenal for national security.
However, how well food security functions as national security depends on how well the policies are stretched to impact on social issues, using the food sector as the provocateur of “life chain”. The foundation piece of the sector is the mirroring of the status of the citizens. All things are floored when the foundation is weak or shaky. So far, in most essential areas, there is still birth. The nation seems to be experiencing challenges in areas it ought to be celebrating. The provocateur is wobbling and the output is shaking too. We must have to define the basics very carefully to get every other thing right.
Malnutrition with its widespread and import should constitute a national emergency. It has been widely connected to high maternal and child mortality. Anything that threatens mother and child threatens the existence of a nation. It goes beyond this; impacting on health, poor educational performance, conflicts, influx of fake and adulterated drugs. Recent studies say it even impacts on terrorism. With this insurgence and increase in IDPs, issues are getting worse; UN’s 2009 reported situation is getting worse; with the entire north in a chronic situation and stretching to the South.
Malnutrition is a strong issue. Hilary Clinton says of it “If you want to know how stable a country is, do not count the number of advanced weapons. Count the number of malnourished children. In fact, WHO sums it as a major contributory factor to failure in attaining MDGs 1-6 and FAO calls it a precondition for development. Major stakeholders must be identified and strengthened. Nigeria’s first lady in a recent forum charged her audience to identify areas of national need with grass-roots impact.
Nutritional empowerment is it and her office with its network in all states seats will see it through. Nutritional empowerment is an extensive phenomenon that will impact affordable, accessible, available and acceptable support in the area of Safe Motherhood and Infant and Child Survival policy in Nigeria. It will be a comprehensive programme that must gear at a wide ranging approach to reducing mothers’ and child’s high risk as a result of diverse factors. In the state of affair that is compelling for allotting a high priority to women’s health, much would be accomplished by adopting nutrition management as a base. I think a focus on this would do the nation a lot of good and reduce burden on hospitals. Our mothers and children should die no more and our HDIs should spiral.