Context Matters: What Peter Obi really meant about food prices

By Valentine Obinyem

“Crashing food prices will make our farmers poor.” — Peter Obi

This was posted by Ejike Nnaji. I do not know the spirit in which he shared it — seriously or whimsically. But I suspect it was posted in bad faith, perhaps to provoke easy criticism of Obi.

Should anyone rush to attack a statement without first asking: What was the context? What problem was he addressing? What solution was he proposing?

Obi’s point was straightforward. He noted that the vast arable land of the North is sufficient to feed Nigeria and even produce surplus for export. Yet insecurity has driven many farmers from their lands. Some have been kidnapped, others displaced, while bandits now occupy fields that once produced food.

So the real question is this: If farmers cannot safely return to their farms, what happens to local production? If government responds not by restoring security but by liberalising food imports, who benefits? Will it be the displaced farmer, or the wealthy importer?

When food that our farmers should grow is imported instead, what becomes of those farmers?
When they lose their livelihoods, how do they feed their families?
How do they train their children, pay hospital bills, or preserve their dignity?

They do not merely become poorer; they are victims of policy failure.

History teaches that nations are not destroyed only by war, but also by indifference to the people who feed them. A country that abandons its farmers mortgages its future.