Abuja, Nigeria
PRESS STATEMENT
Ajibola Oladiipo, public intellectual and Executive Director, Nigeria Food Security Project whose work centres on food security, political economy, and state capacity, has issued a formal statement affirming food security as core national infrastructure and a non-negotiable foundation of state authority and stability.
According to the statement, the ability of citizens to access food at stable and predictable prices is central to governance itself. Where food systems fail, institutional credibility erodes, household resilience weakens, and national cohesion comes under strain. These outcomes, the statement noted, are not abstract risks but measurable pressures on public order and the social contract.
The statement observes that Nigeria is currently experiencing a convergence of structural and compounding pressures within its food system. Elevated food prices, disrupted agricultural production cycles, climate exposure, insecurity across key food-producing and transport corridors, rising logistics costs, and macroeconomic conditions constraining household purchasing power are reinforcing one another. The cumulative effect is reduced affordability and uneven access to staple foods across geopolitical zones, with direct implications for stability and lawful order.
Food access, the statement emphasizes, is inseparable from state legitimacy. When the state cannot secure the conditions under which citizens can reliably eat, its authority becomes brittle regardless of formal institutions. Ensuring food availability, affordability, and physical access is therefore described as a matter of national security and institutional continuity, not charity or emergency relief.
The statement further underscores that responsibility for safeguarding the food system rests with the full machinery of the state, including fiscal authorities, security institutions, agricultural systems, transport and logistics agencies, and macroeconomic managers. Fragmented interventions or short-term measures, it cautions, cannot substitute for coordinated and sustained state capacity. Food systems must be treated, planned, and defended as strategic national assets.
Ajibola Oladiipo affirmed that restoring and sustaining food security is a governing obligation with long-term national consequence. The durability of the Nigerian state, he noted, depends on its ability to protect the material foundations of citizenship. This responsibility is ongoing, institutional, and non-negotiable.
Issued by:
Office of the Technical Assistant on Strategic Communications
Date: January 23, 2026
