Food Security- North V South by Nsikan Nkordeh

I have heard a lot of people say that if Nigeria breaks up today, the North will suffer most but that is a lie.The North would survive the split than any other region.Why?

Food security is an issue that many parts of Nigeria apart from the North , do not take seriously.Why did Biafra lose the War? It was simply because of the blockage put on movement of food from the North and west to the East.Hunger decimated the Biafran army and people.The question is 'Is it that the Igbos did not invest in agriculture before the War that they had to rely on the 'enemy' to feed them? Clearly, through the efficacy of the blockage, it can be deduced that they did not invest in Food production.Hence, though they had money and skill to prosecute the war, they did not have the food to keep them alive to be able to use their money and skills!

The same scenario is playing out itself in our time.Many people in the South( West,East and South-South) have threatened that if Nigeria breaks up, the North will suffer most- this is a very poor assessment.Apart from the recent decimation of the North by Boko Haram, the North had remained the Food basket of Nigeria.I perceive somebody saying , it is not true? I know how much sufferings that takes place here in the South when the North Farmers and Cattle rearers go on strike, and refuse to bring food to us.Prices in the market sky-rocket,scarcity everywhere and panic-buying.This shows that in the South we depend on the North for Food.

God forbid, if a war breaks out between the North and the South, people in the South may not survive 6 months of the War because there will be no supply of food from the North to the South. Note: blocking food supply from your end to the enemies is a legitimate strategy of war( I cant imagine feeding my enemies so they can fight me).If there was a war between the North and the South, we should realize here that the most important thing during war is food.In the South, you cant serve your people crude oil for food, and the West would not serve their people academic intelligence .The North that produce most of these foods we eat will  be able to fight for long, and may probably win since the people of the South would have been decimated by hunger and starvation

Food security is the most important security any people can achieve.Any Country that has not attained Food security is an irresponsible one.For now, Nigeria has not attained Food Security but the North is light-years ahead of the South in terms of Food Security

Our leaders, especially in the South should learn a lesson from the Biafra War.Ojukwu and his Military strategists and advisers lost the War, partly because they could not feed their people.The question is this , can we feed our people?