Browsing: Food & Agriculture

[COLUMN] Right To Food Act: Nigerians Must Not go to Bed on an Empty Stomach, By Prof. MK Othman

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Professor Gbolagade Ayoola is an obscure personality among the downtrodden Nigerians, the category of people he has doggedly fought for all his life. If Nigeria is a country that recognizes and celebrates heroes and fighters of human rights, Ayoola would have been the Mahatma Gandhi of Nigeria; his portraits and objects immortalizing him would have littered every nook and cranny of Nigeria. Today, we are grateful for Ayoola’s success in drafting the Food Right Act, which allows Nigerians to hold their elected officials accountable and even take them to court if they go hungry. The government is not required to provide food for the people free of charge. However, the government has a constitutional responsibility to formulate and implement policies to ensure all Nigerians’ Right to food and food security. Failure of government policies to guarantee people access to qualitative food empowers the people to take the government into account. It means the government of Nigeria bears legally enforceable obligations to respect, protect, promote, and fulfill the Right to food for citizens based on treaty obligations and existing laws. The Right to food is in tandem with the Right to life, as access to food is necessary for human survival. It is also part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to end hunger in all its forms worldwide before the year 2030. Prof. Ayoola resigned from his teaching job at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, when he realized the enormity of the fight to draft the Right to Food Bill and transform it into an Act.