Ex-Minister, Aondoakaa Reveals Major Problem Facing Nigerians

Former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa, has said the main problem Nigerians are faced with is the issue of insecurity.

In an interview with Arise News on Tuesday, the former minister said that once insecurity is addressed, the citizens can feed themselves.

Aondoakaa asserted that the problem of hunger and food shortage in the country results from the absence of farmers on the farms.

He said: “The main issue now is that of security. Nigerians have the capacity to feed themselves. They are hardworking people. But now the farmers cannot go to the farm. That is the basic reality, because of insecurity. The problem of hunger that we are having now is a result of that. Most of our farmers don’t rely on imported rice or beans.

“They do everything for themselves and they contribute more to the economy of this country, I mean the GDP of the country. Now, that aspect has been weakened because most of the major producing areas are under siege. Talking about Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kaduna, Niger and Benue. These are the basic food-producing areas, and now they can’t go to the farm because of the insecurity. If the insecurity is handled and people can go to the farm and we can have a bumper harvest, then we can feed ourselves.

“If the issue of insecurity is not tackled, whatever the state government and federal government do, farmers cannot go to the farm. Our farmers, who would never buy food, now go to the market to buy things like Indomie to feed their children. These are the kinds of things that are putting pressure on the people to the extent that you have widespread complaints of hunger.”

Speaking on the plan to establish state police, the former minister said it would help fix the country only if they are excluded from political activities.

He added: “During our time with President Yar’Adua, we also brought the idea of state policing, and if the present idea is conceived the way we conceived it, then it is possible for it to get us in a better place in terms of security. The framework of the state police will be the law made by the federal government and the national assembly. In our case, we tried to define the limitations of state police.

“We excluded state police from all kinds of political activities. Elections, rallies and anything relating to politics. They will not be involved. So, I believe that now also, if the president is considering state police, the framework must be an enactment made by the national assembly, excluding the state police from participating in politics and confining them to the issue of crimes relating to terrorizing, kidnapping, any crime except the ones that have to do with political activities.”