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As expected, some politicians, like Governor Yahaya Bello and Femi Fani-Kayode used the opportunity to launder their image as pragmatic leaders to unsuspecting Nigerians. Bello, reportedly held a meeting with the President of Amalgamated Union of Foodstuffs and Cattle Dealers Of Nigeria, with their Chairmen from all the 36 states & the FCT on behalf of the federal government. They then went on to have a meeting with the Chief of Staff to the president. The union’s president, Dr Mohammed Tahir, declared an end to the sham food blockade;
“Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello begged us on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria, we agreed to call off the nationwide strike today,
“They agreed to pay the compensation and call off multiple taxation on the federal highways and allow us to engage in our business activities peacefully nationwide.”Now both the unions and the politicians who took part in the negotiations and the supposed return of inter-state to normalcy would believe they helped solve an impasse when it has not even begun. The truth is that the simple macroeconomic laws of demand and supply played out in this blockade drama. Those who initiated the blockade discovered that the losses they would incur are too gargantuan to joke with. While a food blockade would hurt both northern and southern Nigeria, the high dependence of northern farmers on the southern market puts them at the mercy of heavy-buying south. The south also would definitely suffer food inflation of some farm produce before they are able to sort through local production but having agrarian neighbours to the Benin Republic to the west and Cameroon in the east is a huge advantage for the south if the situation ever became desperate. The ports are also present in the South which gives a major advantage to the seas to ship in essential food items to the southern populace.
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As of Thursday, news channels are reporting that the federal government has agreed to pay the compensation while the union announced that the food blockade to southern Nigeria is lifted. No one knows where the money will come from or if this is another money laundering scam. The food blockade came into the equation when reports came in on Monday that some trucks bearing food coming from farms in the core North were stopped at Jebba, a state border town in Kwara state. Reports have it that it took a combination of military men from the defence headquarters to disperse the roadblocks at Jebba. Meanwhile, in the time that the blockade went on, the perishable food items such as pepper, onions and tomatoes rotted away in large quantities leading to the loss of billions of naira worth of farm produce. However, this infamous blockade is vivid enough to politically discerning eyes. Citizens are aware that if Northern Nigeria was the section with the abundance of crude oil, it would have seceded from Nigeria the night of Independence Day in 1960. Ethnic privilege remains a cankerworm to the progress of our nation. Yahaya Bello and Femi Fani-Kayode are also better brought to speed that the Nigerian masses are aware that their political posturing as saviours of Northern and Southern parts of Nigeria is obvious propaganda to position them for 2023 elections. Featured Image Source: The Cable NG
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