Jada, a Nigerian Youth Service Corp member was posted to an agricultural farm in Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja for her place of primary assignment (PPA).
Upon hearing various news of kidnapping happening there, Corper Jada, who schooled in the southwest of Nigeria, and has never travelled up North of the country before her current youth service, travelled, early in the morning of August 13th 2021, to her new PPA with great trepidation.
Kuje is one of the local governments of Abuja, which is located at the outskirts of the city. The rustic town is about forty-five minutes from the famous Berger motor park which is at the city centre of the FCT.
Kuje is popularly regarded as Abuja’s “Food Basket” because farmers in the local government are known for growing different types of food crops in significant quantities for commercial purposes and household consumption.
Some of these crops include groundnuts, maize, plantain, potatoes, rice, tomatoes and yam. It is known to have peasant farmers, the intermediate farmlands and the standard farmlands such as Almat Farms and Efugo Farm.
However, insecurity is threatening Kuje’s standing as the food basket of the FCT, as farmers there are increasingly finding it difficult to access their farms as they normally do because of the fear of being kidnapped or killed or the powerlessness of witnessing herds of cattles eating up their farm produce without them being able to do anything.
Food security is the first but one of the 14 sustainable development goals. The SDG 2 – Zero Hunger – aims “to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, making sure all people–especially children–have sufficient and nutritious food all year.”
However the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) asserts that to achieve food security by 2030, each country must “double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land,”
The problem with the Kuje agricultural hub then appears to be a lack of “secure and equal access to land” by “small scale food producers”.
Mr Okafor, who is the national president of the potato farmers association, said he hasn’t been able to visit his 5 hectares of land due to the increased rate of kidnapping going on in Kuje, according to a Premium Times report.
There has been a series of attacks in Kuje area council, ranging from terrorism to robbery to kidnapping. In 2015, Kuje was attacked by the Boko Haram insurgent group. This attack led to the death of 13 people while 20 others were injured.
Abduction started on the road popularly called “Bush Road ” which is the old road and popular route to Pegi estate. Thereafter, there has been a series of abductions in the area which has caused some residents to abandon their estates around this road.
This did not deter the abductors as kidnapping continued in the area. In 2020, 15 persons were kidnapped in Pegi, a community in Kuje. The victims this time were top government officials in the local government. The kidnappers are driven by the monetary gain from the huge ransoms paid by abducted people to regain their freedom.
These incidents have led to many fleeing Kuje for safety. Most of them abandoned their homes, means of livelihood and properties behind as they seek refuge elsewhere. Most of them abandoned their farm lands with no hope of returning to them. As one who attempted ro return to his farm was kidnapped on his way to inspect it.
Farmers greatly lament the inability to visit their farms as at when due. Farmers have to go to their farmlands every four days which also coincides with the Kuje market day. This, they claim, makes the route busy with human traffic and safer for them. But this affects the farmers’ output. They can’t farm as they should, if it’s not kidnapping, it’s cattle herders, whose cattles invade farmland and eat up farmers produce.
“We advise farmers to plant close to their homes” and some of them are doing it, says Mr Irtwang, a professor of agricultural enginnering. They can do so by putting top soil in a cement sack and place them in their house corridors or in their compound and plant on it. Then they use an irrigation system to make it germinate properly.
Farmers now plant less than they usually did. This reduces the quantity of their harvest compared to the previous seasons. This general decrease in various farm products causes scarcity and attendant hikes in the price of food stuffs.
“It is a whole mirage of problems,” Mr Isaac-Taiwo said, stating that if the government could provide adequate security and grants, such as subsidized essential farm inputs like fertilizers, tractors among others, to farmers, the crime rate will reduce.”
A Police officer in Kuje area council says dealing with the kidnapper is beyond the Kuje police personnel; in Kuje area council Fulani herdsmen are above the law because anytime they are arrested there is always a directive from above to release them and this is not helping matters at all.
A study has shown that the achievement of food security would be impossible if insecurity that pervades and overwhelms many farming communities in Nigeria is not resolved.
Findings from various studies proffer remedies that will stop the ugly menace of kidnapping in Nigeria. These solutions include job creation, new policy adaptation and implementation, public awareness and empowerment programs, registration of Sim cards to better track the identities and locations of criminals, quitting ransom payments, a re-modified community policing and stoppage of small and light arms proliferation in the country.
Idayat Hassan, Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development, said the issue of insecurity is of great concern, as it threatens the socio-economic stability of the country, as well as the livelihood of the people.
The development advocate opined that to significantly reduce security threats in Kuje, and indeed other vulnerable communities as this, there needs to be more effective policing of the area.
She emphasised the need for job opportunities for the youths, because the crime perpetrated in Kuje is directly by young people, which needs to be stopped. Besides, the communities in Kuje could start outreach policing for themselves so that they can go to their farm and start their farming business back.
The Kuje agricultural hub could well catalyse the achievement of food security in Nigeria’s Federal Capital. Yet, the farmers in the community need “secure and equal access to land”.