Youths mar World Food Day in Niger, scramble for food

Governor Mohammed Bago of Niger State | File Image

Youths scramble for for food at World Food Day celebration

By Mohammed Usman

Hungry youths have queried the essence of celebrating the 2024 United Nation’s World Food Day (WFD) in an empty stomarch, as they disrupted the event at the Legbo Kutigi International Conference Centre, Minna, Niger State on Wednesday October 16, 2024.

 The drama started when some of the youths from selected schools realized during the cutting of cake that there was no provision for ‘Item 7’, at the event, Governor Mohammed Bago was represented by his deputy, Comrade Yakubu Garba.

Apparently suspecting that the programme would end once the governor’s representative departs the venue and nothing for them to eat, they started chanting: “Give us food, not cake cutting.”

The hungry youths also defied the presence of some stain-looking private securitymen who tried to force them out of the hall.

Not giving up, they were joined in the demand for food by suspected thugs, who dared the securitymen and invaded the area where refreshments were kept and overpowered the attendants and helped themselves with whatever consumable they could lay their hands on.

Also read: I’II continuously serve Niger citizens, Bago assures

Meanwhile, Governor Bago had said that the theme for this year’s celebrations, “Safer Foods and Better Health”, was apt, given the fact that Nigeria was faced with the critical challenge of the high cost of food.

Bago also pointed out that the cost of living resulting from unbearable economic realities, insecurity, climate change all aggravate food insecurity and threatening the survival of the most vulnerable segment of the country’s population.

He said, “The theme for this year’s celebrations, “Safer Foods and Better Health”, is very apt, given the fact that our nation is faced with the critical challenge of the high cost of living resulting from the economic realities, insecurity, climate change which all aggravate food insecurity and threatens the survival of the most vulnerable segment of our society.”

The New Niger Agenda is possible, Bago said, adding that the narrative was why his administration was tapping into the enormous agricultural potentials and working hard to ensure availability of food in Niger state and for Nigerians as a whole.

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