Increasing insecurity in several parts of the country is the tip of the iceberg because lurking around the corner is a concern about mass hunger. The Organization for Impact and Reform (OFIAR) notes that the number of displaced persons in Nigeria which dipped from 3.3 million to 1.07 million from 2013 to 2014 has begun to rise and the last data show that as many as 2.7 million Nigerians were displaced by 2020. This is the third largest number of displaced persons in Africa.
This insecurity led to sporadic protests especially in the northern parts of the country. Unspoken is that the displacement has shifted populations southwards leading to increasing conflicts between refugees and locals. Additionally, displacement of many Nigerians increases food insecurity. The United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns that “mounting food crisis lurks behind rising security challenges and structural vulnerabilities (in Nigeria). . . .The farmers-herders clash is usually identified as one of the significant causes of food insecurity in the country… targeted attacks on farmers and farming communities by Boko Haram insurgents and armed bandits… in other parts of the country, there are episodes of violent struggles between farmers and pastoralists.” It is a litany of crises.
OFIAR warns that the lack of urgent attention to this situation can become dire. It notes that the rapid increase in the country’s population, especially among the young non-working age, mixed with rapid loss of access to food is an especially dangerous situation.
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