STOMACH INFRASTRUCTURE: THE POLITICS OF FOOD IS READY

                      STOMACH INFRASTRUCTURE:  THE POLITICS OF FOOD IS READY

                      By CHIBU NDUBUISI 04/09/2017

“Many people worry about their own stomach and the state of other people’s soul but the real task is to worry about other people’s stomach and the state of our own soul”. Jonathan Sacks

 

Peace be to you.

The neologism “stomach infrastructure” was coined by a Nigerian Governor Ayodele Fayose as a realistic political approach geared towards satisfying the primary constituency of the hunger of his political followers by rewarding them with cash.

The UNDP report of 1994 list seven dimension of human security to include; economic security, food security, health security, community security, environmental security, personal security and political security. The SDG goal number 2 equally comes to confirm the importance of food and why hunger must be fought by all because it diminishes. It is no longer news that so many parents can’t feed their children. We are regaled with statistics that the world produces enough food, but not enough for everyone.

You cannot give your mind to higher things if you lack food to eat said Moses Maimonides. Jesus at some point during his earthly ministry paused, to feed his followers, signifying that building the stomach infrastructure is a spiritual obligation. Israel Salanter advises that “someone else’s material needs are my spiritual responsibility”. Food is an essential material need that contributes to peace.

Over one billion people of the world population still live in hunger and part of that population is what Fayose is feeding by dolling out cash to them only when it is politically necessary to use it as a bait to get their votes. The government of president Buhari went a step further in his policy of school feeding programme. At some point in Nigeria, we had the policy of “Operation Feed the Nation” during the era of Obasanjo(1979). Why did such policy fail to feed the nation? We have had and still having political elites who are invited to “come and eat”, a euphemism for government’s complacency in condoning corruption in its fold.

The advice of “teach a man how to fish and he will never go hungry” does not come to play sometimes, because in Nigeria even those who have been taught how to fish still go very hungry as a result of some terrible government policies. Dangote, once came to the rescue of workers in Osun state who were not paid their salaries for months, by providing them with food.

In politics, when you are appointed or elected to serve, it is equally motivated by some “food is ready” principle to come and eat or simply put to divert resources made for developmental purposes. Your kinsmen will even encourage you to bite a big lump of the cake, because you don’t know when the next meal will come. We even rob our grandchildren by overeating in to the meal of tomorrow.  That is, over borrowing so that in the future they keep paying debts incurred by their fathers.

I am hopeful that one day; the right structures will be enabled to make us have food to eat and those invited to government to come and serve, will serve and not sabotage the system with impoverishing policies and ideas.

Peace be with you.

Chibu Ndubuisi is a Peace Building Agent. A Rising Africa Believer: contact. getwithchibu@hotmail.com   blog chibundubuisi@blogspot.com

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