EXCLUSIVE: Wanted at Home Exiled Journalist David Hundeyin Discusses the Food and Energy Crisis in Nigeria
The hunger crisis in Nigeria is a reason for concern, according to world health and food organizations. Photo courtesy of The Borgen Project
In Part III of our exclusive interview with exiled journalist David Hundeyin, we will discuss the problems with food insecurity in Nigeria, where UNICEF said there are 25 million Nigerians that fit in the high-risk category for going hungry, according to a 2023 report. The energy crisis in Nigeria and how it is contributing to the pollution crisis in the country of 219,000 million people. David shares what he thinks is the United States foreign policy as it relates to Nigeria and the West African region as a whole. Nigeria is one of the world’s biggest oil producers. The valuable commodity has set other countries up for generational wealth for its people. That is not the case in Nigeria. In Part III of “Wanted at Home” our one-on-one interview with David Hundeyin, he gives reasons for why this is the case.
Can you talk a little bit more about the food insecurity problems in Nigeria?
There are two major data points about food in Nigeria. Something like 62 percent of Nigerian household income is currently spent of food. There is a huge food problem in Nigeria. Usually, when you see numbers that high in terms of proportion of income being spent on food, that is an indication for basically how poorly the consumer spending power is. The food crisis is heavily worsened by the fact of the security crisis in rural areas that makes farmers increasingly unable to do their jobs. It is worsening every year as the terrorists increasingly take on more and more strips of land, especially in the north and middle belt where the majority of agricultural activity in Nigeria takes place.
It might also surprise you to know that in spite of all of this, the major contract growers or corporate farms that are present in Nigeria, grow mostly for export markets, not for the people. Those farmers are almost entirely unaffected by all of this. They are doing just fine, but the food growers are being absolutely decimated. That is a very curious dynamic. You would think that agricultural land would be equally targeted by these terrorists, but what you find is the sustenance level farmers are being consistently driven off of their lands while the large contract growers tend to be left alone and don’t have these problems.
In parallel with a growing food crisis, Nigeria has very strong exports regarding cash crops. Some say this is partly the result of recommendations made by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The structure adjustment due to loans are decimating Africa. When you get an IMF loan, it is almost ubiquitous that one of the conditions attached to the loan is you should basically stop growing food and start growing cash crops so you can pay off the loan and import food. Nigeria is a very heavy importer of wheat from Ukraine and rice from Thailand.
Nigeria has a lot of oil. But there seems to be an energy crisis in many parts of the country. Can you speak on that?
Nigeria like the rest of Africa, suffers from internal energy poverty, which is insane given that it has some of the world’s largest natural gas reserves and is also on pace now to be Africa’s top oil producer. As recently as 2013 it was the world’s 8th largest world producer. Despite that Nigeria has widespread energy poverty. The more access to energy people has, the wealthier they are. It is a direct and positive correlation between the two. In parallel for having this incredible export capacity for energy that Nigeria has, the local access and consumption of energy is very akin.
In terms of electricity, the national grid has the capacity to wheel out 5,000 megawatts of power at a time for 210 million people. To put that in perspective, the town of Heathrow, in London, consumes roughly 5,000 megawatts of electricity. They have only 50,000 people. Compare that with a country that has 210 million people. So, in total, Nigeria has about 12,000 megawatts of installed power generation but can only wheel-out 5,000 at any given time. So, to make-up for this shortfall, the vast majority of Nigeria’s electrical consumption is generated through diesel and petrol generators. Nigeria is also the world’s largest importer of generators by far. It is estimated Nigerians privately generate anything from 40 to 48,000 megawatts of power themselves.
Wait. This is coming from generators, that we here in the United States use on a temporary basis for like when the power goes out because of a storm?
Yeah, or for like when you go camping.
Just so I’m understanding this, the generators that we use here in the U.S., where you go and put the gas in and pull the thing to start it, you’re telling me that in Nigeria…
Yes, that is the primary source of electricity.
I take it that is not the case in Lagos or the big cities though, right?
Surprisingly enough, it is actually more pronounced in the urban population centers. The Nigerian government has an unstated policy to try and ensure the rural areas are generating more access to grid power than the urban centers. The rationale is that people in population centers can afford generators, whereas people in rural areas cannot. And this is probably true.
This is a typical diesel engine used by businesses and residents throughout Nigeria due to a lack of supply from the nation's power grid. The noise and carbon monoxide produced from these generators are a big part of the world's overall carbon footprint and pollution problem, according to the Center for Global Development. They recommended Nigeria build more power plants and estimate Nigeria could cut its CO2 output by 18 million metric tons per year—a 63% decrease. Photo by Wikimedia
But David, doesn’t this heavily contribute to not just the air pollution of the city environment where many people are living in a dense area, but to the noise pollution as well, because aren’t these generators loud?
Absolutely. If you ever go to Lagos that is the first thing you will notice, when you step out, especially at night. It is loud! Everywhere has a generator on, everywhere. It’s a ubiquitous noise. If you Google the keyword “Lagos generator,” and just click on the videos and listen to what comes up. When tourists come to Nigeria, the few tourists who are brave enough to come to Nigeria, it is all they ever go on about. “Why is everything so loud at night?” There is an incredible amount of noise and air pollution.
A lot of the fuel, the diesel and petrol, that powers the generators, is imported from Europe. And, a lot of that fuel does not meet Europeans specifications. What happens is the less desirable and more cheaply refined stuff that the refineries in Europe cannot legally sell in Europe because perhaps the sulfur content is too high or all sorts of reasons, that is what they ship to West Africa.
Sweet Jesus.
If you were to go to a Petrol station as of two weeks ago… and take a sample in Lagos, the first thing you would notice is that where the petrol in Europe or the United States looks like water, in Nigeria or Ghana, it looks like pee. It is yellow or brown because there are all sorts of chemical content in it. It is not even legal to sell that stuff in Europe. If you were to sell that in Europe you would go to prison. That is what is used in Nigeria on the norm. Now it may be changing soon as Nigeria has a new refinery that is probably going to produce at a standard even better than European ones, but as of last month, that is what the people in Nigeria were using.
That is fascinating. By using that type of fuel, then obviously, the burn-off effects the environment, which in turn makes the air unhealthy for the people breathing it correct?
Absolutely 100 percent.
Do you believe that because Nigeria is one of the world’s biggest oil producers and due to its strategic geographical location in Africa, that perhaps that is the reason why the U.S. government has turned a blind-eye to Bola Tinubu’s regime and all of the inhumane things that are going on in Nigeria at this time?
I think it is clear that it is in the geopolitical interest of the U.S. to have Nigeria within its geostrategic armpits and the West African and Sahara region. Especially given that it recently lost a lot of leverage that it had and its allies such as France losing as well in that region from a NATO perspective. The U.S. sees the world as a series of hostiles or friendlies. It doesn’t see Africa that way. It sees Africa as place where if it is not dominated by the U.S., it is going to be dominated by Russia or China. Now that they and their NATO allies are losing influence in that region, then it probably makes sense to coddle the dependable partner that they have in that region which is Nigeria.
Given that Nigeria has a very large outside influence in that region, it makes sense. In fact, back in May, the news came out that the Nigerian president was being lobbied to allow the U.S. to open a base in Nigeria.
(Editor’s note: both the United States and France have denied they are attempting to setup a defense agreement where troops from both countries would be allowed to setup shop in Nigeria. The Nigerian Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, also called the claims that were reported by several media outlets a “falsehood.” It should be noted however that Russia and Nigeria entered into an agreement in August of 2021, just months before Russia invaded Ukraine, where Russia would supply weapons and training to the Nigerian military. The agreement was signed in Moscow by former Nigerian Minister of Defense Bashir Salihi Magashi and Russian FSVTS Director Dmitry Shugaev.)
It gives you an idea of how they see their strategy for Nigeria in that region. Given that backdrop, it would make sense that whatever Tinubu is doing locally isn’t any of their business. Because the U.S., let’s be very clear about this, the U.S. has absolutely no interest whatsoever in democracy. They are only interested in their own foreign policy goals being addressed. If those strategic goals or interests would be served by doing business with a monster with horns growing out of his head that eats babies, they would. They have. Whatever Nigerians are going through, they probably see it as a shame but not important enough to stop their support for the Tinubu regime. That is just the unfortunate reality. The only thing that matters from the State Department point of view is a “reliable ally,” which is a very nice way of calling him a useful puppet.