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Chapter 4
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-0125-2.ch004
ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how violence and politics afect food security in Nigeria
against the backdrop of existential oil, cult, herdsmen versus farmers confict and
Boko Haram insurgency. It examines the contribution of politics and violence in
the rising rate of food insecurity in parts of Nigeria. When villagers run away
from the violence of cult groups, herdsmen and farmers clashes, and the terror of
Boko Haram, the impact on availability and afordability of food requires more
accountability. So is the link between oil violence and food insecurity, considering
how the industry, through pollution, has considerably reduced cultivable land and
fshing in the Niger Delta. Relying on secondary and primary data, the chapter
argues that a complex mesh of illegal political relationships and considerations in
frequent cases of non-state and criminal armed violence is fast reducing men and
women labor in peasant agriculture, such that availability and afordability of food
have become threatened.
INTRODUCTION
Food Security Information Network report (FSIN, 2019) on the global food security
situation, identified 113 million people currently in acute food insecurity. Two-third
of this number reside in eight countries, including Nigeria. Conflict and natural
disasters were mentioned as two main factors responsible for this. In the same
vein, the Food and Agriculture Organization insisted in a 2017 report, stated that
Violence, Politics, and Food
Insecurity in Nigeria
Fidelis Allen
University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria