The recent donation of 25,000 tons of wheat grain to Nigeria by war-torn Ukraine has sparked off a needless political huff which is obviously purposed to divert attention from the poor picture it paints of our country in the eyes of dignified Nigerians.

The donation, which is part of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine’s “Grains from Ukraine” initiative, is facilitated by the World Food Programme, WFP, to alleviate hunger among 1.3 million Nigerians in the North-East and North-West where jihadist terrorists and bandits have held sway for years.

Reacting to Zelenksy’s good gesture, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi, had described it as a “shame” that Ukraine, which has been under invasion by a military superpower, Russia, for over two years, is not only self-sufficient in food but has  surplus to donate to Nigeria.

He was tackled by a spokesman of the former Muhammadu Buhari regime, Tolu Ogunlesi, who sought to reduce the issue to a propaganda war between the APC Federal Government and the opposition. Ogunlesi’s assertion that it was a normal WFP gesture to benefit Boko Haram victims just as the UN body once donated to flood victims in Anambra State missed the point.

The point, as affirmed by Niger State’s Umar Bago, an APC governor, is that Nigeria, which is far more endowed than Ukraine in terms of arable land and energetic population, has fallen down to such a low level that a country at war can send food to our hungry citizens. If people like Ogunlesi do not feel the shame of our situation, they should at least spare Nigerians the irritating propaganda they have always used to distract attention from genuine efforts to seek solutions to our problems.

Nigeria has no business needing food aid from any part of the world. We have fertile land and very resourceful farmers. They can no longer feed us because of insecurity which worsened under the regime that Ogunlesi served. The areas which had been the food baskets of the nation, particularly Benue, the North-East and even the North-West, are under occupation by armed invaders who have displaced millions of people from their communities.

The hunger scourge facing Nigerians has gone beyond these communities under armed invasion. It is now a general malaise exacerbated by tough economic policies initiated by the present administration. Ukraine, which is blessed with the fertile, endless Steppe grasslands, is a major supplier of grains to the world because they developed their natural endowments.

We must restore security and develop our own land resources to make Nigeria the food basket of Africa. This is a goal that should challenge our leaders. Nigeria accepting food aid from a war-ravaged country is a shameful indicator of state failure.