Hunger is real! Rice can solve it!!
An Article by Femi Oladele, 2025 EPLF Fellow
Hunger, truly, hurts and food is its only solution! Not soothing words, nor promises, just good food. But how far can food go in resolving the myriads of challenges facing our people? Some say, we can begin to reason and innovate when our stomachs are full; I agree largely.
Unfortunately, it is generally difficult to really pinpoint the desires and triggers of the electorates in Africa. For example, political analysts have long argued that hunger and poverty are weapons of some sort which politicians deploy for electoral victory. It has also been argued that instant good deeds during elections potentially erase the memories of previous sufferings among Nigerians. So, when Ayodele Fayose coined ‘stomach infrastructure’ in 2014, he knew electorates’ voting strength is influenced significantly by a ‘healthy stomach’ in line with a Yoruba adage that ‘Okun inú la fi n gbé tita’. Just as it was predicted that one of the main reasons for Peter Obi’s failure in the 2023 polls will be his lack of stomach infrastructure, how long can we continue to hold on to catering to stomach infrastructure as the winning political strategy especially when hurriedly done for the sole purpose of winning an election?
Based on certain electoral choices in Nigeria’s fourth republic, it is hard to divorce Rice from campaigns and elections. It is even harder to reconcile the need for intellectual- and competence-based political strategy with the realities of handing Rice to key stakeholders including electorates. For Rice to carry electoral value, it means that it is an improvised impoverishing tool. Unfortunately, many times, Rice flow is one-off, leading to emotional resentment shortly after elections are over.
More specifically, stomach infrastructure singly for election purposes is not only unethical, but also illegal and preys on the sensibilities of electorates who appear caught in-between the prangs of poverty and the biting effect of hunger. Nigerian electorates are not decrepit, nor politically unaware not to understand intelligent political reasoning, but it appears that political response is complicated with Rice as the silver bullet. They say, “all their blabbing will be solved with Rice” How callous and unfair!
Electorates need to express their desires in uncomplicated ways to activate a clear version of their need by stating in very clear terms that while Rice can solve their immediate needs, it cannot solve the need for attention to security, infrastructure, energy, social protection and other public goods that should be common. When are we going to see electorates that reason uncomplicatedly, reject Rice as their primary need and just ask for RICE – Reassured Institutional and Collective Excellence?
Femi Oladele is a Public Policy Enthusiast and can be reached via email at olafemidele@gmail.com
Note: All these are our fellow’s thoughts.
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