THE NORTH NEEDS PRAYERS, NOT SECURITY, AGRICULTURE, EDUCATION, ETC. - Mohammed Bello Doka
Let us begin with agriculture. Or rather, let us pretend to begin with agriculture, because that is what the 2026 budget does best. The federal government has allocated record sums to farming, irrigation, and livestock development across all tiers of government. Northern states alone are throwing hundreds of billions at the problem — Jigawa earmarked N75 billion for agriculture, Kaduna dedicated 11.65 percent of its nearly N1 trillion budget to food security, and Kano set aside N26 billion plus another N64 billion for water supply to support irrigation . On paper, this looks like a government that cares about hunger. On paper, a lot of things look good. On paper, I look like someone who has their life together. But here is the hilarious part — and by hilarious, I mean the kind of hilarious that makes you want to weep into your garri. Despite all this money being budgeted, hunger is tightening its grip on Northern Nigeria like a bankruptcy on a lottery winner. An estimated six million p...