By Noel Chiagorom
You know a nation is finished—yes, finished—when its Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security starts organising prayer sessions for food security. Not research initiatives. Not policy rollouts. Not mechanisation drives or irrigation projects. No. Prayer sessions. That’s where we are now in Nigeria. A country with some of the most fertile land on earth, blessed with rivers and sunshine, is now asking God to intervene so that its people don’t die of hunger.
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Let that sink in.
This is not a crusade organised by a church. This is not a national fast declared by the Christian Association of Nigeria. This is the actual government agency responsible for feeding over 200 million people officially outsourcing its job to heaven. If that’s not a sign that hunger has wiped not just our stomachs but our collective sense of governance, I don’t know what is.
Of course, this is not to mock the power of prayer. Nigerians are deeply spiritual people. We believe in divine intervention. But the problem is when prayer becomes the only tool in the toolkit of a government that was elected to govern—not to lead praise and worship.
How did we get here?
Just look around. Food prices are climbing faster than a mountain goat. Inflation is chewing through the naira like termites through dry wood. A bag of rice is now priced like a luxury item. Tomatoes and pepper are beginning to disappear from the average Nigerian stew pot. Families are skipping meals. Children are fainting in classrooms. Farmers are fleeing their lands because of bandit attacks. And what is the response of the Ministry of Agriculture? A national prayer.
The truth is bitter: Nigeria is hungry—and it’s not because God isn’t answering. It’s because leaders aren’t doing their jobs.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture should be rolling out support programs for smallholder farmers, fixing broken storage infrastructure, subsidising seeds and fertilisers, improving access roads, and confronting insecurity in rural areas. But instead, it is resorting to spiritual theatrics. What next? Prayers for tractors to fall from heaven? A miracle harvest in Sambisa Forest?
Let us be honest with ourselves: this is laziness wrapped in religiosity. It is the institutionalisation of failure—cloaked in faith. The same leaders who refuse to make policies that work now pretend they are waiting on God. But even the Bible says, “Faith without works is dead.” In Nigeria’s case, faith has become a government strategy, and work is what the masses are left to figure out on their own.
It wasn’t always like this. There was a time this country at least tried. Operation Feed the Nation. Green Revolution. River Basin Authorities. Were those perfect? No. But at least there was effort. Now, we’ve moved from Operation Feed the Nation to Operation Leave It to God.
How does a country with so much land and so many unemployed hands still import food in billions? How do you sleep at night as an agriculture minister while children are eating from dustbins in broad daylight?
When you outsource food security to God, don’t be surprised when hunger answers your prayer—with starvation.
Let me be clear: prayers can uplift, guide, and inspire. But they are not a substitute for fertiliser. Or tractors. Or coherent policy. If anything, Nigerians should now be praying that their leaders finally open their eyes, drop the microphones, and pick up the tools of leadership.
Until then, may God help us. Because clearly, those in charge have left it all to Him.