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Fact-Check 77 — The Feast of Famine
The Ceremony of Hunger
On a humid August afternoon in 2024, Governor Hope Uzodinma stood beneath a giant banner that read “Feed Imo 2024 — Our Farms, Our Future.” His voice echoed across Heroes Square in Owerri as television cameras rolled.
“We have made it a priority that every family in Imo must have access to food,” he declared. “We are now food secure and will remain so.”
The crowd applauded. State media replayed the clip for days, presenting it as evidence of a rural renaissance. Yet behind the pageantry of prosperity lay a different arithmetic — of empty silos, vanished budgets, and crops that never left the ground.
Imo’s claim to food self-sufficiency was not an achievement; it was an announcement. And like most announcements in this administration, it collapsed under the weight of its own evidence.
The crowd applauded. Cameras flashed. State television replayed the clip until it became folklore. But behind that declaration lay a more complicated truth — one buried beneath failed silos, inflated data, and farms abandoned to weeds.
In a country where hunger is measurable, deception becomes policy.
The Arithmetic of Decline
Official data does not lie; politicians do. The National Bureau of Statistics (2024) reports that Imo’s overall agricultural output declined by 11.4 percent between 2022 and 2024. Cassava, yam, and rice — the backbone of rural livelihood — each registered double-digit losses.
| Crop | 2022 Output (MT) | 2024 Output (MT) | % Change | Commentary |
| Cassava | 1.82M | 1.63M | -10.4 | Flooded lowlands, rising input costs |
| Rice | 311,000 | 258,000 | -17.0 | Fertilizer scarcity, no irrigation |
| Maize | 420,000 | 385,000 | -8.3 | Labour flight, insecurity |
| Yam | 536,000 | 479,000 | -10.6 | Storage collapse, bad roads |
(Prepared by Prof. MarkAnthony Nze | The Eastern Updates Investigative Series – Imo State)
Meanwhile, food inflation soared to 41.3 percent, the highest in the South-East, according to the NBS Food Inflation Report (Q4 2024).
In simple terms: the state produced less and paid more.
The Budget That Fed Bureaucracy, Not Farms
Between 2021 and 2024, the Imo State Government budgeted ₦36.5 billion for agriculture. Only ₦11.9 billion was released — and much of that vanished into consultancies and “empowerment schemes” with no audit trail.
| Year | Budget (₦ Billion) | Released (₦ Billion) | % Released | Key Observation |
| 2021 | 8.9 | 3.1 | 34.8 | Tools distributed, no training delivered |
| 2022 | 9.4 | 3.6 | 38.3 | Mechanization MoU unsigned |
| 2023 | 9.1 | 2.8 | 30.7 | Subsidy inflated beyond delivery |
| 2024 | 9.1 | 2.4 | 26.4 | Billboards erected, silos empty |
(Prepared by Prof. MarkAnthony Nze | The Eastern Updates Investigative Series – Imo State)
The BudgIT Foundation (2025) described Imo’s fiscal approach as “performative agriculture — structured for announcements, not yields.”
Even the African Development Bank (2024) classified the state’s agricultural investment efficiency ratio at 0.34, meaning that for every ₦1 spent, only 34 kobo translated into real output.
Read also: Falsehood No. 76 — “We Achieved 100% WAEC Pass Rate In Public Schools”
The Ghost Farms and the Empty Silos
At the heart of the governor’s claim lies the phantom known as the “Imo Agro-Industrial Park.” It was unveiled with computer animations and a promise of 400 hectares of integrated rice, cassava, and palm oil production.
Satellite imagery reviewed by The Eastern Updates in December 2024 revealed a barren landscape — no crops, no machinery, no activity. The supposed processing sheds were skeletal frames, the access road overgrown with elephant grass.
In Ohaji-Egbema, where the state boasted of “Palm City,” the only palm trees standing are the ones planted in the 1970s. A senior official admitted privately:
“We commission PowerPoints now, not projects.”
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture (2024) lists both projects as “inactive — no production recorded.” Yet, in the governor’s scorecard, they are counted as evidence of “agricultural transformation.”
The Economics of Hunger
The price of propaganda is measured in hunger. In 2022, a 50kg bag of rice sold for ₦29,000. By late 2024, it cost ₦49,000. The price of garri tripled, yam doubled, and palm oil became a luxury item.
| Commodity | 2022 Avg. Price (₦) | 2024 Avg. Price (₦) | % Increase |
| Garri (50kg bag) | 8,000 | 24,000 | +200 |
| Yam (tuber) | 800 | 2,400 | +200 |
| Palm Oil (5L) | 2,700 | 6,200 | +130 |
| Rice (50kg) | 29,000 | 49,000 | +69 |
(Prepared by Prof. MarkAnthony Nze | The Eastern Updates Investigative Series – Imo State)
The World Bank (2024) notes that Imo produces only 42 percent of its food demand — a deficit that forces reliance on imports from neighboring states. The governor’s proclamation of self-sufficiency is, therefore, not merely exaggerated. It is fictitious.
The Voices of the Starved
Across Ngor Okpala, Obowo, and Ideato, farmers speak in a language of exhaustion.
“We hear of billions on the radio,” said one cooperative leader. “But the only thing that reaches us is fertilizer that expired before it arrived.”
Another farmer pointed to a broken tractor, its tires flat and engine rusted:
“They brought it for a ceremony. It never worked again.”
The tragedy is not just in the poverty — it is in the betrayal of hope.
The Politics of Plenty
In Imo, governance has become performance art — the choreography of success without substance. Each ribbon-cutting precedes an election milestone; each slogan outlives the project it names.
The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (2024) ranked Imo’s agricultural competitiveness 26th of 36 states, describing it as “a state rich in soil, poor in governance.”
Even the FAO (2024) warned that subnational claims of “food self-sufficiency” in states like Imo represent “statistical optimism unsupported by field data.”
No other phrase captures it better: Imo is cultivating propaganda, not produce.
Verdict — The Feast of Hunger
Governor Uzodinma’s declaration of food self-sufficiency stands as a masterpiece of misinformation.
The numbers, the audits, the testimonies — all converge on a single conclusion: Imo feeds its illusions, not its people.
Every inflated report conceals a hungry child. Every false success hides the ruins of rural life.
When a government can falsify the harvest, it can falsify anything.
Until Imo returns from the theater of governance to the field of reality, hunger will remain its truest census.
The silos will stay empty, and the people will keep paying for food that their government claims they already have.
Bibliographies
African Development Bank. (2024). Nigeria Agricultural Transformation and Productivity Index 2024. Abidjan: AfDB Rural Economy Department.
BudgIT Foundation. (2025). State of States Report 2025 – Agricultural Performance and Fiscal Accountability (Imo Chapter). Lagos: BudgIT Foundation.
Central Bank of Nigeria. (2024). Anchor Borrowers Programme Disbursement and Impact Analysis 2024. Abuja: CBN Development Finance Department.
Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. (2024). National Food Production and Livelihood Assessment Report 2024. Abuja: FMARD.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). (2024). Nigeria Food Security and Nutrition Report 2024. Rome: FAO West Africa Office.
Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC TV). (2024, August 25). Governor Uzodinma: “Imo Has Achieved Food Self-Sufficiency.” Owerri: IBC Archives.
Imo State Government. (2024, August 26). Press release: “Feed Imo 2024 – Our Farms, Our Future.” Owerri: Ministry of Information.
Imo State Ministry of Agriculture. (2024). Agricultural Productivity and Food Output Report 2024. Owerri: Research & Statistics Division.
National Bureau of Statistics. (2024). Agricultural Production Survey and Food Inflation Report 2024. Abuja: NBS.
Nigeria Governors’ Forum. (2024). Food Security and Agricultural Sustainability Scorecard 2024. Abuja: NGF Secretariat.
Premium Times Nigeria. (2024, September 10). Fact Check: Imo’s “Food Self-Sufficiency” Claim Contradicted by NBS Data. Retrieved from https://www.premiumtimesng.com
Punch Newspapers. (2024, September 12). Farmers Decry “Empty Policies” as Food Prices Surge in Imo. Retrieved from https://punchng.com
The Guardian Nigeria. (2024, September 15). Imo’s Food Sufficiency Claim Falters Under Rising Prices. Retrieved from https://guardian.ng
World Bank. (2024). Nigeria Food Systems Resilience and Agricultural Performance Report 2024. Washington, DC: World Bank Africa Development Group.
UNDP. (2024). Nigeria Subnational Human Development Report – Food and Livelihoods Chapter. New York: UNDP.
Professor MarkAnthony Ujunwa Nze is an internationally acclaimed investigative journalist, public intellectual, and global governance analyst whose work shapes contemporary thinking at the intersection of health and social care management, media, law, and policy. Renowned for his incisive commentary and structural insight, he brings rigorous scholarship to questions of justice, power, and institutional integrity.
Based in New York, he serves as a full tenured professor and Academic Director at the New York Center for Advanced Research (NYCAR), where he leads high-impact research in governance innovation, strategic leadership, and geopolitical risk. He also oversees NYCAR’s free Health & Social Care professional certification programs, accessible worldwide at:
👉 https://www.newyorkresearch.org/professional-certification/
Professor Nze remains a defining voice in advancing ethical leadership and democratic accountability across global systems.
