There is a particular kind of national failure that is hardest to forgive, not the kind born of poverty or limited means, but the kind that occurs in the presence of abundance. Nigeria has 70 million hectares of arable land, one of the most productive young populations on the continent, and rainfall that most of its neighbours would consider a blessing. It also, as of this year, has over 34 million citizens projected to face crisis-level hunger between June and August 2026, placing it among the countries with the largest increases in acute food insecurity globally, according to the Global Report on Food Crises released in April 2026.