At just two years old, Aisha, born in the northeast, has already tasted the harshest bite of hunger.
When she fell ill, her mother Fatimah brought her to a nutrition clinic supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) Nigeria. There, Aisha was diagnosed with moderate acute malnutrition, a condition that silently stalks thousands of Nigerian children and kills when left untreated.
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“She has regained some weight and keeps getting better,” Fatimah says softly, as she feeds her daughter fortified nutritional paste that has kept death at bay. But soon, even that lifeline may disappear for Aisha and hundreds of thousands more children.
In a recent statement seen by EKO HOT BLOG, WFP Nigeria warned that it is on the verge of suspending its emergency food and nutrition aid due to a complete depletion of its food stocks.
Without immediate donor funding, operations will halt by the end of July, leaving 1.3 million Nigerians, including children like Aisha, without the support they need to survive.
A funding crisis with American roots
The hunger crisis in Nigeria is deepening against a broader backdrop of declining foreign aid to Africa. Since former United States (US) President Donald Trump took office in January, the US has slashed foreign assistance by an estimated $60 billion, with many of the cuts hitting health and nutrition programmes across the continent. These reductions have sent shockwaves through African nations, many of which had come to rely heavily on such aid to fund basic services.
In South Africa, for example, Trump’s dismantling of USAID led to the shutdown of 12 HIV clinics and the loss of over 8,000 health workers. South Africa’s health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, called the move devastating for a country where nearly 6 million people rely on HIV medication.
But the pain is not confined to one country. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, 25 million people are living with HIV, more than half the global burden, underscoring just how central foreign aid has been to keeping people alive.
Now, as WFP Nigeria prepares to shut down 150 nutrition clinics and cut assistance for over 300,000 children under two, the US aid pullback is again proving costly, not just in policy terms, but in lives. Although the organisation does not directly tie the US to its loss of funding, the reason for it is not lost on any observer.
Foreign dependence with a price
While it’s easy to criticise the US for its cold calculations, some observers argue that the real shame lies closer to home. For too long, African leaders, including federal, state, and local officials in Nigeria, have been complacent and felt entitled to foreign aid to mask their lack of leadership.
While Nigeria spends vast sums on vanity projects and political salaries, it allocates minimal resources to healthcare and nutrition. In regions like the northeast, where years of insurgency, displacement, and climate stress have ravaged local food systems, the government’s absence is especially glaring.
The looming end of WFP aid lays bare this dependence. With no contingency plan in sight, 1.3 million Nigerians will find themselves suddenly cut off from food, nutrition supplements, and clinical care.
The consequences extend beyond hunger. As WFP Nigeria Country Director David Stevenson warned: “This is no longer just a humanitarian crisis, it’s a growing threat to regional stability.”
When families lose access to food, they don’t simply wait to die. Many are forced to migrate in search of survival, sometimes walking for days in hostile terrain. Others, particularly women and children, may fall prey to trafficking and exploitation. In regions already plagued by insurgency and poverty, food insecurity becomes fuel for unrest.
“When emergency assistance ends, many will migrate in search of food and shelter. Others will adopt negative coping mechanisms – including potentially joining insurgent groups – to survive,” Stevenson warns.
Aisha’s story, a nation’s warning
Aisha’s gradual recovery is a testament to what is possible when aid arrives in time. But her fragile progress hangs in the balance, like that of hundreds of thousands of other children whose lives depend on therapeutic foods, trained caregivers, and consistent support.
The collapse of WFP operations would be catastrophic. But perhaps worse is what it reveals: that the so-called giant of Africa, blessed with oil wealth and human capital, has failed to build a safety net for its most vulnerable citizens.
As the July 31 deadline approaches, Nigeria faces a reckoning. Will the world step in once more? Or will this be the moment that the country and its leaders are forced to confront the consequences of neglect and dependency?
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If not, then for 1.3 million Nigerians like Aisha, the future may bring more than hunger. It may bring silence.
Philip Ibitoye is a Special Correspondent with EKO HOT BLOG. Click here to find daily analysis and critical insight on trending issues in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria.
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