Democratic Governance and Food Security in Nigeria: A Study of Akwa Ibom State

Abstract

The paper interrogated the impacts of democratic governance on food security in Nigeria using Akwa Ibom State as a case study. The identified problems of the research which the study set out to address were the adoption of modern farming methods; coupled with inefficient utilization of budgeted funds. Relevant literature was exhaustively reviewed and the Structural Functional Theory by Gabriel Almond, James Coleman and William Mitchell (1960 and 1968) as well as System Theory by David Easton (1953) were adopted as theoretical guide. Survey research design was used in the work, and this was contingent upon the fact that this approach enabled the researcher to collect detailed information which described the phenomena. The major instrument for data collection was likert scale structured questionnaire which was administered by the researcher. Three Hundred and two (302) copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the respondents, of which Two Hundred and Ninety-Five (295) were retrieved and used for data analysis. Research hypotheses were tested at 0.5 level of significance using Chi-square distribution (X2). The result showed that there is a significant relationship between democratic governance and food security, there is significant relationship between adoption of modern farming methods and food security and inefficient utilization of budgeted funds tends to affect food security. Based on the findings, recommendations were made, among which were: a more sustained process of democratization be put in place to create a friendly agricultural productivity environment to boost food security. Policy makers should include food as a component of welfarism and as such should develop political will to achieve increased food production, evolve sound food policies in order to attain food security. Budgetary provision for the agricultural sector should be augmented so that there will be enough fund to develop the sector. Also, there should be mechanisms to monitor funds appropriated for the sector.