Nigeria is a nation blessed with numerous meal delicacies and in all
this, I find One always mouth-watering,luscious and palatable; Starch
and Banga. It is my favourite food.
Starch and Banga soup is the food known to those that come from the
South-south of Nigeria especially the Urhobos. It is known to be one
of the most expensive soup of the Urhobos. In the preparation of
Banga, the seeds are washed thoroughly and put in a pot to cook for
about 20 minutes, the water is then drained from the pot and the
already cooked seed is put in a mortar and pummeled slightly. Much
muscle is not exerted while pounding and little water is added at
interval to soften the pounds of the banga now liquid already. The
liquid is thereafter sieved back into the pot to boil under close
watching because it foams as it boils and thus may spill over the pot.
When foaming has died down,choice of meat and fish is added along with
periwinkle. Vegetable,maggi and salt is then added to spice the taste.
Starch generally has a simple preparation. Dissolving the starch,
putting water, boiling water and mixing it to avoid particles.
I must confess that I am not a good cook, in fact I barely cook but I
don't go hungry. I've got a Super Mom who is passionate about My
Hunger alleviation plus friends and family who most times prepare
choice meals for Me. Recently I've written a great deal about Hunger and
people wonder why I bother, not being perturbed by this I believe
every act of kindness done on earth not only lends a smile but stores
up Heavenly treasures. Hunger and food as different terms are relative
to Man. With Nigeria blessed with different delicacies that are not
only tasteful but healthy, it is a misnomer for one to go hungry.
Bolajoko Diosamame Fadipe and His FoodClique members recently
researched and found out that 1 in 7 Nigerians go to bed Hungry
without food that day. What a contradiction I thought owing to the
truth I eat very well daily and even waste food as a result of over
feeding. Most times even, I eat starch and banga soup twice in a day
yet people go to bed in Nigeria without food. Summation of their
analysis reveals that a staggering 22,857,143 Nigerians sleep without
meals and have no hope of it. How many must have died I pondered. I
have always considered truthful the fact that every act of compassion
makes a difference to someone. We can end hunger if we chose to come
as ONE and Fight it. There are genuinely sufficient resources in the
world to ensure that no one, nowhere, and at no time,should go hungry.
Bolajoko Fadipe and FoodClique through personal resources aim at
ending this hunger tragedy and I am fortunate to be part. Hunger, or
under nutrition, results from the insufficient intake of macro- and
micro- nutrients. It can lead to chronic malnutrition or the severe
wasting associated with acute malnutrition, why then should We allow
Fellow human beings go through such trauma.
October 16th is World Food Day and Food and Agricultural
Organization/FoodClique are ensuring No One goes Hungry on that day.
Bola and His friends are giving out food, materials and resources to
Hunger enriched individuals and areas across Nigeria. You too can help
by feeding someone on that day. Hunger makes a thief of any man and
helping with a nutritionally spiced up diet on the day is a boost for
social life. I've written on issues concerning hunger before and in My
findings, people pay less attention and pensiveness to it as they
believe that hunger is unavoidable in any society, even a society that
is blessed with great abundance. That is not true. The European
community today does not have hunger widespread. Most of Our citizenry
believe also that hunger only affects people who are lazy or people
who are just searching for a handout, people who don't want to work,
but, sadly, THAT IS NOT TRUE. Over one-third of our hungry people are
innocent children who are members of households that simply cannot
provide enough food or proper nutrition, some live only on the paltry
#18000 in Nigeria. And to think of the elderly suffering from
malnutrition is just too hard for most of us.
FoodClique will be marking this year's World Food Day by embarking on
a community Food outreach to feed Our hungry neighbours. The aim of
the day is to create public awareness about the problems faced by
people who struggle for food despite its abundance in the world. The
World Food Day was proclaimed in 1979 by the Conference of the Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It marks the date of the founding
of FAO in 1945. The purpose of that day heightens public awareness of
the world food problem and strengthen solidarity in the struggle
against hunger, malnutrition and poverty. In 1980, the General
Assembly endorsed observance of the Day in consideration of the fact
that "food is a requisite for human survival and well-being and a
fundamental human necessity". I have given to this cause and I enjoin
you to.
Why allow Fellow Nigerians go hungry when We have the best weather in
Africa to grow seed and arable crops?, Why don't you distribute food
to the hungry people?. You can make a difference by lending a smile.
Food aid as we know is not a sustainable solution to World
hunger,though there are emergency situations between life and death
where Food is needed and critical for survival. For the 22 million
Hungry Nigerians, hunger is a daily, sometimes life-long, reality.
People living with persistent hunger require and deserve a sustainable
solution based on self-reliance. Some of the ways to ensure long term
food security to me is by emphasizing on rural development by enabling
Men and Women to tackle and eradicate Hunger from their communities.
Increment in local production and provision of farming tools and
equipments such as fertilizers to aid harvesting are among others.
Endeavour to make someone smile on the 16th of October as you make the
difference; Feed!.
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