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From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, has said a global Nigeria must be a food-secured one.
Adesina stated this during the 90th birthday lecture of former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon in Abuja.
In attendance were the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, who represented President Bola Tinubu; Gowon and his wife, Dr (Mrs) Victoria Gowon; former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Vice President Nnamadi Sambo, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar 111 and the Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan.
Also in attendance were the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Alieu Omar Touray; Governor of Bauchi State, Senator Bala Mohammed; a former Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki; a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Yahyale Ahmed; a former Governor of Bauchi State, Adamu Muazu; a former Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, amongst others.
Adesina said Nigeria, 64 years after independence, should not be a developing country, but a developed nation.
Nigeria, Adesina added, as the largest black nation on earth, carries within it, the hopes and aspirations of all black people all over the world. Adesina further said for Africa to develop, it needs Nigeria to develop faster, even as he said history beckons on Nigeria and the nation cannot afford to disappoint. He stated that Nigeria must become a global power house, adding that a global Nigeria must start with a poverty-free Nigeria.
The AfDB President noted that poverty is currently pervasive in Nigeria going by the 2022 estimate of the National Bureau of Statistics that 63 per cent of persons living within Nigeria (133 million people at the time) were multi-dimensionally poor.
Adesina also said the gravity of the situation is even worse in northern Nigeria, adding that currently, 65 per cent of the poor, making 86 million people, live in northern Nigeria, while 35 per cent, nearly 47 million, live in the South.
He stated that the extremely high levels of poverty have fuelled criminality, banditry, kidnappings and armed robbery.
Adesina however said to address the situation, urgent and comprehensive efforts were needed to restore security and law and order to protect lives, property and farmlands and to restore normalcy to traumatised towns, villages and communities. “A global Nigeria must be a food secured Nigeria,” Adesina said.
Adesina recalled that the World Food Programme estimated that 26.5 million Nigerians currently face acute hunger.
