By Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye
The Chief Executive Officer of African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD), Gloria Akobundu, recently spearheaded two sideline events at the 78th United Nations General Assembly. The first event involved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Federal Ministry of Education in Nigeria, Princeton University, New Jersey, United States and the African School of Economics, Nigeria. The MoU aims to improve education, capacity development, and governance in Nigeria through research and programmatic partnerships.
The second event focused on food security and aimed to explore innovative solutions, investment opportunities, and partnerships to enhance productivity, resilience, and sustainability in African agriculture, with a focus on smallholder farmers. In this interview on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly, Akobundu emphasised the importance of engaging young people in smallholder farming and gave assurance that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is committed to fully engaging youths and channeling their energies towards positive outcomes.
You came up with this flagship programme, “Innovative Strengthening of Smallholder Farmer Capabilities towards Productive Land Restoration Amid COVID-19 In Nigeria”. How has the insecurity issues, banditry, kidnapping and the farmers/herders clashes affected the programme considering that there are reports that many farmers are still not inclined to return to the farms, would this not affect food security in the country?
Actually the kind of feeling amongst the young people out there is more or less like if there is no hope for them, as if there’s no future for them considering the banditry insecurity and restiveness in our country. But going forward, a leader with a clear vision has emerged and a strong leader with a strong voice who wants to give dividends of democracy to the people of Nigeria and he has stepped up again to roll out policies, programmes and projects that will affect their lives. This present administration is harnessing the talents, strength, innovations of the people towards mechanised agriculture. Agribusiness is the way to go and it will further engage our young people, our women into small business industrialization, food value chain and in return will create jobs, give them the stability of hope and believe in the country and that will actually curb lots of insecurity in the country.
Considering the impact of flooding, drought and other climate change related issues in some parts of Nigeria and other African countries, what achievable steps can Nigeria and Africa at large take to ensure that the impact is mitigated?
We must first create awareness to ensure that we recover our land, you know that is exactly one of the essence of our summit on Land Restoration at this year’s UNGA. You know, if we recover our land and then take into consideration the climate change warning and ensure that the environment is protected, trees are not cut and if cut, new ones are replanted to replace them. I think that will enhance our expectations in having a healthy environment, a stable agricultural system, and process that will not encounter too many losses because of too much rain, floods or droughts and all that. I think with the strong commitment of the government and our development partners, there will be a way out and that’s what we’re trying to do, to develop a template and work plan with public and private sectors to ensure that such environmental issues and losses encountered do not reoccur often for sustainability and economic growth.
Shortly before arriving in New York for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), your Agency in Nigeria organised a symposium to review the 2023 elections and the way forward, and a report was presented, can you give a summary of what your findings were?
Definitely the symposium was to review the last general elections. You know at every election, the President of a country has to emerge and when the election is conducted, we don’t expect that there won’t be challenges. Globally, there are always election challenges but the way and manner they are managed to avoid restiveness, trouble and unrest for the country is another thing. So that is what we did, x-ray the past election and capture lessons learned. We are growing, Nigeria is just 24 years since the return to democracy after several years of the military interventions.
So now we have a leader who has stepped up, shown courage to put control and to ensure that governance at its full capacity plays out in our dear country.
Still talking about democracy in the country, we should not look at Nigeria as a place that the worst has happened. Nothing worse has happened. We’re still learning and growing, 24 years of uninterrupted democratic process, this should serve as a peer review with other member states. If Nigeria gets it right, like I keep saying, Africa will get it right. We are over 200 million Nigerians, our youths make up 62 percent of our population and with the women, all we need is to draw strength from that including from the legacies of our founding fathers and then move forward to ensure that Nigeria remains one indivisible entity and also a good example for peer learning for AU member states.
So at the symposium, we were able to identify the progress made and the challenges. We are going to release the template to proffer solutions to all these challenges and continue awareness programmes for the country. We call for support of the government at all levels. That is the only way we can have developments and economic growth. We shouldn’t be portraying or painting our country negatively before the world; that is not right.
The Western or Asian worlds are not better than us. These are countries whose democracy have been there for over 200 years, some over 100 years yet they’re still struggling, their democracy is not perfect. There are still challenges and we are comparing them with a country that is just starting out. We’re doing very well so far.
So, there will be challenges actually, even in growing up, there are always challenges but we are ready to tackle our challenges and we’re ready to make the best out of our country. Globally, they have been commending Nigeria and we should raise our head high and move on as one indivisible country.
In recent times, we have seen an increase in coup d’etat in Africa, in your own assessment, what are the causes? Can Africa and African Bodies such as African Union, ECOWAS and other regional blocs in Africa put an end to it?
Absolutely! I am happy that our president, Bola Tinubu is the chairman of ECOWAS sub region, and all we need to do is to support him, join hands with him to ensure that Africa remains a strong united bloc because Africa is the next destination for the World Economic boost. I am not surprised those things are happening but then it is still a challenge that Africa needs to solve by themselves. Africans industrializing Africa, Africa government for Africans, Africans stabilising Africa and Africans setting the goals and pace of Africa.
We have all it takes, we have the human resources, we have the potentials, we have the experts, all we need is just to harness all the energy for positivity and that does it, whatever challenge Africa is going through, definitely we will overcome but our leaders also need to watch it. Play by the rules and keep to the rules, that will enhance development and good governance in Africa. So, I think with what is going on and by the grace of God, the presence of President Tinubu and his commitment to reverse the trend, it is going to bring a lot of good tidings to ECOWAS and by extension Africa as a continent.
The Africa Continental Free Trade Area is in top gear. What role is NEPAD playing to ensure the continent makes a success of the AfCFTA?
Yes, it’s a collaboration work for the entire continent because, Africa Union Development Agency, NEPAD is an implementing tool for African Union and we will not stop creating awareness, we will not stop networking with the public and private sector, we will not stop informing the leadership of our continent about the opportunities of this great idea. We will also not stop engaging the communities and the leaders at all sectors of the economy to ensure that trading amongst nations becomes a good omen for Africa. And let me say it again that Africa has great potentials untapped. So when we’re talking about trade, free goods or movement, not only that even our airspace needs to be opened. When we open our airspace, it will boost our economy, it will bring a lot of unity and development of our continent. So we are living no stone unturned, we are synergising. You can see we are in African Union building where we normally meet at side events like this to deliberate and discuss Africa intensively, garner experience, reports and share information with our heads of states and governments to be able to ensure that agenda 2063 of the African Union is realised.
You have been in the forefront of facilitating the establishment of African School of Economics in Nigeria and recently, Nigeria, Princeton and African School of Economics signed an MOU, to what extent will this improve the standard of education in Nigeria?
Absolutely, it is going to boost education like we buttressed. Again the energy and zeal of our young people to excel is alarming and every well meaning Nigerian needs to take it up. Mr. President has done it all by setting targeted goals for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and as he has said, these goals will bring development. So what we have done now is to ensure that the agenda of Mr. president is realised. By signing MOU with Princeton, it will rejuvenate our education sector and is going to add value to sustainability of education and its components that can enhance speedy learning in our country, most importantly, the Vocational Centers. Skill development will prepare our people, harness their energy and develop their skill-set to serve the labour markets. Globally now, they are looking for talented and skilled workers. So instead of us having them in the community using their energy in a negative manner, it is good to harness them, educate them properly, give them opportunity to explore their own world and add value to the economy of our country. So it’s a very welcome development that is going to be useful to Nigeria.
You have achieved a lot in your agency looking at the records, are there areas you would want to be improved or you would want more support either from government or other stakeholders?
The challenges there is that we need the political will, we need the President’s support to make NEPAD very vibrant and resourceful and results-oriented. We’ve done a lot about this, we’ve tried. We’ve implemented a lot of programmes and policies. We’ve done the second review under African Peer Review Mechanism, from that policy report, we produce 32 policy documents across all sectors of the economy of Nigeria and Africa. We have about six countries now that have come to Nigeria for peer learning. They’re inviting us to come and set up their own national structures. So, meaning that we’re doing well because if there are no people commending or asking for peer learning with you, it means you are not doing well. So, Nigeria is doing well in terms of African Union programmes and projects, implementing flagship programmes and all that. So, we are happy and proud that Nigeria is now a focal point for peer learning to other member states. So if supported, which I believe President Tinubu will do because of his passion and commitment in ensuring good governance in Nigeria, I think we will do a lot more.