Seriki Adinoyi
28 October 2008
Jos — National Coordinator of New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) and Special Assistant to President Umaru Yar'Adua on NEPAD, Ambassador Tunji Olagbunji, has described agriculture and food security as top priority issues of the programme in Africa.
Olagbunji stated this at a two day retreat for NEPAD-Nigeria senior officers held at the National Institute for Policy and Strategies Studies( NIPSS) Kuru in Plateau State.
He said African countries have agreed at the AU level to adopt the principles of improving agriculture delivery, rural infrastructure, irrigation food growth and the promotion of rice, cassava farming which can deliver member countries from the menace of poverty and hunger.
Explaining that three years of NEPAD's existence are not enough to eradicate poverty on the continent, the coordinator revealed that intensive studies are on, pointing out that poverty is a long term programmes that must be given a steady attention to, if it must be tackled well.
Olagbunji also noted that with NEPAD in place, there is gradual understanding by the three tiers of government as to which programmes need to be put in place and executed, in other to eradicate poverty in various areas.
He said there is constant exchange of ideas on how these programmes could be put into practice, adding that the general leverage now is that development of one country depends on its people and not only government.
"To achieve all these, there is need for close relationship between the private sector, civil society and the non governmental organisation (NGO) to be involved in the partnership" he stressed.
Speaking in the same vein, at the occasion, Professor Aminu Dorayi in a paper titled 'Strategies For Influencing Policy Through the NEPAD framework' said the implementation of NEPAD poses both opportunities and challenges in several areas of Nigeria economic and social development.
According to him, some of these areas are the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the attainment of the goals of the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies (NEEDS) at the federal, state and local government levels with emphasis on wealth creation, employment generation, poverty reduction and value orientation.
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