Discontinuity In Agric Initiatives To Blame For Hunger In Africa says Obasanjo

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday identified lack of continuity of agricultural programmes by successive African governments as responsible for hunger on the continent.

Obasanjo, who spoke in Abeokuta, lamented that despite its fertile land and rich resources, 250 million Africans are undernourished.

He spoke at a Forum on “Best Practices in Fostering Food Security in Africa”. The programme, held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) was organised by the Centre for Human Security (CHS).

According to Obasanjo, “if we are not doing well in technology and industries, if we cannot go to the moon, we must be able to feed ourselves as Africans.”

To buttress his point, Obasanjo recalled that as military Head of State, his administration introduced the Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) “which was a success story…“But when my successor came in, instead of continuing with the programme, he introduced a Presidential Task Force, not for food production but for food importation.”

Obasanjo told the audience how a member of the said Task Force arranged with an American company to inflate cost of some quantities of rice to the tune of $5m, saying, “That is how our money goes”.

Earlier, in his address, the Chairman of the Governing Board of Centre for Food Security, Prof. Akin Mabogunje, said: “It is a notorious fact that as recently as 2010, the continent spent almost $26b on food imports. Sub-Saharan African countries, for instance, imported as much as 25 million tons of cereals, including what it receives as food aid from developed countries of the world. Notwithstanding, the number of chronically undernourished people on the continent is said to have risen from 173 million in 1990-92 to some 250 million by 2010.”