To help boost the fight against hunger and poverty in Africa, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has accepted to be a “Goodwill Ambassador ” of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

A statement issued by the IITA in Ibadan said Dr Nteranya Sanginga, the institute’s Director-General, announced Obasanjo’s acceptance after a closed door meeting with the former President in Abeokuta.

The statement said Obasanjo as Goodwill Ambassador would help in advocating for policies that would advance research and bring to reality the long-awaited African Green Revolution. It further said that the former president would help extend, amplify and help focus on the work and mission of IITA in sub-Saharan Africa.

Obasanjo’s work, it added, would involve helping to raise 20 million Africans out of poverty and to redirect 25 million hectares of degraded lands for sustainable use in the next 10 years. Sanginga said the institute was honoured by Obasanjo’s acceptance of the offer.

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture ‘Goodwill Ambassador’ and former President of Nigeria, eating bread with 50 per cent cassava content; and IITA Scientist, Dr. Gbassey Tarawali in Abeokuta yesterday. Picture Wunmi Akinola.

Born in March 1937, Obasanjo became the first Nigerian Head of State to hand over to a democratically elected president; first as a military head of state in 1979, and second in 2007 as a civilian president. Before Obasanjo’s administration in 1999, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product growth was painfully slow since 1987 and only managed three per cent growth between 1999 and 2000. However, under Obasanjo, the growth rate doubled to six per cent until he left office, helped in part by higher oil prices.

Nigeria’s foreign reserves rose from $2 billion in 1999 to $43 billion on his leaving office in 2007. He was also able to secure debt pardons from the Paris and London clubs amounting to some $18 billion and paid another $18 billion to be debt free. Most of these loans were secured and spent by past officials. In 2005, the international community gave Nigeria’s government its first pass mark for its anti-corruption efforts. In the agricultural sector, Obasanjo initiated the presidential initiatives on Nigeria’s major commodities including cassava, maize, rice and cocoa.

His 10 per cent cassava policy mandated flour millers to include cassava flour in wheat.

This boosted cassava production by 10 million tonnes between 2002 and 2008 and made Nigeria the world’s number one producer of cassava and maize. As a statesman, Obasanjo had been involved in mediating peace in conflict-stricken countries such as Cote d’Ivoire and DR Congo. In accepting IITA’s offer, Obasanjo said the fight against hunger and poverty was a ‘battle’ he intended to fight in retirement.