SPECIAL EVENT ON SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY AND AGRICULTURE IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE CHANGE


FAO, Rome, 12 March 2007

Your Excellency, President Olusegun Obasanjo,
Honourable Ministers,
Excellencies, members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is an honour and a pleasure for me to welcome His Excellency the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olesegun Obasanjo, to Rome and to the Food and Agriculture Organization. First of all, I would like to thank you, Mr President, for honouring FAO and myself personally by accepting the invitation to come to Rome and address this Special Event.

Mr. President, kindly allow me to publicly acknowledge again some of your vital contributions in the field of agriculture and natural resources to restore Nigeria’s agriculture to its pre-eminent position in the economy in order to reduce poverty and ensure food security for all your fellow citizens. The agriculture sector is sustaining the 7 percent growth rate first attained in 2003/2004. This notable achievement was made possible by strategic programmes under the National Agricultural Policy, the National Policy on Integrated Rural Development and the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS).

Mr. President, at the level of the African Continent, you have played a pivotal role in bringing agriculture and food security to the forefront of the political agenda, by encouraging leaders of African countries to work together to bring their populations out of hunger and poverty through democracy, sustainable agricultural and rural development. I recall that you were both the Chair of the African Union, and Chair of the Heads of State Implementation Committee of NEPAD when the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) of NEPAD and endorsed in Maputo during the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Maputo in July 2003. That Summit also made the water-shed Declaration, which committed African governments to increase budgetary allocation to agriculture to 10 percent within 5 years.

In fact, you have also been a pioneer and visionary who, together with Presidents Mbeki of South Africa, Bouteflika of Algeria, Mubarak of Egypt and Wade of Senegal, initiated blueprints of what was to become the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), whose Heads of State Implementation Committee you have chaired since its inception. Mr. President, you have not spared any effort as the father of Africa’s most populous country and as Chairperson of the African Union in promoting NEPAD among world leaders. In your address to the G-8 and in many other world fora, you have emphasized the priority that must be given to agriculture and food security. In addition to NEPAD, and closely related to it, you have been committed to the realization of the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel, which is conceived as a wide land-belt where resources will be managed in a sustainable, integrated and participatory manner, including restoration activities such as tree planting, rangeland improvement and agriculture activities. As recently as January 2007, you have called, in the Accra conference, for an international action to help Africa deal with the devastation caused by the climate change.

Apart from championing the virtues of agriculture and food security at home in Nigeria and in Africa as well as abroad, you have been yourself practising what you preach, with your own crop and aquaculture farms, so that your countrymen and others can learn by example.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is in very short, a few introductory words about the important guest that we have the honour to welcome among us today.

Mr. President, may we receive your address.

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