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Africa fertilizer summit: Five years after
Martins Diala
More than 80 percent of Nigeria’s 150 million population face the challenge of feeding themselves daily. Reason is that the nation’s agricultural sector is dying, and food is becoming more and more expensive.
Government and businesses are importing many food items at a time of dwindling national income and personal savings. The reality that stares most Nigerians in the face is: food crises, hunger and starvation! It ought not to be so!
Exactly five years ago (June 9 -13, 2006), heads of states of African countries, politicians, farmers, donor agencies, scientists and agriculture experts from various parts of the world, gathered in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, at the first-ever Africa Fertilizer Summit to brainstorm on the challenges of food crisis in the continent and how fertilizer could come to the rescue. It sought ways of engendering food security in an era of global harsh economic realities and emerging democratisation processes in Africa.
Five years after the summit, Nigeria faces greater danger of food insecurity. Considering the saying that “a hungry people are an angry people”, the federal government of Nigeria needs to take the issue very seriously, especially now that President Goodluck Jonathan has promised transformation. He needs to realise that the agricultural sector, along with power and education, holds the key to meaningful transformation of the country.
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