The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) has provided reasons for appointing former President Goodluck Jonathan as the ‘Africa Agricultural Technology Ambassador’.
The reason according to them is to enlighten Africa and Nigeria’s agricultural sector with an enviable range of policies, programs, and projects, citing the enduring farming initiative the former president launched during his tenure.
The Executive Director of AATF, Dr. Canisius Kanangire shared this during a dialogue session with agriculture correspondents in Abuja. He further acknowledged the need for further work to be done to gain acceptance of biotechnology on the continent.
Kanangire said Jonathan has what it takes to motivate other African countries to introduce story-changing farming techniques.
According to him;
“His Excellency, Goodluck Jonathan, one of the areas where he brought innovative ideas was agriculture, with his Agricultural Transformation Initiative of Nigeria, and he made success.
“And today when I look at how Dr. Akinwumi Adesina talks and knowing that he was his Minister of Agriculture, I cannot help but feel proud of that initiative, and that is why when we are selecting people to help us do something, among the names that I put on the list and started discussing with some of the board members, was the name of Jonathan Goodluck.
“So what we expect of him is that he (Jonathan) brings this voice of ours, we and yours to the highest level. Where our limit does not allow us to reach he can open the door of his peer, current Presidents of different countries in Africa, and tell them ‘I believe this is the way we can change our nations on the African continent’.
He can talk to our various ministers; ‘You are doing policies but I tried this and I know if it can work if you don’t do this I don’t know if you will reach the result that you expect’.
“So he will talk as a high level ambassador who will talk as one who has tried his ammunition on transforming one of the biggest countries on the continent. He will talk as one who is also a scientist in this area.
“We believe that his interventions will bring our voice very high and convince many of the changes that we need and it will be an opportunity also to scale up his initiatives on the Nigeria to the whole continent, and contribute to the agricultural transformation initiative of Sub Saharan Africa, in particular, and the whole of Africa in general.”
cc: Vanguard Ng
