During his recent visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), IITA’s Goodwill Ambassador, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, met with DRC President Félix Tshisekedi in a formal visit on 23 August.
The two heads of state discussed, among other issues, the ‘’Agenda de la Transformation Agricole de la République Démocratique du Congo” (ATA-RDC) program initiated by President Tshisekedi under the agriculture ministry with technical support from IITA–CGIAR and the NGO African Agriculture Leadership Institute (AALI).
The former Nigerian President said the purpose of his visit was to congratulate President Tshisekedi for his accession to the presidency of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and to discuss some security problems in the eastern part of DRC. He added that efforts implemented to revive and invigorate the agricultural sector would not yield positive results if the country continued to be at war.
President Obasanjo, in a press conference after the meeting with the DRC President, explained that they discussed, first and foremost, security issues, including food and nutrition security. In an interview, President Obasanjo said, “We cannot talk of food security and nutrition security without focusing on agricultural transformation, which I call agribusiness. Agribusiness because it moves from hoes and other equipment for land preparation through the value chains up to having food on the table. We are also talking about one of the problems we have in Africa today, which is another cause of insecurity—misbehavior on the part of the youth.” https://youtu.be/o90XGquRzQg
The youth can become the primary architect of insecurity because of lack of employment. If we are going to provide employment for our youth, one area we can cultivate is agribusiness and agricultural transformation, and President Tshisekedi has got it right with the Agricultural Transformation Agenda project!” President Obasanjo said.
Story contributed by Michelle Kimpwene and Katherine Lopez.
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