The Nigeria Fish Farmers Association (NFAN) says it supports the re-election of Dr Akinwumi Adesina as President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) because of his numerous achievements.
The National Publicity Secretary of the association, Mr Chidike Uko, made this known in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Friday.
Uko said Adesina had been tested and trusted.
He said it was in view of that, that NFAN recently joined other commodity associations to support his re-election.
Uko said Adesina was able to revolutionise agriculture in Nigeria with the agricultural transformation agenda, particularly e-wallet system.
According to him, Adesina was able to attract youths, including graduates into agriculture, a move which has led to a paradigm shift in the way youths viewed agriculture.
He noted that having contested for the presidency of the AfDB and won in 2015, Adesina had shown that he is capable of carrying out his function for a second term.
“But right now, there is an interference to see that his going back will be tough.
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“Not that he will not go back, he will but it will be tough because of scrutiny.
“But having been cleared by the ethics committee, we see no reason why the matter should linger because he is someone, who does his work in the open.
“He is a Nigerian son and an international citizen, whom everybody who knows his worth, even from the U.S., will know that he is a policy driver for everything he has to do,’’ he said.
Uko further noted that Adesina had equally shown concern for the repositioning of the fish subsector.
“Today in Nigeria we are having almost half of our fish demand imported.
“With the policy that he introduced on agricultural mechanisation, we are witnessing enhanced fish production and processing.
“Even with our inability to satisfy local demand for fish; we are still having fish gloat and post-harvest losses.
“So, what the processing zone he created, we are sure that that the fish harvested can be processed and saved so that the life shelf of fish can be nine months.
“Therefore, we will not suffer any post-harvest losses again.
“There will not be fish gloat in Nigeria and we will be adding value to the economy of the country and reducing the import bill.’’
The publicity secretary further said that if Adesina could be doing this at the African level, the continent’s economy would come out bigger, better and begin to contest with the Asian tigers and the rest of them.
“But the most important thing is that if you are playing in the international community you must lobby, you must work hard to position yourself.
“The interests that are coming to ask him not to move forward at this time are not out of point but we need to know, as Africans, what is good for us,’’ he added.
NFAN recently joined over 52 commodity associations, under the auspices of Federation of Agricultural Commodities Association of Nigeria (FACAN), to endorse the re-election of Adesina as President of AfDB. (NAN)
