By Odimegwu Onwumere
Being good is a huge investment in any individual’s life; it does not
fail. It is very important especially in the present times that
majority of the people can no longer differentiate between what they
want and what they need. Dr. Kanayo Francis Nwanze has earlier defined
his. His feat at the UN’s Rome-based International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD) continues to tell light-featherweight
individuals that there is no obstacle anywhere, except that which a
person has refused to surmount.
On Wednesday 13 February 2013, he was re-appointed to a four-year term
as president of the IFAD, having begun his term as IFAD’s fifth
President on 1 April 2009. His appointment and re-appointment show
that patience is a very vital tool for living in the world.
Working in this organisation that was created 30 years ago to
undertake rural poverty which is regarded as the arrowhead of the
droughts and famines of the early 1970s, Nwanze has brought
transformation in the IFAD by holding stoical to the agenda of
reformation. So they say, for-the-duration-of his ten years as
Director-General of the Africa Rice Centre (WARDA), he transformed the
centre from a provincially attentive institution into a worldwide
acknowledged research institution. How else a person does prove
accomplished in his or her career?
Nwanze is part of the success story of the IFAD today, which has
invested more than US$10.6 billion in low-interest finances and
funding that have fostered roughly-speaking, over 350 million very
poor rural women and men augment their incomes and afford for their
families since 1978.
The history of IFAD will never be complete if Nwanze is not mentioned
due to the pride he has brought into the union that supports close to
250 programmes and projects in 87 developing countries, and is a
global partnership of OECD, OPEC and other developing countries. The
Delta State born-Nigerian Nwanze has given his word in making sure
that IFAD sustained to serve that which it was formed.
Nwanze made this hope available in a speech where he said that he
would endeavour to spawn vivacious pastoral areas that could ensure
what he regarded as, a dynamic flow of economic benefits between rural
and urban areas.
Nwanze-led IFAD is vibrant today amongst the three United Nations food
agencies in Rome along with the Food and Agriculture Organisation
(FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
Many regard Nwanze as a driving force in the accomplishment of key
reforms begun by the out gone IFAD head, Lennart Båge. The former did
not achieve this on a platter of gold, but through his philosophy of
consolidation and deepening change and reform process in IFAD.
At the 36th Governing Council, Nwanze told a gathering of
representatives from IFAD Member States that: Vibrant rural areas can
ensure a dynamic flow of economic benefits between rural and urban
areas so that nations have balanced and sustained development.
Joining the rest of the world’s organisations to set out the world’s
post-2015 development agenda, Nwanze apparently said: “Structured
reforms have transformed IFAD into a more agile, efficient agency,
better able to respond to a rapidly changing environment…. This has
been crucial to improving IFAD’s effectiveness at a time when new
challenges are constantly reshaping the physical and geo-political
landscape where we work.”
Dr. Kanayo Francis Nwanze is doing everything humanly possible to help
in creating food security and sends poverty on errand in the world, no
matter the fears in many quarters that the world is drastically
changing, which is causing tremendous financial imbalance in the
world, therefore creating the opportunity for the rich and the poor to
trample on the weak.
Nwanze would say: “To put it simply, more partnership means more
impact… IFAD is determined to work with its partners to make the
most of agriculture’s poverty-fighting powers…. Experience shows
that development is most effective when it is self-driven…. How we
respond to today’s challenges will determine not only the shape of
food systems in the near future, but also the health of ecosystems and
the distribution of the world’s population.”
What about the IFAD’s innovative Adaptation for Smallholder
Agriculture Programme? Nwanze has been of the view that both the urban
and rural areas are fast adapting to the changes of the changing world
in which his organisation is playing a very optimistic role in making
sure that it is well for all and sundry, but underlined the importance
to fashion opportunities for young people whom he sees as, without
prospects, have nothing to lose and are more easily swayed by extreme
rhetoric.
Nwanze has shared love for women also. He sees them as a folk that
have eaten ashes for bread and tears for tea in the rural areas, where
they work tirelessly to improve the living standard of the society.
Pointblank, he hammered sent his point home that the world and the
rural dwellers might not enjoy the improved-world being clamoured for,
except women are recognised and empowered in no-less way, because by
not doing that, Nwanze believes that half of humanity is denied.
The highest decision making body of IFAD – Governing Council – would
have made a mistake if they had had oversight in not seeing the
qualities that Nwanze is made of and appoint him to continue a second
term in office of four years, to lead the rural poverty agency. This
is an organisation that in 2009 had 25 country offices but by the end
of 2012, has had 38. Bravo!
The world should therefore support this man whose brain has sparked
many positive debates around the world. Dr. Nwanze needs the support
of the world in making sure that he realised his plans in
resilience-building for improved food security in the world. The world
should help in straightening and strengthening him in this onerous
task for the good of the societies, especially those in the developing
world. In the tribe where Nwanze comes from in Nigeria, proverbially
speaking, a man is not expected to kill lion the second time before he
is called a lion killer.
Commentators have spoken of Nwanze thus: 1 “A Nigerian national,
Nwanze has a strong record as an advocate and leader with a keen
understanding of complex development issues. He brings to the job over
35 years of experience across three continents, focusing on poverty
reduction through agriculture, rural development and research.”
2 “Under Nwanze’s guidance, IFAD has stepped up its advocacy efforts
to ensure that agriculture is a central part of the international
development agenda, and that governments recognize the concerns of
smallholder farmers and other poor rural people. As an intellectual
leader on issues of food security, Nwanze has been a member of the
World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Food Security since
2010, and formerly chaired the group.”
Nwanze needs the support of all, as he burgeons on with the duty of
his office, by bringing a more holistic approach that goes-above his
intellect. As they say, Nwanze earned a Bachelor of Science degree in
Agricultural Science from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1971,
and a Doctorate in Agricultural Entomology from Kansas State
University, United States, in 1975, amongst others.
Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, contributed this piece from Rivers
State. Tel: +2348032552855. E-mail: apoet_25@yahoo.com