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Babagana Ahmadu, the representative of the UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Pretoria, died recently on a flight to Newark, US. Unlike many overcautious UN bureaucrats who unconsciously cut the figure of a “glorified nobody”, Ahmadu was a man of passion and ideas who also ran a farm in his volatile northeastern Nigerian hometown of Maiduguri. He was a practical man who liked to get his hands dirty.
Before coming to South Africa in 2023, Ahmadu had been FAO representative in Namibia, Gambia and Sudan. A committed Pan-African, he also worked as the first director of rural economy and agriculture in the AU Commission in Addis Ababa. Ahmadu’s dedicated five-year service for FAO in Gambia was acknowledged by the government, which awarded him the Insignia of Commander of the National Order of the Republic on his departure.
Tirelessly traversing rural communities in Gambia, Ahmadu sought particularly to build infrastructure to support sustainable vegetation production and to increase the productive capacity of women farmers in vegetable farming and fish processing. In Sudan he prioritised food security, climate change and alleviating the deleterious impacts of internal conflicts, at a time in 2022 when the FAO was providing life-saving assistance to more than 2.5 million vulnerable Sudanese.
His main concern was always the most vulnerable groups: women, children, herders and rural smallholder farmers who struggled to acquire funding, technologies, markets and agricultural inputs. His criticisms were always constructive, earning the trust of the African governments he worked with. His intelligence, conviviality, and roaring laughter often helped win people over.
Ahmadu was also deeply devoted to education and constant self-improvement. He obtained two doctorates in veterinary medicine from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria and the University of Zambia. He was awarded a master’s degree in tropical animal production and health by the University of Edinburgh and later lectured in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Maiduguri.
He was always keen to combine his extensive academic training with practical contributions, working at the Nigerian Agricultural Co-operative and Rural Development Bank. An utterly “detribalised” patriot who remained optimistic about Nigeria, Ahmadu was plugged into much of its northern political establishment, members of which he informally advised. A devout Muslim, he would excuse himself to pray before meetings in his office or during meals in restaurants.
Ahmadu was hugely supportive of my work, regularly attending our seminars. When I organised an event at the University of Pretoria last October commemorating the UN at 80, he enthusiastically agreed to speak and persuaded his Kenyan colleague, Jane Mary Ongolo, representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, to join the panel.
During our last meal together a few months ago at a Johannesburg restaurant, he looked forward to his impending retirement, part-time consultancies and farming. He also expressed disappointment at the lack of new thinking in his field and the constant regurgitation of old ideas.
Ahmadu clearly left his mark on South Africa. He worked closely with national and provincial governments to improve the livelihoods of farming communities. He supported South Africa’s G20 Food Security Task Force during its 2024/25 presidency. Just five months ago, he co-hosted an FAO workshop with South Africa’s department of forestry, fisheries & environment on urban aquaculture development, which sought to craft policies to improve sustainable urban and peri-urban agriculture.
Nobuhle Nkabane, acting chair of South Africa’s parliamentary portfolio committee on agriculture, said of Ahmadu: “Dr Ahmadu dedicated his career to advancing sustainable agriculture, strengthening food systems and supporting initiatives aimed at improving food security and rural development. His contribution to these efforts will be remembered with gratitude.”
• Adebajo is a professor and senior research fellow at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship.
Business Day
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