{"id":3418,"date":"2017-06-28T16:18:37","date_gmt":"2017-06-28T16:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=3418"},"modified":"2017-06-28T16:18:37","modified_gmt":"2017-06-28T16:18:37","slug":"3418","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=3418","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan praises award-winning former minister and AfDB President, Adeshina"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ikechukwu Eze,<\/strong> Media Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan.
\nEx-President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has congratulated his former\u00a0minister of agriculture and President of the African Development Bank,\u00a0Dr. Akinwumi Adesina over his emergence as the 2017 World Food Prize\u00a0laureate, describing him as a man of exceptional work ethic.
\nThe former President defined Dr. Adeshina as the man who transformed\u00a0agriculture in Nigeria by introducing several innovations that changed\u00a0the face of farming, boosted the capacity of farmers and expanded the\u00a0nation’s ability to feed herself.
\nMedia adviser to the ex-President, Ikechukwu Eze in a statement in\u00a0Abuja said Dr. Jonathan stated this in a letter of goodwill to Adesina\u00a0which the former President personally signed.
\nJonathan also noted that during Adesina\u2019s years as agriculture\u00a0minister, staple food prices remained stable, even in the face of\u00a0serious challenges like the devastating floods of 2012 and the\u00a0\u201cdifficulties occasioned then by global economic recession.\u201d
\nThe letter reads:
\n\u201cI wish to most sincerely congratulate you for your emergence as the\u00a0World Food Prize Laureate for the year 2017.
\n\u201cI am not surprised that such a highly prized honour has being\u00a0conferred on you, given your outstanding and exemplary performance as\u00a0my former Minister of Agriculture.
\n\u201cI must state that I have met many men in my years on earth, but few\u00a0have the intellect and the exceptional work ethic you possess.
\n\u201cDuring your years as Nigeria’s agriculture minister and driver of my\u00a0administration\u2019s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA), you introduced several innovations like the e-wallet fertilizer and seed\u00a0distribution system which cut out the middle man, eliminated\u00a0corruption and expanded Nigeria’s ability to feed herself.
\n\u201cYou oversaw a programme that reduced our food import bill by almost\u00a050%, and working with others in my administration, you helped Nigeria\u00a0become one of only a handful of nations in the world to reasonably\u00a0reduce hunger levels between 2011-2015, according to the International\u00a0Food Policy Research Institute.
\n\u201cUnder your guidance, Nigeria came out of the devastating floods of\u00a02012 without a famine. I am always delighted by the fact that within that period, and throughout the period of our administration, staple\u00a0food prices remained stable, even with the difficulty occasioned then\u00a0by global economic recession.
\n\u201cI believe that these accomplishments and other laudable achievements\u00a0you recorded in your continuing service to humanity, set you apart as\u00a0the most deserving candidate for this award.
\n\u201cI am proud of you, Akin. Please accept my congratulations on behalf\u00a0of my family, and all those who served with me during my administration.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ikechukwu Eze, Media Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan. Ex-President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has congratulated his former\u00a0minister of agriculture and President of the African Development Bank,\u00a0Dr. Akinwumi Adesina over his emergence as the 2017 World Food Prize\u00a0laureate, describing him as a man of exceptional work ethic. The former President defined Dr. Adeshina as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}