Drawing the curtain on Professor Idachaba (1943 – 2014)

The Kogi state government and his first daughter, Achenyo, have confirmed this sad news.On May 10, 2013 to be precise, Professor Idachaba launched three books at a time at the University of Ibadan where he lectured for 31 years (1972-2003) before he retired. The three books, namely, No Easy Harvest and The Agricultural Economist as […]

The Kogi state government and his first daughter, Achenyo, have confirmed this sad news.
On May 10, 2013 to be precise, Professor Idachaba launched three books at a time at the University of Ibadan where he lectured for 31 years (1972-2003) before he retired. The three books, namely, No Easy Harvest and The Agricultural Economist as Preacher  (Volumes 1&2),  the later especially is highly inspirational for personal development.
No Easy Harvest is a life story of Professor Idachaba, covering his humble birth, primary, secondary and tertiary school education in various places and locations. It all covers his work experience in Nigeria and in the international arena. The book also puts in record Professor Idachaba’s family life, his philanthropic efforts and the honours he received.
Professor Idachaba, who reached the summit of his academic endeavour at the age of 38 years at the University of Ibadan, has the glory of winning the highest honour that Nigeria bestows on its citizens for academic excellence and outstanding intellectual achievements – the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) Award –  in 2011.
Though,  an unwilling administrator, who shunned administrative responsibilities but had positions thrust upon him almost by force, Professor Idachaba   nevertheless headed the  Federal Agricultural Coordinating Unit (FACU), Pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, and the Vice-Chancellor, Kogi State University. And for 8 years, he was a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC) under General Ibrahim Babangida Military Presidency. As the adviser in charge of agriculture in the PAC, he was instrumental to the establishment of Directorate for Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI), National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), and the establishment of private universities, as well as universities of agriculture.
DFRRI, NALDA and even Professor Ransom Kuti’s Rural Health Care initiative were based on Idachaba’s Survey of Rural Infrastructure in Nigeria (an academic project work) funded by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture from 1978 to 1982. Idachaba was appointed NALDA chairman in 1991. The DFRRI was established in 1986 by General Babangida to enhance rural development. This was meant to provide feeder roads, electricity, and potable water and toilet facilities for the rural dwellers. DFRRI had tremendous impact on the rural areas. For instance, between the time of inception in 1986 and 1993, DFRRI had completed over 278,526 km of roads. Over 5,000 rural communities benefited from its rural electrification programme (See CBN Annual Reports).
At the global level, he was the first African Deputy Director-General of International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR), The Hague, The Netherlands, where he served for eight years. Visiting Researcher at the  International Food Policy Institute, Washington DC, USA; Senior Planning Consultant at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation; Consultant to the Sasakawa Global 2000 Carter Centre; Resident Fellow, Rockefeller Foundation Study and Conference Centre, Bellagio, Italy; Consultancy for the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada; Guest Lecturer, World Bank Annual Symposium; Consultant to Word Health Organization.
Professor  Idachaba was a prime-mover of two philanthropic grant-giving foundations. One of these is the Igala Education Foundation which was founded in 2001 and is to serve as the primary catalyst for the revival of education in Igalaland. Another is the F. S Idachaba Foundation for Research and Scholarship, IFRES, founded in 2003. The Foundation makes small grants to young researchers, mostly Ph.D holders below the age of 40 years, to engage in policy research that will transform Nigeria, and even Africa.
The erudite professor has 72 publications to his credit, including six books which featured titles/topics on Agricultural Development, Rural Economics, Crop Subsector, Crop Marketing, Agricultural Policy as well as Commodity Taxes and Farm Input Subsidies.  
In his No Easy Harvest,  Idachaba noted that ‘‘if as a son of a farmer and a smoked fish-seller mother I could rise to serve the country and the world in positions of very high responsibility, God is always able to reward hard work, discipline, focus and perseverance.
Mine is a life story of hard work, unwavering commitment to my chosen cause and an eye on the long run in the firm belief that in life, there is no easy harvest; there is no substitute for hard work and there are no sustainable shortcuts.’’
Professor Idachaba, who is a strong advocate of self-sufficiency as a matter of personal policy and national mantra, recalled that he never succumbed to ‘’dependency-syndrome’’ that afflicts most public office holders. ‘’I have had cause to voluntarily resign from a very powerful positions with their potentially corrupting perks as in Kogi State University, as soon  as I completed my assignment without completing my tenure or contriving tenure elongation.”
In a commissioned paper titled ‘‘Self-Reliance as a Strategy for Nigerian Agriculture: Cornucopia or Pandora’s Box,’’ which Professor Idachaba presented at 25th Anniversary Conference of the Nigerian Economic Society on 23rd and 24th April,  1984, he warned the country of over dependence on food imports.
He advised that Nigeria should adopt self-reliance as a national development strategy with serious determination to rely on the utilization of domestic resources to produce most of its required goods and services. ‘‘Not only do the country’s citizens and political leadership feel humiliated that they have to be fed by others but also it is soon quickly realized that no aid comes without strings’’.
But, as if he was addressing the nation’s political leadership of today when he also warned that there are the consequences of implementing self-reliance programmes by corrupt and indiscipline political leadership.
‘‘There are real gains to be realized from the full mobilization of a country’s unutilized resources. But when does this become an invitation to anarchy? There is a real danger that policies initiated with good intention within the context of economic nationalism may, especially without disciplined political leadership degenerate into anarchy and economic chaos. When self-reliance strategies are embarked upon as a matter of faith and domestic resource costs of saving or earning foreign exchange are completely disregarded, a Pandora’s Box not cornucopia becomes the legacy of the programme.”
In his critique of former President Alhaji Shehiu Shagari government’s Green Revolution Programme, Professor Idachaba noted that the programme was rather self-serving as it rather benefitted large class of unintended beneficiaries.
In the invited keynote papers delivered at Second Biennial Conference of the Nigerian Agricultural Association in July 1982, he said, in his paper titled ‘‘Nigerian Green Revolution Programme: Pitfalls of Public  Policy’’ that despite the  classical objectives of the programme, its implementation  was flawed.
‘‘The Green Revolution Programme had the objectives of making the country self-sufficient in staple foods by 1985 and making the country an exporter of crops by 1987. But in the programme’s last days, the Shagari’s spokesmen started substituting the more nebulous phrase ‘‘as soon as possible in place of 1985 as the target date for staple food self-sufficiency.
Implementation of the Green Revolution Programme had several fatal-flaws which guarantee that it was neither programmatic, revolutionary nor even green.’’
Long before the current mildew economic ideas lumped together and called ‘‘Transformation Agenda’’ by President Goodluck Jonathan administration, Professor Idachaba had come up with the idea of economic transformation through his nationwide survey of rural infrastructural requirement of every community, local government area and state in the country, from 1978 to 1981, as the driving force to achieve self-reliance in the country.
But there is every reason to recommend that if President Jonathan can cross to the other side of political bridge of populism to drive home what is supposed to be the message of transformation agenda, he may need to bend backward to take cursory look at Idachaba’s idea of economic transformation for a nation.
In this first ever large-scale (and the last of its kind) survey of rural infrastructure in Nigeria, Idachaba stated that ‘‘any serious effort to raise the living standard of Nigerians must begin with the provision of the basic needs of the rural majority. And any serious effort to raise the economic well-being of Nigerians must begin with the transformation and growth of agriculture. For agricultural transformation to succeed, there must be rural infrastructural transformation as prerequisite’’.
Rwanda, one of current Africa’s most ambitious countries, had noted in its website for self-reliance strategy campaign that;  ‘’since the 1960’s, the Asian tigers – South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore have all followed a similar path of evolving self-reliance as a strategy for economic transformation of their rapidly developing economies. Factors that contributed to their economic success included community of purpose and unity, governance systems matching culture and context, highly disciplined leadership and productive workforce, savings seen as a major concern and became part of their culture in addition to education system built productivity mindset’’.
President Jonathan had recognized Professor Idachaba with the highest honour that Nigeria bestows on its citizens for academic excellence and outstanding intellectual achievements-the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) Award in 2011. But he can still go further to name either the University of Agriculture in Makurdi or the Federal University of Technology in Lokoja after him.
The Kogi state government can also take cue after the Edo state and Ondo state governments that named its university at Ekpoma after Ambrose Ali and Owo Polytechnic after Pa Ajasin respectively.
To Horatius Bonar of eternal blessed memory,  the chemist of the phrases and language, ‘’Thou tell vividly their Acts, Shakesparean’s life of stage played; that he liveth long who liveth well; all else is being flung away. He liveth longest who can tell of true things truly done each day.’’
Adieu, Professor
Idachaba. Ahuraka wrote in from Abuja