By Babalola Seyi
The President Muhammadu Buhari will leave Lagos on Tuesday for Dakar, Senegal, to attend the second Dakar International Conference on Agriculture.
This is the President’s second trip to West Africa in six months. It will also be his second foreign trip in 2023.
Buhari will join other African leaders in Senegal in July 2022 for the International Development Association for Africa Summit, which will result in the Dakar Declaration.
This time, he is attending the high-level Dakar 2 Summit hosted by President Macky Sall of Senegal and the Chairperson of the African Union is holding under the theme “Feeding Africa: Food Sovereignty and Resilience.”
According to a statement signed on Monday by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the conference is convened jointly by the government of Senegal and the African Development Bank.
The statement is titled ‘President Buhari to attend Dakar International Conference on Agricultural.’
It read in part, “With Africa accounting for 249 million or a third of the 828 million hungry people in the world, the Summit, to be attended by African Heads of State and Government, Ministers of finance and agriculture, as well as several global development partners, is expected to make commitments on eradicating hunger in Africa by 2030.
“There will also be side meetings to discuss agreements on the delivery of food and agricultural products in some countries, including Nigeria.”
The conference will among other things, seek to create favourable conditions toward achieving food security in Africa.
On the President’s delegation are Ministers and top government officials such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Mohammad Abubakar, National Security Adviser, Mohammed Babagana Monguno and Director-General, National Intelligence Agency Ahmed Abubakar.
Buhari is expected back in the country on Wednesday, January 25.
Consequently, he will be absent from this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting. His second this year.
