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Tag: Audu Ogbeh

  • Audu Ogbeh was a principled democrat, national figure – Northern Elders 

    Audu Ogbeh was a principled democrat, national figure – Northern Elders 

    The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) on Sunday expressed sorrow over the death of elder statesman, Audu Ogbeh, who passed away in the early hours of Saturday, August 9, 2025.

    NEF said Ogbeh was not only a national figure and principled democrat of great repute but also a valued member of the NEF’s Board of Trustees, a voice of wisdom, and a guiding presence in our deliberations. 

    The forum said his counsel, integrity, and dedication to the unity and progress of Northern Nigeria and the nation as a whole will be sorely missed.

    In a statement issued by NEF spokesperson, Professor Abubakar Jika Jiddere, the Forum described Ogbeh as; “a principled democrat, a patriotic nationalist, and a tireless advocate for peace and cohesion. 

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    “A respected farmer, politician, playwright, and intellectual, he served Nigeria with distinction as Minister of Communications (1982–1983) and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (2015–2019). He was a principled democrat, a patriotic nationalist, and a tireless advocate for peace and national cohesion.

    “The NEF extends its heartfelt condolences to his family, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Government and people of Benue State, the people of Northern Nigeria, and the entire nation. His passing is a personal loss to the Forum and a profound loss to Nigeria”.

    Paying tribute, the forum hailed Ogbeh as, “A statesman of rare integrity, a patriot of unwavering conviction, and a cherished member of our own family. In our councils, he was a voice of reason and conscience; in the nation’s service, he was a bridge-builder, a reformer, and a steadfast advocate of unity and justice. 

    “His wisdom guided us, his humility inspired us, and his commitment to Nigeria’s progress strengthened us. Though the nation grieves, our loss is deeply personal, for we have lost not only a leader, but a trusted friend whose absence will be felt in every conversation about our shared future.”

  • Tinubu mourns Audu Ogbeh, hails patriotism, lasting legacy

    Tinubu mourns Audu Ogbeh, hails patriotism, lasting legacy

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has described Chief Audu Ogbeh as a patriot whose wisdom, dedication, and pursuit of progress left an indelible mark on Nigeria’s political landscape.

    In a condolence message to the government and people of Benue State, the President said the nation had lost a statesman of rare intellect and commitment to national development. 

    According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the President also commiserated with the late politician’s family, friends, and associates.

    Ogbeh, who died at 78, was a prominent figure in Nigeria’s political evolution, serving in several administrations. 

    He was Minister of Communications in the Second Republic and later Minister of Agriculture under President Muhammadu Buhari. 

    He also made his mark as National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and was a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Read Also: BREAKING: Ex-PDP chairman Audu Ogbeh dies at 78

    Tinubu noted the late Ogbeh’s deep intellectual contributions to policy formulation and his skill in articulating practical solutions to the country’s complex challenges.

    “He was always ready with facts and figures to support his propositions. The nation will sorely miss his insightful perspectives and wealth of experience,” the President said.

    Joining politics in the 1970s as a legislator, Chief Ogbeh became a respected voice in governance, earning a reputation for principled service and an unwavering belief in Nigeria’s potential.

    President Tinubu prayed for the peaceful repose of his soul and for God’s comfort to his bereaved family.

  • Audu Ogbeh a patriot, says Obasanjo

    Audu Ogbeh a patriot, says Obasanjo

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed shock and sadness over the demise of former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and the National chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Audu Ogbeh on Saturday.

    Obasanjo, who is in Uganda on a visit, described the late Minister as a peace-loving,  unassuming , committed patriot and a firm believer in democracy and participatory governance. 

    In a statement by his Special Assistant on Media,  Kehinde Akinyemi the former President stressed further that the former PDP leader was “a man whose political career stretched from the military era through the present democratic dispensation. 

    It reads: “To this extent, he was the Deputy Speaker in Plateau House of Assembly in the 70s, Minister of Communications 1982-1983, Chairman of Peoples Democratic Republic of Nigeria (PDP) 2001-2005 and Minister of Agriculture and Food Security 2015-2019. All of these serve as evidence of his faith in the prospects of participatory politics.

    Read Also: BREAKING: Ex-PDP chairman Audu Ogbeh dies at 78

    “Ever since, he built for himself, an impressive profile of immense goodwill and affection among his people, as a frontline politician and community leader.

     “Chief Audu Ogbeh will be missed for his unwavering commitment to politics, governance and democracy as he made significant contributions to the re-establishment of democracy in Nigeria.  His place will be very difficult to fill within his community, the State, the party and the nation.

     “May God console his wife and the entire family. May his soul rest in perfect peace.”

  • Nigeria has lost a patriot in Audu Ogbeh — Tinubu

    Nigeria has lost a patriot in Audu Ogbeh — Tinubu

    President Bola Tinubu has expressed heartfelt condolences on the passing of Chief Audu Ogbeh, a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), describing him as a great patriot.

    ‎‎Ogbeh, 78, died peacefully on Saturday, according to a statement from his family.

    ‎In a condolence message by his spokesperson, Mr Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu sympathised with the government and people of Benue State.

    ‎‎The President also extended his condolences to Ogbeh’s family, friends, and political associates.

    ‎Ogbeh, served Nigeria in several administrations, including as Minister of Communications in the Second Republic and later as Minister of Agriculture under President Muhammadu Buhari.

    ‎Tinubu praised Ogbeh’s deep intellect and his ability to craft solutions to complex national issues.

    ‎He noted that Ogbeh began his political career in the 1970s as a legislator and was a founding member of the APC.

    Read Also: BREAKING: Ex-PDP chairman Audu Ogbeh dies at 78

    ‎“Chief Audu Ogbeh was a patriot whose wisdom, dedication, and pursuit of progress left an indelible mark on Nigeria’s political landscape.”

    ‎”He was always ready with facts and figures to support his propositions. The nation will sorely miss his insightful perspectives and wealth of experience,” Tinubu said.

    ‎The president prayed that the Almighty God will receive the departed’s soul, and comfort his family.

    (NAN)

  • BREAKING: Ex-PDP chairman Audu Ogbeh dies at 78

    BREAKING: Ex-PDP chairman Audu Ogbeh dies at 78

    Former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, is dead.

    He was 78.

    Ogbeh, who also served as the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from 2001 to 2005, died peacefully, his family announced in a statement on Saturday.

    “It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather; Chief Audu Ogbeh. He passed away on the 9th of August 2025 at the fulfilled age of 78.

    “He departed peacefully, leaving behind a legacy of integrity, service, and dedication to our nation and community. We are comforted by the many lives he touched and the example he set.

    Read Also: Bayelsa 2019: Audu Ogbeh endorses Lokpobiri for APC ticket

    “Details of the funeral arrangements will be communicated in due course. We thank friends, colleagues, and well-wishers for their prayers and support during this time. We will appreciate some privacy at this time while we mourn the loss of our patriarch,” the statement reads.

    Details shortly…

  • Nigeria needs new satellite to tackle security challenges, says Audu Ogbeh

    Nigeria needs new satellite to tackle security challenges, says Audu Ogbeh

    Former Minister of Agriculture and chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Dr Audu Ogbeh, on Friday, November 10, said that given the current security challenges in the country, Nigeria would need a new communication satellite to tackle activities that could further undermine the nation’s peace and security.

    Ogbeh said Nigeria’s future would be at risk if the country by its land mass and population failed to have military/security satellites capable of monitoring strange activities within the country and at the borders with a view to ensure the safety and security of the country.

    He made the remarks as a guest speaker at the Destination Hotels and Suites, Abuja, during the launch of three new Solutions and Services by the Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd (NigComSat).

    The products/solutions are broadband services using Ka, Ku and C bands, broadcasting Services designed to empower Satellite TV Operators and Direct-To-Home (DTH) platforms for navigation, transponder leasing and mobile backhaul.

    Ogbeh who was minister of communications during the time of late President Shehu Shagari said: “The time has come for Nigeria to think of another Satellite in orbit just like the European has the Europe Eyes and Americans have four different Satellites in Space to monitor global activities.

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    “From Badagry in Lagos to Yola in Adamawa and Yenogoa in Bayelsa, we have about 4,076km land mass and borders. We need to enhance our security systems by having Satellite communications for military and security agencies. I understand 20,000 children are born daily in Nigeria which is about 600,000 a month and 7 million a year.

    “We need security people to have Satellite means to monitor our borders and monitor activities within the country 24/7, otherwise the future of our country would be at risk going by the land mass and population.”

    Ogbeh urged NigComSat to lobby the National Assembly and the Presidency to raise funds for the purpose of acquiring the new Satellite for the country, asserting that the military and security agencies should also be fully involved in the project.

    The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NigComSat, Jane Nkechi Egerton said the products were launched to show the commitment of NigComSat towards efficient and effective service delivery to its customers and stakeholders.

    Egerton said: “In addition to our revitalised traditional services, we are thrilled to introduce our latest value-adding Service. Today, we showcase how we can bundle EdTech solutions with broadband to serve schools.

    “By providing schools with a bundled solution, access to affordable, reliable Internet connectivity, and leveraging EdTech resources and interventions designed in alignment with the Nigerian Curriculum, a more equitable and effective education can be achieved.”

    Egerton further noted that digital libraries for secondary schools with Artificial intelligence-powered solutions, cloud-based learning content and content creation for teachers, and learning management systems are all incorporated in the solutions provided by NigComSat.

  • FG to rake in N6bn a year from 20 silo concessions

    The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has announced the concessions of 20 silos to private investors will bump Nigeria’s annual revenue up by N6 billion.

    The concession of the government grain houses is an actualisation of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) on Silo program.

    This was disclosed at the handover ceremony of the concessioned silos to successful concessionaires in Abuja on Tuesday in the presence of various agricultural stakeholders, agencies, including the Director General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, Chidi Izuwah.

    Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh stated government is keeping six of the silos owned by the country and will concession the rest to private companies and investors.

    He adjured the concessionaires to manage the silos appropriately, holding the nutritional value of the grains of utmost importance.

    Read Also: Buhari presides over valedictory FEC

    “We have a problem with aflatoxin and it is getting worse with rising temperatures,” he notified.

    “So when storing your grains, spray them with Aflasafe and store them in jute bags as polypropylene bags are against national and international safety regulation,” he advised.

    Permanent Secretary of the FMARD, Dr. Abdulkadir Mu’azu, represented by the Director, Strategic Grain Reserve, Mr. Haruna Sule, congratulated the concessionaires who scaled through a thorough process selection, adding that the program will increase private sector participation in agriculture and attract investment into the sector.

    The Concessionaires comprise of the companies: Agro Universal Consortium, Matrixville Consortium, Flour Mills Limited, Ebony Agro Industries Limited, Neon Farms Africa Consortium, and Coscharis Farms Limited.

     

     

  • Ogbeh tasks farmers on use of quality seeds

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh says there is need for farmers to use quality seeds to enable their crops grow better.

    Ogbeh, represented by Mr Quadri Olalekan, gave the advice during a walk on Thursday in Abuja, organised ahead of the second edition of the Seed Connect Conference scheduled for between April 15 and April 16.

    The walk, tagged “Quality Seed’’ road walk was organised by the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) to create awareness on the need for farmers to patronise registered seed companies for their seedlings.

    “It is important that farmer shun poor seed and get seed from certified vendors and we can guaranty them good produce,’’ Ogbeh said.

    According to him, the ministry will provide every support needed to ensure that the perpetrators of fake seeds face prosecution under the seed law.

    Also, the Director-General, NASC, Dr Philip Ojo reiterated the need for farmers to patronise registered seed companies for bumper harvest.

    He, however, issued warning to fake seed merchants to desist from such act or risk being prosecuted if caught.

    Read Also: FG to re-construct grazing reserves – Ogbeh

    According to Ojo, the 2019 Seed Connect Conference will bring together stakeholders from across and outside the country to deliberate on ways to strengthen the seed sector and provide solutions to some of their challenges.

    He called on farmers and stakeholders to make judicious use of the golden opportunity by coming to learn how seed business was done in other countries to increase their production.

    Dr Rose Gidado, Country Director, Open Forum for Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB), said it is necessary for farmers to adopt the use of improved technology to ensure that they got increased production of food across the country.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the road walk commenced from the Federal Secretariat to the Federal Ministry Of Agriculture, with stakeholders displaying different placards with different messages.

    NAN

     

  • Governors as gremlins

    The original title of this piece is: ‘Hardball raps governors-elect.’ But I quickly cringed from it when it occurred to me that I came to this world seeing this headline on the pages of good old Daily Times in the 70s. Some titles are like the Rock of Gibraltar, they are constant and permanent. Editors, (poor souls) would pick a handy headline as if it were a high street damsel and throw it in the mix. This is in the wee hours of production when the cranium is heated up and the gray matter is in a semi-addled state.

    Of course Hardball is not about to rap any state governor or toast him; far from it. He is about to slam them; to give ’em hell, to say it like the Yankees. To say that state governors are the bane of Nigeria is to write cheat tripe. Our governors are actually grey gremlins swarming in the system and impeding motion.

    And they are like children of the wayward wench; hardly any of them has managed to show some exceptionality; hardly.

    The other day, Mr Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said governors were not interested in agriculture. He noted that initiatives from the federal level slump and dissipate when they get to the states.

    He pointed at the farm settlements set up by founding fathers like Awolowo and Okpara which lay waste across the country. It won’t cost much for states to revive these wasting assets, Ogbeh laments. The same way they won’t revive industries littering their domain; not even educational and health institutions which were hitherto pride of their localities have been kept at the world standards they were.

    In other words, Ogbeh is accusing governors of not being creative or imaginative. It means they are not interested in either improving or diversifying their economic base. Most of them only collect federal allocation and local taxes and set about on a binge of squandermania.

    But let us assume that they have an acute inability to think and produce, but they can at least deploy the resources at their disposal with a bit of commonsense. But it seems they cannot. Here are some reasons:

    Annual budget: in most states, the ritual of making financial projections is actually what it is, ritual. Immediately the motion of passing it through the Assembly has been concluded, there it ends. Nobody refers to that document ever again till the next budgeting cycle. Most states’ funds are disbursed at the whims of the governor; hardly according to budget.

    Local government administration: governors in Nigeria deliberately emasculate the LGAs. Result: emasculated country.

    What more can we say!

  • Ogbeh appeals for speedy clearing of agricultural export in ports

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has appealed to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to ensure speedy evacuation and clearing of agricultural produce for export.

    Ogbeh made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

    He was reacting to current delay in evacuation of cashew nuts worth 300 million dollars for export to Vietnam.

    He described the situation as disturbing.

    The minister said the development negated the Federal Government’s desire to make the country an exporting nation.

    “It has been brought to our notice that cashew nuts worth 300 million dollars destined for export to Vietnam have been stuck in Lagos.

    “And as we know, they are usually locked in containers at high temperatures and if these cashew nuts remain there for too long, they get spoil and that is extremely disturbing.

    “It has happened before and this also compromises our desire to become an exporting nation so we are very concerned.

    “We have spoken to the Ports Authority Managing Director and she told us that she will make every effort to do something about it.

    “We are appealing to them, to see what they can do to speedily evacuate this product,’’ he said.

    Ogbeh explained that the long term solution to delay in the export of cashew is to stop the exportation of raw nuts.

    “The solution to delay in the export of cashew is to stop the exportation of raw nuts.
    We must begin to add value to the commodity by processing it before eventual export,” he said.

    Read also: Importers are greatest wreckers, says Ogbeh

    According to him, the ministry is working to organise credit for would be processors to enable them process the cashew so that the business of selling raw nuts would be totally eliminated.

    “We are discussing this with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and with any other agency that will support our initiative,” he said.

    Corroborating, Mr Tola Faseru, the National President, National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) told NAN that the development would become a disaster if not addressed quickly.

    Faseru who commended Ogbeh for responding swiftly to the woes of the exporters, said the development is due to the ports inefficiency.

    According to him, this is a big problem for cashew exporters because we are in the season now and this portends a great danger to us.

    “We want to thank the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development who himself is a cashew stakeholder for showing concern.

    “It shows his genuineness to ensure that agriculture is taken to the next level. We hope that his concerns will bring a change very quickly if not, there will be disaster.

    “The road to the port is so bad to the extent that containers are tripping off on the road.

    “For almost one month, trucks are still on their way without entering the ports and they are carrying goods that have tendency to perish as well as deterioration in quality.

    “It is so sad and killing and not much fund is being made available to exporters. Thank God for NEXIM Bank that is showing sensitivity to get money to exporters now,’’ he said.

    He also appealed NPA to do everything within it power to ensure that the cashew nuts get to their destination without further delay.(NAN)