A long and distinguished career in the private sector as well as a successful record as Minister of Agriculture for six years qualifies him to be the next National Chairman of the PDP, Dan Iyan Adamawa Malam Adamu Bello said in Abuja yesterday.
He spoke at Media Trust's Corporate Office, where he paid a visit. Bello is one of the contestants for PDP's national chairmanship, which has been zoned to the North East. He said, "I studied at the Ahmadu Bello University, Pittsburgh and Harvard Universities. I was a bank Deputy Managing Director, Managing Director and Chairman for a total 12 years. I was one of the 9 persons who transformed the Lagos Stock Exchange into Nigeria Stock Exchange. I have worked with all the top doyens of the private sector, including Alhaji Babatunde Jose, Chief Moshood Abiola, Dr. Pius Okigbo, General Shehu Yar'adua, Chief Jerome Udoji, Alhaji Ibrahim Damcida, Chief Ogunbanjo, Mohamed Hayatudeen, Malam Musa Bello and Mr. Fola Adeola. I was a director of BEWAC when Akintola Williams, the doyen of accountancy profession in Nigeria, was the chairman."
On his public sector experience, Bello said, "I served in the Obasanjo administration for six years. As Minister of Agriculture, I got to know Nigerians very well because 60 percent of Nigerians are farmers.
"I was able to move agriculture from a 3% to an 8% growth rate. We were able to move many commodities including cocoa, cassava, palm oil, ground nuts, grain and rubber.
"I served on the boards of Food and Agriculture Organisation [FAO] and IFAD. I was able to bring Nigerian farmers to form one umbrella body, led by Admiral Murtala Nyako. I worked with at least 150 other ministers in two Obasanjo terms, including General T.Y. Danjuma, Chief Tony Anenih and Malam Adamu Ciroma.
"I worked with many state governors in committees, and I headed one committee in which all state deputy governors were members."
The former minister also spoke about his experience in the party, saying he had been a PDP member since its inception. He said he was a member of General Shehu Yar'adua's Peoples' Front [PF] and actually wrote its economic program, and that PF was one of the major groups that later formed PDP.
He also said he served PDP in the most sensitive capacity as the only minister who was a member of its National Campaign Council in 2007.
Asked what he will do to improve PDP's image in the eyes of Nigerians if he becomes the chairman, Malam Adamu Bello said, "I see PDP much like the ANC. ANC was a broad alliance that fought apartheid while PDP was a broad coalition formed to ease the military out of power. Now that the soldiers are gone, other problems have come forward. If I am elected as chairman, my solution to them is simple, which is to uphold and apply PDP's motto of justice, unity and progress."
DailyTrust