By Adekeye Adebajo

Babagana Ahmadu, the Representative of the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Pretoria, recently died on a flight to Newark en route to Atlanta. Unlike many overcautious UN bureaucrats who unconsciously cut the figure of a “glorified nobody,” Babagana was a man of passion and ideas who also ran a farm in his volatile northeastern Nigerian hometown of Maiduguri. He was a practical man who literally liked to get his hands dirty.
 
Before coming to South Africa in 2023, in an 18-year career, Babagana had been FAO Representative in Namibia, Gambia, and Sudan: fittingly for a dyed-in-the wool Pan-African, he had covered Southern, West, and Eastern Africa. In Addis Ababa – the capital of African diplomacy – he also worked as the first ever
Director for Rural Economy and Agriculture in the African Union (AU) Commission under the leadership of former Malian president, Alpha Konaré (2003-2007). Babagana’s dedicated service to FAO in Gambia was acknowledged when he was awarded the Insignia of Commander of the National Order of the Republic on his departure in 2013, with the country’s leader, Yahya Jammeh, also praising his “unprecedented” achievements during his five-year tenure.

Tirelessly traversing rural communities in Gambia, Babagana sought particularly to build infrastructure to support sustainable vegetation production; to increase the productive capacity of women farmers in vegetable farming and fish processing; and to improve storage facilities. In Sudan, he prioritised food security, climate change, and alleviating the deleterious impacts of internal conflicts, at a time, in 2022, when FAO was providing life-saving assistance to more than 2.5 million vulnerable Sudanese.

His main concern was always the most vulnerable groups: women, children, herders, and rural farmers who struggled to acquire funding, technologies, markets, and agricultural inputs.

Babagana was also particularly concerned with building the capacity of smallholder farmers, agro-pastoralists, and pastoralists whom he noted produced a third of Sudan’s food. His criticisms were always discreet and constructive, earning the confidence and trust of the African governments with which he worked closely. His intelligence, conviviality, and roaring laughter, often helped win people over. 
 
Babagana was also totally devoted to education and constant self-improvement. He obtained his doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in the northern Nigerian metropolitan city of Zaria (with its highly regarded Faculty of Agriculture), before completing another doctorate in the same field from the University of Zambia. He was awarded a Master’s degree in Tropical Animal Production and Health by the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and later taught as a Lecturer in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Maiduguri. 
 
Babagana was always keen to combine his extensive academic training with practical contributions on the ground, working as a Livestock Development Officer at the Livestock Credit Unit of the Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative and Rural Development Bank  (NACRDB) in Nigeria’s northern city of Kaduna.

A patriot to the core, we often discussed the political and socio-economic travails of our Nigerian homeland, with the utterly “detribalized” Babagana always urging that we remain optimistic. He was plugged into much of Nigeria’s northern political establishment, a few members of which he informally advised. A devout Muslim, he would excuse himself to pray before meetings in his office or during meals in restaurants.    
 
Babagana was incredibly supportive of my work, regularly attending our seminars. When I needed senior UN officials to speak at an event at the University of  Pretoria  last October commemorating “The UN at 80” – through which we sought to inspire students to pursue careers in international diplomacy –  he not only enthusiastically agreed to talk, but also persuaded his Kenyan colleague, Jane Mary Ongolo, Representative of the Regional Office in Southern Africa of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), to join the panel. Babagana would also purchase my books to disseminate to senior African politicians, whom he felt needed to read more.

During our last meal together a few months ago at a Johannesburg restaurant, he looked forward to his impending retirement, part-time consultancies, and farming. He also expressed disappointment at the lack of new thinking in his field, and the constant regurgitation of old ideas.
 
In his last three-year post, Babagana clearly left his mark on South Africa, while also contributing to food security in 14 other Southern African countries. He worked closely with national and provincial governments across South Africa to improve the livelihoods of farming communities through policy, capacity-building, and technical cooperation. He delivered the keynote address on tackling global hunger at a 2023 International Conference and Summit on Social Justice in Cape Town.

He supported South Africa’s Group of 20 (G20) Food Security Task Force during its 2024/2025 presidency. Just five months ago, Babagana co-hosted a FAO workshop with South Africa’s Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and Environment on Urban Aquaculture Development, which sought to craft policies to improve sustainable urban and peri-urban agriculture.
 
On learning about Babagana’s passing, Nobuhle Nkabane, the Acting chair of South Africa’s parliamentary portfolio committee on Agriculture, asked her fellow legislators to observe a moment of reflection, before noting: “Dr Ahmadu dedicated his career to advancing sustainable agriculture, strengthening food systems and supporting initiatives aimed at improving food security and rural development….His contribution to these efforts will be remembered with gratitude.”

Professor Adebajo is a senior research fellow at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship in South Africa.