Bitter leaf is another poignant reminder that Nigeria will not get off her knees until the oil dries up

By Ayo Akinfe 

[1] As we all wait for President Muhammadu Buhari to name his cabinet some four months after being elected, I for one cannot wait to see who gets appointed agriculture minister

[2] Unfortunately, neither the APC or the PDP has any coherent agricultural policy, so, how far we proceed will depend on the dynamism, intellect and vision of who is made minister. If we get someone like Akinwunmi Adesina, we will see initiatives but if we get someone like Audu Ogbeh again, very little will happen

[3] In a mature democracy, the future agriculture minister would have been working closely with the presidential candidate on policy during election time, so after President Buhari was declared the winner, it would just be a case of this person implementing what was already their programme. By now, we would already have had one or two policy announcements 

[4] it looks like in 2019, we are going to start from scratch. Whoever is appointed as agriculture minister will likely spend the first year forming committees, holding seminars and talking at workshops in a bid to come up with a policy framework. By the time the programme gets going, it will election time again

[5] Now, this plant here is called Vernonia amygdalina, popularly known as Bitter Leaf. Locally, it is known as Ewuro (Yoruba), Etidot (Ibibio), Onugbu (Igbo), Ityuna (Tiv), Oriwo (Edo), Chusar-doki (Hausa). Guess who the world's number one producer is ? You got it right - Nigeria! 

[6] I have searched for statistics on the crop but alas, we do not even have data on how many tonnes we produce a year. That should be one of the first tasks of our new agriculture minister. We should open an Agriculture Statistics Office that keeps data on how many tonnes of every crop we produce

[7] A serious agriculture minister would be using this data to woo pharmaceutical and food processing forms to Nigeria. For instance, how many of them know that Nigeria is the world's number one producer of egusi, cocoyam, kolanuts, yam, shea nuts, cassava, cashews and bitter leaf? We are also in the world's top 10 of numerous other crops like cocoa, palm oil, pineapples, plantain, millet, sorghum, gum arabic, etc

[8] Do you know that in the wild, chimpanzees have been observed to ingest bitter leaf when suffering from parasitic infections? Does this mean it can be a cure for infections? Why are we not examining this in laboratories across Nigeria? Can someone please explain to me why one university has not undertaken to examine this

[9] Researchers say eating more of bitter leaf soup could be the panacea for diabetes, cancer, liver damage, drug resistant microbial infections and promotes safe childbirth, to mention but a few. The roots and leaves of bitter leaf have been shown to increase uterine contraction and motility for safer childbirth. Now, Nigeria has the highest incidence of deaths from birth in the world, yet we are the largest producer of the plant that can make a drug to prevent it. Our head correct so?

[10] As of now, we are not thinking about any of this at all, as our minds are solely focused on crude oil. I for one cannot wait for that oil to dry up. When that happens, we will see the true potential of Nigeria unleashed