Written by Baba JFO
Professor Francis Idachaba, a world renowned agricultural economist recently, succumbed to death. The teacher of teachers as he was usually referred by his peers, was a man of unimpeachable character. The late erudite scholar was a good study in hardwork, integrity, perseverance, focus and commitment to ideals.
He doesn’t believe in short-cuts to wealth and can shout to high heavens that his wealth is the result of his sweat. In fact, reading through his life story, one is bound to believe that hardwork and integrity pays.
“My own experience shows that even as an academic, if one works extremely hard and shuns premature politics, God will surprise one with material rewards beyond one’s wildest dreams,” he was quoted as saying.
An Igala man born over 69 years ago in Idah, in present day Kogi State, Idachaba has been a role model for academics, especially those among them who think the only way to be comfortable in life is to leave the academic world and take public office and thereafter start dipping their fingers into the public till.
Born to Baba Idachaba Idoko, a potato farmer, and Aya Salome Idachaba, a smoked fish seller, in December 1943, Francis was made to know early in life that there is no substitute to hardwork from his mother who used to trek long distances to as far as Ibaji to sell smoked fish and come back same day.
So from her, Francis learnt the attributes of industry, discipline, routine, focus and staying put in one trade.
From his father, who died when he was 18, he imbibed the spirit of humility, simplicity and fear of God which have all been part of him till his demise.
After elementary education at Qua Iboe Mission Primary School in Idah, Francis gained admission into the Provincial Secondary School, Okene in 1956, where he passed out in 1961 with a Grade One in the WASC.
It was at the end of his fourth year in the school that he decided on studying Economics in the university, a decision that has turned out to be divine. Thus, when he proceeded for HSC at Kings College, Lagos in 1962, he entered for Economics, Geography and
History. And in his usual tradition of burning the midnight oil very well, he came out with distinction in all three subjects in 1963.
Armed with this, he got admitted into the University of Ibadan, his dream university, for Economics in 1964 using the Northern Nigeria Government Scholarship. Apart from this, he won the university scholarship at the end of his first year and came out with a Second Class Upper in 1967.
Even though he got a job at Lever Brothers immediately after graduation, his love for academics didn’t allow him stay too long. He only spent three months after which he left for his Master’s degree, also in Economics, at the University of Chicago, USA on Rockefeller Foundation Scholarship. This he finished in 1969 and immediately after, enrolled for his Ph.D, this time, in Agricultural Economics at the Michigan State University, East Lansing , USA, which he bagged in 1972 and immediately returned to Nigeria.
He had been given employment as Lecturer II since March 1972, seven months before the completion of his Ph.D programme. He joined the services of the University of Ibadan immediately on return and there started for him a career in academics, a career that has been richly fulfilling and rewarding for him in spite of the thinking out there that people in academics can never be wealthy.
Since it was a profession that he loved, Idachaba threw himself totally at his work. It was thus a befitting testimony to his hardwork and commitment that by 1974, he had been promoted to Lecturer 1, and a year later, to Senior Lecturer. By 1977, he was already a Reader (Associate Professor) and became a full professor in 1981 at the age of 38.
Dissatisfied with agricultural practices in Nigeria and desirous of making a change, he made up his mind that he was going to be communicating the results of his research to policy makers. So, as soon as he published a paper on the application of the theory of second-best to crop taxes and farm input subsidies in Nigeria in the Nigerian Journal of Economics and Social Studies, he forwarded copies of the paper to Alhaji M. Liman, then Assistant Director, Federal Department of Agriculture, explaining in simple language what the paper was all about. The Assistant Director acknowledged receipt and wrote that he looked forward to further communication from him.
This fired in him the enthusiasm to be reaching out to policy makers and thus in 1975, he wrote a proposal to the same Alhaji Liman, who had then become the Director of the Department. The proposal got approval from the federal government for funding that same year and this marked for him, the beginning of consultancy work which has stretched till his death. On getting the fund, he went to work immediately. By July 1976, the work had been completed and a major report was submitted to the FDA. The success recorded by this work was the door-opener for him at the Ministry, as he went on to do very many other consultancy works for them and even the Federal Ministry of Economic Development.
Of all the research consultancies he did for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, yet the biggest one was that of the Survey of Rural Infrastructure in Nigeria, which was another huge success. The survey commenced in 1978 and was finished in 1981, after which it was decided that the result of the research be presented to the world. Thus an international workshop was held at the Conference Centre, University of Ibadan in December 1981, where it was presented to a world audience.
With the successes recorded in these consultancy works, Idachaba had become a goldfish both in Nigeria and around the world, and the gold fish has no hiding place. There was great recognition both nationally and internationally, to the extent that he was constantly being invited to conferences and workshops and called upon to serve in one international body or the other. These include: Visiting Researcher at the International Food Policy Institute, Washington DC, USA; Senior Planning Consultant at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation; Consultant to the Sasakawa Global 2000 Carter Centre; Resident Fellow, Rockefeller Foundation Study and Conference Centre, Bellagio, Italy; Consultancy for the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada; Guest Lecturer, World Bank Annual Symposium; Consultant to Word Health Organization and Deputy Director General at the International Service for National Agricultural Research, The Hague, The Netherlands, where he served for eight years.
Among his numerous services to the nation, he was the Head, Federal Agricultural Co-coordinating Unit, FACU, a position he reluctantly took in 1984 and which he relinquished in 1986; Pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, where he served from 1988 to 1995, and the Vice-Chancellor, Kogi State University from 2005 to 2008. In all of these public offices it is to be noted that he never lobbied to be appointed, neither did he take it without somebody important piling pressure on him to take it. And throughout the tenure of General Ibrahim Babangida as Military President, he was one of the advisers to him as member of the Presidential Advisory Committee, PAC. As the adviser in charge of agriculture in the PAC, he it was that brought the idea for the establishment of Directorate for Roads and Rural Infrastructure, DFRRI; National Agricultural Land Development Authority, NALDA; the establishment of private universities as well as universities of Agriculture.
Baba JFO, teaches Theatre Arts at the Kogi State University, Ayingba.
