Mrs. Abiodun Cheke is one of the most sought after fishery experts in the world. She was in the Department of Fisheries for 33 years. She rose to become Deputy Director, Department of Fishery. She moved into private practice after retirement and has been a Fishery Consultant, High Profile Fish Farmer and Marketer. Her expertise has been sought after by the United Nations and other world bodies. She is currently consulting for the government of Norway through the Norwegian Seafood Council. City People’s KELECHI OKORIE spoke with how about her experience in the industry.
What informed your passion for Fishery?
Well, I am from the riverine area of Niger-Delta. My village is surrounded by water. My paternal grandmother’s village was surrounded by water, so as I was born into a water environment, right from my childhood, we remember playing with water, collecting sea crabs, land crabs by the water and I grew up leaving in Ikoyi, going to Ikoyi park in those days before it became a residential area. I remember collecting crabs. I have always been interested in fishery. My first degree was zoology at the University of Lagos and I majored in Fisheries. My project was on fisheries and grading of mullet in Lagos Lagoon. From there, I went to the University of Reading in the UK for my M.Sc. in Agricultural Economic. And from there, I moved into fish trade. I was the head of division in charge of fish trade in Nigeria Import and Export Quality Assurance for many years before I retired.
What was your experience in government for 33 years?
Sweet and bitter. The government comes and goes but civil service is continuous and most of the political office holders and minsters get it wrong. Most of them fail to achieve anything in the ministry because they go there and they don’t understand the logistics of what civil service and professionalism is all about and this is still the bane of the problem today. The minster comes into the ministry and he does not even want to find out from professionals what and what the villagers need. Projects should be bottom-up. You don’t go choke things on people and think that is what the common man wants. You must ask them, what do you need? You can’t just say the government wants to diversify through agriculture and everybody is growing. Who is buying? If you eat everything you produce at home, are you going to get the needed foreign exchange? We should start talking of quality assurance of our agricultural produce, right from the time we put them into the soil. Right from the time we dig the fish pond, we should talk of quality assurance of the land, of the water and when you go along the value chain, we should still mention quality assurance.
What was the seminar by the Norwegian Seafood Council that you coordinated all about?
The seminar was about preventing pests and other contaminants in fish food we have in Nigeria and the ones that are being imported into Nigeria.
At what point did you start consulting for the Norwegian Food Council?
I retired from service in 2016 and from there, I was lucky to have the chance to work with them.
Why Norway? Was there any link?
Well, as I said, they sought me out. They needed my help at that time. They came looking for me and I saw that they were upright. They came looking for me because they wanted to do the correct fish business in Nigeria. And they said to me, madam we know you don’t cut corners and you are very honest and you are truthful and in spite of being truthful, you were once victimized in the Ministry of Agriculture by the one-time minister. And I said yes.
Can you tell us a little bit about the victimization?
Yes. This particular minister came that everybody thought he was good but he forgot professionalism and brought in his girlfriend into the department of fishery to supersede some of us that were senior to the lady. The lady did not know anything. In fact, she set back the federal department of fishery by 15 years. By the time the minister realized that he goofed, he spent almost 2 hours in the conference room abusing this lady, calling her all sorts of names. He made a mistake but the good think about him is that he realized that he made a mistake and he apologized and started to turn the table around but you know, what is spoilt, takes time to redo.
What impact have you made as a consultant for the Norwegian Food Council?
Well. I will say I have made a lot of impacts. They do things correctly. They make sure that customers and importers that buy from them have the correct documents like the fish license, that they meet the custom requirements and that they pay the correct duty. I have been able to stop illegal fish exports via Cotonou, from Norway to Nigeria. I have made sure that fish imports that come from Norway to Nigeria come through the Nigerian port and that those involved pay the correct duty. I have also made sure that right from Norway; they give us products that they also eat in Norway. No cutting corners. I also make sure that importer does not bring in contaminated fish. And at the same time, I have found some importers there, who are interested in the Nigerian shrimps and prawns. They have started buying from Nigeria because I believe, trade is reciprocal. So, we buy from them and they also buy from us.
What about corporate social responsibility?
For the past three years, I have made sure that there is some bit of social responsibility being done by the Norwegian Seafood Council to Nigerians. One of them is what we have today as the seminar. Yesterday, we started the training of some Nigerian chefs on the Norwegian cuisine and the Nigerian cuisine. They sponsored everything. Every program we do is free. For the past 2 years, we have had to take some people to Norway, all free of charge to see the way it is processed and we will continue to take more because we need to understand the fish. You need to know that this stockfish cannot grow in Nigeria water. This stockfish is not dried the way we dry our fish in Nigeria. It is dried with climatic conditions and very healthy. You heard today that they fishes authority closes down every business that does not meet the EU requirement. We also want to see if the various officers in Nigeria that are in charge of license will understand what it takes to do their work religiously even to the point that they could be victimized for being honest. No civil servant should be punished for refusing to give license for animal feeds because this animal feeds get to Nigeria and get into the market as human food. Norway does not produce stockfish as animal feeds. I think I have achieved a lot the period I have consulted for them.
Has the Nigerian government assisted the industry?
I think the government really, really need to assist the Nigerian exporters more. What they could do for the importers is to facilitate fast service. Each government officer involved in the trade business should do what is right and in time. The ease of business in Nigeria should be improved. What takes 2 days or 40 days to do in Nigeria, only takes only two hours in Norway, other European countries and America. Here you still have government officers, still keeping files and delaying. And the ports should be made easily assessable.
What can we learn from Norway?
I think we can learn honesty, ease of doing business, the pride of the country because as you have heard today, where safety is concerned, they don’t mince words and they don’t just go and close facilities, they tell you what you have done wrong. Honesty is the key to trade. So, I think Nigerians need to learn that from Norway. Their facilities are very clean. A lot of facilities in Nigeria are now maintaining their cold rooms and premises. So, we need to assist them in do that.
