“The discovery of oil in different parts of Nigeria was, to some extent, a misfortune for the country”– OBJ
By Olawale Lamina
At the 2024 Africa Methodist Council of Heads of conference summit and Women’s Movement Leadership summit, which held Lekki, Lagos State, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a commercial farmer) said that the huge expenditure on food imports to the country is not unconnected with the nation’s inability to produce adequate food to feed Nigeria’s ever- increasing population.
Obasanjo, who was the chairman of the conference’s public lecture with theme: Leadership in a Volatile, Uncertain and Ambiguous, VULCA, World, noted that the country’s annual spending of $20 billion on food imports can be jerked down significantly by taking advantage of farming opportunities in the over 80 per cent arable lands in the country.
He lamented that the country, despite her potential could barely produce sufficient foods for its citizens. He observed that there was a shift of focus on Agriculture after the discovery of crude oil.
Obasanjo explained that, “We spend almost $20 billion annually to import food in a country where we still beat our chest and say 80 per cent of our arable land is not yet cultivated. The area that is cultivated is not used to maximum capacity. We need leaders who will lead us to the Promised Land.
“The discovery of oil in different parts of Nigeria was, to some extent, a misfortune for the country. Oil made Nigerians to abandon agriculture, and oil is a wasting asset, which can finish any day. But agriculture is renewable.
“We have to go back to agriculture. I believe that if we need to have anything to bring employment to our teaming population which is becoming restive, frustrated and dangerous; if we are going to curb that, it is giving them skills, empowerment and employment. If we don’t, they will soon come to attack us in our homes in daytime, and that will be a matter of time.”
On his part, the conference keynote speaker and General Secretary of World Methodist Council, Dr. Ivan Abraham, stated that Africa required quality leadership to bring all its citizens together and protect the weak and vulnerable.
He argued that the litmus test for any government policy is to ascertain to what extent it could protect the most vulnerable.
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