Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria, claimed on Saturday, July 22, that everything about him, including his ascension to the positions of military Head of State and Nigerian President, came about by coincidence.
Before being elected as a civilian President in 1999, Obasanjo served as the Head of State of the military. He claimed that he chose to be a farmer rather than becoming one by accident.
Obasanjo said he was always proud to be referred to as a farmer during a live radio interview with Segun Odegbami on Eagles7 Sports 103.7 FM, Abeokuta, on Saturday.
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Odegbami had urged Obasanjo to talk about his “relationship with farming,” as he put it.
In response, the former president said;
I don’t like the word you used, ‘romance with farming’. I am a farmer. What do you mean by romance. Everything I have done in my life is by accident. The only thing that is not accidental is farming. Every other thing that I’ve been is by accident. And you called that romance? No! What do you mean by romance?
You know my beginning. I was born and bred in a village. I went to school by accident. My father just said, ‘won’t you do something different?’ So I went into farming.
When you look at countries that have made it, they developed on agriculture. First, for the purpose of food security; second, for the purpose of processing what they get from their farms, which is the beginning of industrialisation. Third, to give it out as export, which is for the purpose of foreign exchange; and fourth, as a means of generating employment for the youth.
Advice To Youths
Meanwhile, Obasanjo advised Nigerian youths to take over leadership positions right now.
Obasanjo said youths should not allow anyone to address them as leaders of tomorrow, saying the tomorrow may never come.
Obasanjo said some corrupt leaders would destroy the so-called tomorrow if the younger generation failed to rise up and take their future in their hands.
He said;
My advice for Nigerian youths is that, never let anybody tell you that you are the leaders of tomorrow. If you wait for tomorrow before you take over leadership, that tomorrow may not come. They will destroy it.
This is the time, youths get up and make it happen.
