From Kayemo News
Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has said that
finding crude oil in Nigeria was the beginning of the country’s misfortune.
He stated this in Lagos at the weekend at the Africa Methodist Council Heads of Conference Summit and Women’s Movement Leadership Summit, where he was the Chairman of the public lecture.
He said, “One of the things that was a little bit of misfortune in Nigeria is crude oil. We were drinking and sleeping oil, and it was a misfortune for us. It made us to abandon agriculture. Oil is a waste asset. Agriculture is renewable. We have to go back to it.
“We have to give something to our youths who are becoming restive, frustrated and dangerous.
“If we are going to curb that, it is giving them education, skills, empowerment and employment. If we don’t, they will soon come to attack us in our homes in the daytime, and it is a matter of time.
“Even food, we don’t produce enough. We spend over $20bn to import food. 60 per cent of arable land is not cultivated. The one cultivated is not used to maximum capacity. We need leaders who will lead us to the promised land.”
Advising up-and-coming politicians, he said it was a pity most politicians took politics as a profession without any backup plan.
He said, “Politicians are a different kettle of fish. They have to be in the world and be to some extent of the world.
“You must not be a professional politician. Politics is one profession you go into without any training. You can wake up today and say you are a politician.
“If you are going to be a successful politician you must have an alternative to being a politician, another means of livelihood
“When I was President, because I had to listen to my party and they wanted to push me in the way I should not go, I always told them, ‘Look! My farm is there. Take your job. I go back to my farm.’
“Some politicians have no second address. That is a great pity. A politician who has no second address will stand for anything. He has no principle, morality, dos and don’ts.” {The Punch}
