Nigeria’s former President and Military ruler, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has attributed his successes in life, including his emergence as both military Head of State and President of Nigeria as achievements that fell on his laps by sheer luck and not through hard work.
He however added that his becoming a renowned farmer is perhaps the only thing he could probably say he achieved by himself with the grace of God.
Obasanjo disclosed this on Saturday in a live radio interview with Segun Odegbami on Eagles7 Sports 103.7 FM, Abeokuta, where he noted that he feels proud to be addressed as a farmer. During the call-in programme, Odegbami had asked Obasanjo to speak about what he termed his “romance with farming.”
In response, Obasanjo 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?”
He continued, “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.”
The former president who is popularly referred to as OBJ went on to advise Nigerian youths on the need for them to start putting themselves in vantage positions for leadership roles in the country. He emphasised that youths should not allow anyone to address them as leaders of tomorrow, saying the tomorrow may never come.
He stated, “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.”
