Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed that the agricultural sector was a prime target for government officials in the past to steal the country’s fund.
Obasanjo stated this in Ibadan in Oyo State at the first eminent persons business lecture organised by the University of Ibadan’s School of Business and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture.
Obasanjo further noted that agriculture has what it takes to sustain the nation’s economy if fully utilized.
He added that the current drop in oil price was a wake-up call for the present administration
Obasanjo said: “In the past, the bane of agriculture in Nigeria was lack of continuity and consistency in government policy. Maybe the present situation in which we find ourselves in our economy and the low price of crude oil may be a blessing in disguise to wake us to the reality of agriculture as the mainstay of our economy, and as a renewable system of production compared with oil and gas which are being depleted.
“Let me emphasise that while agriculture cannot be practised without government support in terms of good policy and incentive, government as a direct producer has never worked and it will never work in agriculture.
“Where in recent time government leaders have made government to go into agricultural production, it has been with ulterior motive for stealing. I have seen a poultry house of a state government with two-week-old birds on the floor and the floor is as clean as if you have not put anything there; there was no water dropping or any waste.
“It was designed by the governor of the state for the purpose of stealing and he stole. That must not continue to happen.”