Don’t Go Into Farming If You Want To Be An Aliko Dangote – Obasanjo

Former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has declared agriculture to be a serious and demanding industry.

However, he claims that scholars, financial institutions, and the government have been unfair to individuals in the agriculture industry, conspiring to victimize them.

Further, Obasanjo stated that anyone who wishes to make money like Aliko Dangote should avoid the agricultural business due to the risks involved, claiming that Dangote himself tried but failed.

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According to news reports, the former President spoke in Lagos while delivering the keynote talk at the Agribusiness Investors’ Network, which was organized by the Innovative Youth in Agriculture (I-Youth) in collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Mastercard Foundation.

He bemoaned farmers’ inability to obtain long-term financing from financial institutions, claiming that no farmer can survive and profit by taking out double-digit bank loans unless he or she is growing cocaine.

He said: “As a farmer, will you go and take a loan at 20 percent? Unless you are growing cocaine, you can’t survive. I know that I will not take a loan that is more than double digit because there is nothing I can grow that will make it. If we are here and talking from now till tomorrow, we cannot achieve anything.

“Agric business is a serious business. There is virtually no business as serious, as engaging and demanding as agriculture. If you want to be an Aliko Dangote, don’t go into farming because you will not make it.

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“Aliko tried that and he didn’t make it until he went into cement production. What we are trying to do here is to correct the injustice that has been done to the farmers in the past and I hope that injustice will be corrected because the researchers, the financial institutions and the government have all victimised the farmers.

“Farmers have been the victims from all of you and it is not that all of you are not doing enough. I am close enough to IITA to know that the research works to achieve a great drive in agriculture in Nigeria and the rest of Africa, but how much of it goes to these farmers? Of what use or purpose is good research that is locked up in the shelves of research institutions?

“The third group that victimised us as farmers, is the government. They speak from both sides of the mouth. They say something today and a different thing tomorrow. So how can you do business successfully?”

Chief Obasanjo went on to underline the need of getting the younger generation involved in farming and agriculture, stating that it is time for the younger generation to take over from the older generation.

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Obasanjo declared that the youngest farmer in his village, his cousin, is 75 years old and wondered, “How do we replace them?”

“We need to see agriculture as being less of talk and more of action, timely action, right actions. Whatever you are doing in agriculture requires action and attention.

“Agriculture is a serious business that requires commitment, funding, reasonable cost, right and appropriate inputs, beginning from seeds. It requires stability and predictability,” he added.

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