‘Nigeria has no business with poverty’ — Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says Nigeria has no justification to be poor, blaming the country’s persistent poverty partly on policies that encourage imports at the expense of local production.

Obasanjo said Nigeria has the land, water, rainfall and human resources needed to produce enough to meet its needs and create wealth.

The former president spoke during an interview on C-Suite Cafe, hosted by Ikem Okuhu.

“Give me one reason why Nigeria should be poor. Is it the land that we don’t have or the desert that we are in or the people that we don’t have or the water that we don’t have or the rain that we don’t have?” he said.

Obasanjo cited his experience during his tenure as chairman of the African Union, when he travelled to Guinea-Bissau with John Kufuor, then chairman of the Economic Community of West African States.

According to him, the two leaders observed that the country had abundant agricultural resources but relied on imported food.

He recalled seeing bananas and other fruits growing naturally as they approached Guinea-Bissau, but said they were served imported apples and grapes at their hotel.

“That’s part of the reason why we are poor,” Obasanjo said, arguing that African countries should take advantage of their agricultural potential rather than depend heavily on imports.

The former president also recalled Nigeria’s decision to restrict rice imports in 1979, saying the policy was intended to encourage local production.

He said agricultural officials had inspected rice farms before the military government left office and reported that the country was on course to achieve self-sufficiency.

Obasanjo said the policy was later reversed by succeeding administrations, which lifted restrictions on rice imports.

“When our successors came, one of the first things they did was to lift importation of rice, not to encourage production of rice but to encourage importation of rice, and the farmers couldn’t sell their own rice,” he said.