Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, on Thursday took a critical look at Nigeria’s growing agricultural sector, while attending a national conference in his home state.
Chief Obasanjo at his best, proffered solutions that may save the country from an eminent disaster.
He also urged Nigerian banks to invest more in the agricultural sector for increased productivity and food security.
Chief Obasanjo made the call in Abeokuta at the 2019 Annual Conference of the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria (ACAEBIN).
The theme of the three-day conference is “Banking in the Digital Age: Opportunities And Challenges”.
Obasanjo, who noted that Nigeria’s population was growing at a faster rate than its agricultural sector, said such situation could spell doom for the nation if not reversed.
Recall, that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government has always claimed credit for the increase in agricultural produce in the country,
but the former president sees a threat to such achievement, if better polices are not put in place to check Nigeria’s population explosion.
“Ordinarily, population is supposed to be an asset for a nation, but if it is not carefully managed it could turn to a liability and result in a crisis,’’, he said.
He added that increased funding of the agricultural sector would also help to provide employment for the citizens, particularly, the youths.
“One thing that I believe will help us is to provide employment and probably part of what will help us is agric business.
“You people in the banking business must pay attention to how we build the agric sector.
“I am talking of the whole value chain beginning from land preparation and if we are able to get that right, we will be able to get the issue of employment for our teeming youths right.
“Surely, we will be able to get even the issue of rural development right, and ultimately able to close the wide gap between the haves and the have not.
“The living standards of our people will increase and enhance their prosperity,’’ he said.
In what looks like a jab at the Buhari-led Next Level Government, the elder statesman noted that a good political system and an effective system of governance must be in place for such a turnaround.
Obj also used the occasion to decried what he describes as the level of disunity in the country, stressing that the situation now is worse than what was experienced during the civil war.
“When we look at this country today, even during the civil war, we were not as divided as we are today. Today, we are in danger if we don’t take partnership seriously.
“Partnership within our people and partnership within Africa and the rest of the world,” he said.
The state governor, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun, while declaring the conference open, noted that audit functions had continued to remain an important arm of the financial control framework.
Amosun was represented by Mr Wale Oshinowo, the state Commissioner of Finance.
“Researches have repeatedly revealed that development is not only a function of prudent management of available funds but also depends on measures put in place for the control of leakage and wastage of the funds,” he said.
He urged the bankers to use the conference as a platform to initiate improved and practical approaches toward ensuring best practices in the financial and audit profession necessary for national development.
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