Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that everything about him, except farming, happened by accident.
Obasanjo was military head of state from 1976 to 1979 before he was elected as a civilian president in 1999.
The 85-year-old said on Saturday on a live radio interview with Segun Odegbami on Eagles7 Sports 103.7 FM, Abeokuta that farming was always what he wanted to do.
Reacting to Odegbami’s request for him to explain his “romance with farming,” the former President 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?
“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.”
Meanwhile, Obasanjo charged the youth to immediately take over leadership positions in the country.
According to him, youths should not allow anyone to address them as leaders of tomorrow as tomorrow may never come.
