Tobias Sylvester
Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed that the rising cost of diesel is taking a toll on his fish business.
Obasanjo LamentS High Cost Of Diesel In Nigeria
Speaking on Tuesday during a south-west fish farmers’ congress held at the presidential library (OOPL) in Ogun state, the ex-president said he has been sweating because the high cost of diesel is affecting his fish farming.
According to him, with the current price of diesel at N800 a litre, the production of a kilogram of fish is N1,400, and farmers are forced to sell above N1,500 as anything less than that would lead to “outright loss”.
Obasanjo noted that the rise in the cost of diesel, as well as constant increase in prices of fish feeds, will eventually run Nigerian fish farmers out of business unless they come together to agree on sustainable prices that could be adopted to keep them in business.
He said farmers can longer produce at the mercy of the buyers who would come around to buy the fish for whatever amount that suited them without taking into account the effect of the current economic effect on the production of such fishes.
“If we don’t come together as an association, nationally, we will sink individually. If we come together, we will swim and survive together,” Obasanjo said.
“And while we are working on coming together, I thought that the situation has arisen whereby we have to do something urgently.
“The price of diesel has gone sky high because the management of this country is not what it should be. And it is as simple as that.
“Then, what will happen is that particularly those of us who have to use a bit of diesel in producing fish, we will completely go bankrupt, and when that happens, Nigerians will still have to eat fish.”
He added that fish production would be out of reach, and “then people will be producing fish outside Nigeria and dump it here”.
“And you will go jobless, poor, and indigent. So, what do we have to do? To come together… we want to sustain fish production, and we must be able to take care of those who are going to eat and those of us who are producing,” the former president added.
Obasanjo asked the farmers “how many of you are using diesel in your production? Because I use diesel, and I’m already sweating. I’m already sweating.”
KanyiDaily recalls that Olusegun Obasanjo had recently advised Nigerian youths to take over leadership in the country as soon as possible before their tomorrow would be destroyed.
