Nigeria didn’t use cocoa money to develop oil – Bayelsa governor

Bayelsa State Governor Duoye Diri has explained that oil wasn’t developed in Nigeria by money made from cocoa farming but money invested by international oil companies.

The governor, on Thursday, during an interview on Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily said many Nigerian leaders wrongly spread the notion that cocoa money was invested into oil exploration in the country.

“A lot of people make a mistake and say we used cocoa money to developed oil, that’s not true.

“Multinational, international oil companies came with the capital in oil exploration and exploitation. There was no money from Nigeria, every money that came was monies from those who came to develop oil here. These are the issues Nigeria needs to resolve,” Diri said.

Even though Bayelsa State is an oil-producing state, the governor said his administration is working to re-orientate youths to go into farming.

According to him, farming is a priority and everyone in the state is encouraged to key into it.

“Agriculture is a priority for this government, we are working hard to have a change of mindset of our youths to key into Agriculture. Tomorrow, the Akwa-Ibom governor is coming into Bayelsa to flag off the farming season. He will also superintend over the made-in-Bayelsa Agriculture show.

“Oil is almost going; we cannot continue to live (dependent) on oil. The focus of this government is agriculture. Let us all key into Agriculture,” the governor said.

​Oil according to the NNPC was discovered in Nigeria far back in 1956 at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta after half a century of exploration. The discovery was made by Shell-BP, at the time the sole concessionaire, and the country’s economy has since been largely dependent on oil production. (Channels TV)