High cost of diesel affecting my business — Obasanjo
FORMER president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has expressed worries over high cost of diesel, saying the development has adverse effect on his fish business.
He spoke at his residence in Abeokuta, on Tuesday, during a congress of the South-West Fish Farmers Price Sustainability Group, noting that fish farmers in the country might run out of business due to daily increase in prices of fish feeds and cost of diesel.
Obasanjo said, “The current price of diesel at N800 per litre, production of a kilogramme of fish is N1,400. In order to make very marginal profit, farmers can’t sell less than N1,500 as anything short of that amounts to outright loss.
“The price of diesel has gone 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.
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“Fish production will be out of reach and then, people will be producing fish outside Nigeria and be dumping it here. And you will go jobless, poor and indigent. So, what do we have to do? 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.”
Obasanjo said he is sweating because of high cost of diesel.
Amoo Tunbosun, president of the fish farmers, said members of the association cannot continue to produce at the mercy of the buyers, considering high cost of feeds, diesel, among others.
“This is the essence of this gathering. We find out that we have to take our destiny in our hands, we can’t continue to produce and be at the mercy of the buyers. We feel we need to come around and do something for ourselves.
“We are starting with South-West and, in a matter of time, it will be all over the country,” he said.
On Monday, Obasanjo had advised Nigerian youths not to allow educational challenges deter them from achieving their goals.
In his remark at the 25th remembrance of a former Asiwaju of Egbaland, Alhaji Abdul Rasak Olajide Sanusi, held on the premises of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta. Obasanjo, who was the chairman at the ceremony, noted that the late Sanusi rose to become one of the country’s foremost businessmen and influential personalities, despite his lack of formal education.
Giving a brief background of the deceased, Obasanjo told youths in the nation to defy all odds to maximise their potential and attain their goals with or without education.
