Everything I’ve achieved in life is by accident except farming – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said of all his achievements in life so far, only farming was not by accident.

Obasanjo, who was an ex-military Head of State before and elected as a civilian President in 1999, said he was a farmer by choice and not by accident.

He stated this on Saturday on a live radio interview with Segun Odegbami on Eagles7 Sports 103.7 FM, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Responding to a what Odegbami termed 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.”