Obasanjo cries out over increasing cost of diesel Says "I am already sweating"

By Jumoke Adeogun, Abeokuta

Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has disclosed that the increasing price of diesel, was causing sweat particularly on his fish farm.

Obasanjo made this declaration at the Southwest Fish Farmer's Congress held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) Auditorium, Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Tuesday.

In a release by Special Assistant on Media to the former President, Kehinde Akinyemi, the program which was convened by Obasanjo,  through his Consultant on Aquaculture, Steve Okeleji, delegates were drawn from various fish farmers' associations in the region.

He lamented that the situation was worrisome on the farmers using diesel, as a quick intervention was sought.

According to him, “If we don’t come together as an association, nationally, we will sink individually. If we come together, we will swim and survive together,” he 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. 

"I am already sweating and if the situation does not go down, anybody that is using diesel, I don't know your calculation, my calculation is that I cannot produce a kilo of fish with less than N1400. Thats about what it cost as at today. So if I sell my fish around N1400 I cannot make profit."

Obasanjo while stressing the need for the meeting, said the fish farming industry was in dire straits, and if urgent and collectively attention was not given, "Farmers in fish farming will completely go bankrupt."

He added: "If there is no change, some will go bankrupt and if that happens, Nigerians will continue to eat fish, but, it will be out of reach. And people will be producing fish outside Nigeria and they will be dumping it here.

"That means you will go jobles, you will go poor, you will go indigent, so what do we do; come together."

He disclosed that the success of the congress from the Southwest region, would determine the move to other parts of the country's region.

Obasanjo further clarified that the congress was not meant to do away with plans to merge the existing associations, but, "to quickly intercede with the challenges facing the industry".

Earlier, the Congress coordinator, had told the gathering that the former President, who equally is a big player in the fish farming industry, saw the need to immediately bring the farmers together to fight a common goal that can make us to survive the stormy waters.

"As it is now, the situation is that we are only producing for the middlemen, because the cost of producing a kilo of fish gives little or nothing for us," Okeleji said.