OBASANJO BEMOANS HIGH DIESEL AND FOREX PRICES

When he bemoaned the high cost of diesel, food, and the currency rate in the nation on Tuesday, former president Olusegun Obasanjo appeared to be experiencing what many Nigerians are.

The former president said that the high cost of diesel has been having an adverse effect on his ability to produce fish.

At the South-West Fish Farmers' Congress held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, he spoke in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State (OOPL).

When he bemoaned the high cost of diesel, food, and the currency rate in the nation on Tuesday, former president Olusegun Obasanjo appeared to be experiencing what many Nigerians are.

The former president said that the high cost of diesel has been having an adverse effect on his ability to produce fish.

At the South-West Fish Farmers' Congress held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, he spoke in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State (OOPL).

He claims that the farmers must sell their products for at least N1,500 in order to make a very small profit; anything less results in a complete loss.

“The price of diesel has increased because this country's administration is not up to par,” he claimed.

And that's all there is to it. Then, especially those of us who must use a small amount of fuel to produce fish, we will entirely go bankrupt, and Nigerians would still have to eat fish at that point.

Fish production will become unattainable, at which point people will produce fish outside of Nigeria and dump it here. And you'll become jobless, destitute, and dependent.

What must we do, then？ To cooperate, we need to be able to care for both those who will consume and those of us who are producing in order to maintain fisheries.

He questioned the farmers, “How many of you use diesel in your production？” before turning to them. I'm already sweating and I use diesel.

I'm perspiring already. Amo Tunbosun Amo, president of the South-West Fish Farmers Price Sustainability Group, said that the nation now imports 2.6 million metric tons of fish yearly to make up the difference between the 1.12 million tons it produces and the 3.6 million metric tons it consumes each year.

According to Amo, one of the biggest problems facing fish farmers is the ongoing rise in the cost of the feed used to produce fish as well as the unwillingness of consumers to purchase fish at a price that is reasonable.

“Our is the core of this meeting,” he said, we discover that we must take control of our future; we cannot continue to create while being dependent on the customers. We felt we needed to come around and take action for ourselves.

We are beginning in the South-West, and soon the entire country will be affected.

The fish farmers have resolved to band together to save the sector, according to the congress's organizer, Steve Okeleji.

We must get together to figure out how to save our industry, Okeleji remarked. We can see clearly now that the aquaculture sector in Nigeria will be flooded if we don't act quickly.

This congress wouldn't have been necessary if our economy were in perfect shape.

The farmers must thus be heard.

We are also essentially major participants in the field. In actuality, we have a significant impact on the whole industrial value chain.

However, our inability to speak with a unified voice has become a significant problem for us over time.