Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has said Nigeria cannot make it until the nation takes agriculture and its value chains seriously.
He said this on Thursday at the Youth Enterprises Summit organised by the Youth Development Centre, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The former President said agriculture had the capacity to develop entrepreneurs and create millions of employment for Nigerian youths.
Obasanjo, who described agriculture as his second career, noted that not many countries in the world had been successful without agriculture.
The former President recalled that his administration created an enabling environment which opened doors of opportunities and made some Nigerians billionaires.
He said;
"The truth is this, if we are going to have employment for millions of youths in this country, it will be mainly in agriculture business not in oil and energy. Oil and energy will give you money; will make a few billionaires and multi-billionaires.
"I opened the doors of opportunity and they took advantage of it, and I thank them for taking advantage of it.
"All the billionaires we have today, they came out as a result of them taking advantage of those opportunities. And I am grateful to them that the opportunities that my administration created, they grabbed it and utilised it."
He added, "One thing is to create opportunity, another thing is to find people who will seize the opportunity and make what they have to make out of it.
"But let's take agriculture, we will never make it in this country until we take agriculture seriously. There are not many countries that have made it without taking agriculture seriously."
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