A Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has cried out over the rising cost of commodities in the country, warning that if the trend is not reversed, Nigerians will sink.

Dr Obasanjo, who owns one of the largest farms in Nigeria, said the worsening economic realities and increasing cost of commodities have affected him so much that he is now “sweating.”

He said: “How many of you are using diesel in your production? Because I use diesel, and I’m already sweating. I’m already sweating.”

The former president made the comments on Tuesday during a Southwest Fish Farmers’ Congress, held at the Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Ogun State.

He lamented that the high cost of diesel in Nigeria has negatively impacted on his business so much that he is “already sweating”

.

The former President spoke specifically on the cost of fish production in the country today, warning that except something  drastic is done, Nigerians may no longer eat fish produced in Nigeria.

On the cost of diesel, Obasanjo said with the current price of diesel at N800 a litre, the production of a kilogram of fish is N1,400. This, he told his fellow fish farmers, means that farmers must not sell less than N1,500 as anything short of that would lead to “outright loss, adding: “If we don’t come together as an association, nationally, we will sink individually.

“If we come together, we will swim and survive together.

“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. 

“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.

“Fish production would be out of reach. Then people will be producing fish outside Nigeria and dump it here. And you will go jobless, poor and indigent. So, what do we have to do? To come together… 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.

“How many of you are using diesel in your production? Because I use diesel, and I’m already sweating. I’m already sweating,” he said.