Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Maps
- 1 A man of controversy
- Part I Making a Career (1937–70)
- Part II Military Rule (1970–9)
- Part III Private Citizen (1979–99)
- 9 The farmer
- 10 The author
- 11 The statesman
- 12 The politician
- 13 The prisoner
- 14 The candidate
- Part IV The First Presidential Term (1999–2003)
- Part V The Second Presidential Term (2003–7)
- Appendix: Exchange rates
- Bibliography
- Index
9 - The farmer
from Part III - Private Citizen (1979–99)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Maps
- 1 A man of controversy
- Part I Making a Career (1937–70)
- Part II Military Rule (1970–9)
- Part III Private Citizen (1979–99)
- 9 The farmer
- 10 The author
- 11 The statesman
- 12 The politician
- 13 The prisoner
- 14 The candidate
- Part IV The First Presidential Term (1999–2003)
- Part V The Second Presidential Term (2003–7)
- Appendix: Exchange rates
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
On 8 October 1979, a week after leaving military office at the age of 42, Obasanjo began a new career as a farmer by visiting his land and arranging for it to be cleared for cultivation. ‘It was the job for which I was born’, he said. He considered farming a fitting occupation for a senior officer, as it had been for a Yoruba military chief. Moreover, he wanted to set an example:
Our commitment to an agricultural and food production enterprise stems from our belief that Nigeria must be self-reliant in agriculture and food production as a nation…. Our success will encourage others to follow the same path. While not underplaying the tedium, difficulties and hazards of agricultural pursuit, we hope to glorify it, giving it a new look and a new image as a respectable, interesting, exciting, and absorbing occupation.
At the farm gate he placed a notice:
Temperance Enterprises Limited
This farm is in part a demonstration of the Operation Feed the Nation. You too can be a farmer, have an exciting occupation and join in feeding yourself and the nation.
Beside the notice stood a cement statue of a Yoruba farmer shouldering a hoe. The statue was bathed each morning.
Obasanjo's selection of land at Ota had deep roots in the Yoruba past. Close to his birthplace, Ota was some 60kms south of Abeokuta and 40 kms north of Lagos. Originally settled by the Awori group of Yoruba who also founded Lagos, Ota was subordinated in 1842 and subsequently colonised by the Egba people (including Obasanjo's Owu group) who had recently established Abeokuta.
- Type
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- Information
- Obasanjo, Nigeria and the World , pp. 99 - 107Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011