A delegate to the National Conference and the Lamido of Adamawa, Alhaji Muhammadu Mustapha, has said the North can survive economically without the proceeds from petroleum resources.
The controversial monarch noted that but for the laziness on the part of the people of the region, the proceeds from agriculture would have made the region less dependent on oil.
Mustapha said this while speaking on the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation, monitored in Kaduna on Saturday.
For instance, he argued that while a litre of palm oil is N300, a litre of petrol is N97, meaning that if the North could harness its natural resources(agriculture), the region would have survived without oil, a development he claimed had turned the people of the North to “beggars” before those from the oil producing states.
The monarch alleged that those from the oil producing states always speak with impunity and called on the people of the region to wake up from their slumber to develop agriculture.
He explained that some notable countries of world such as Japan, Germany had no oil(petrol) but had been able to harness their natural resources and had become great nations.
The Lamido Adamawa explained that the region could come out of the current overdependence on oil if it could overcome its laziness and turned to agriculture for the development of the region.
He said, “Just as I have said earlier, these people who come from oil producing states are looking at us (northerners)as if we are beggars, gold diggers who have nothing to do.
“That is why I said the non-oil producing states are not cowards, they don’t fear anybody. Everybody is contributing his quota to make Nigeria great but these people from oil producing states think that if what they want is not given to them, they have been wronged and they would even prefer to stay out of Nigeria.
“Japan and Germany have no oil. But we have lazy people here. These advanced countries utilised what they were naturally endowed with to develop. They don’t envy each other, they don’t have such thing and whatever you want in this world, you get it in these countries.
“In the (national) conference, there was someone who explained something in agriculture. A litre of palm oil is sold for N300 while one litre of petrol is sold at N97. If not because we are a lazy people, and we hold on to agriculture, who knows the quantity of groundnuts and cotton that we can produce in the North?
“I am saying this so that our people should wake up from their slumber, they should stand up.”
See d analogy-palm oil and petrol- agreed palm oil costs more per litre, but hw many litres will an average family consume in a week for instance compared to the number of litres of petrol that same family can consume in a week.. inasmuch as I agree dat the agric sector needs to b harnessed and developed by both d north and south, ds man shd argue his case intelligently next time
ReplyDeleteU b olodo. Palm oil is not used for cooking alone, e.g. Soaps,etc
DeleteNa real olodo oo, palm oil has so many diverse uses - not only for cooking oo. Generally, palm products including the kernel seed and its husk, the trunk, the leaves are all useful in producing so many things such as roofing planks (termites never attack the trunk), kernel oil, brooms from the leaves, etc. Even palm wine is adjudged as very rich in yeast that is good for eye sight treatment, so the palm tree is a highly economically useful tree.
DeleteYour opinion about the first commentator is right and I'm quite in agreement with your comments. Additionally, he needs to be told that palm oil is being developed in some countries eg Brazil and Colombia, into bio-fuel or bio-diesel for export as a substitute for diesel in taxis, buses,trucks,tractors and stationary engines. Besides, it is also an important raw material for oleo-chemical industry. ab
DeleteLamido Adamawa is right this time. Let's look inwards and stop this rent collection mentality.
ReplyDeleteSurvive with what give us the list now? Useless vampires thats why u people are killing urself so that u wl not be much again u wl be feeding them from pepper, tomatoes yam water melon that u have truly u can sustain with that
ReplyDeleteHarnessing agriculture is a good point but the analogy is very wrong.Agriculture can't bring much money as oil.Remember OFN programme,also Agric exist b4 Oil boom.Unity is what we need.This Man should stop dis marginalization.He should remember Oil well's are owned by much nos of Northerners.
ReplyDeleteLamido is right, even the south goverment should also think outside Oil and Gas. The truth is that every state should develop their resources so that the ideas of depending on the federal cake sharing should stop. Look at the northern state their are aboundant of natural resources agric and non agric resources but nobody care about develoing them. All eyes are now on oil and gas this is totaly wrong. Let the south develop their oil and gas and pay higher tax to the federal govt while the northern state will do same but pay lower tax as the agric sector is undeveloped for now. National Conf should fix date for the start of such arrangement so the issue of north dependencing on oil will end once and for all.
ReplyDeleteM. A . U .Ayokomire
And that's the very issue bothering the Niger deltans, they actually own the oil but 98% of the oil wells are owned by the northerners. not fair at all to the citizens of the oil producing states and on top of that the north keep saying they can survive with oil. but the northerners are holding all the oil well to ransom! The problem is very deep. I don't blame the south south for any noise they make, they just want control of their resources just like any other region!
ReplyDeleteRight thinking but poor perspective. Palm oil or any agricultural product for that matter cannot be the mainstay of any economy. Crude oil is a differentiator because it's a natural endowment unlike palm oil that is accessible to all and sundry. Who does he want to sell his palm oil to? Everybody can plant, nature a plantation, does every nation have crude oil? Agriculture should be a good input and not considered as mainstay.
ReplyDeleteDis old man called Lamido needs brain rehabilitation,it seems his brain is deteorating
ReplyDelete