•’Commodity’s price rose by 100 per cent’
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, has said cocoa and other agricultural produce can take Nigeria out of the woods.
He spoke with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The Ooni said: “I am working with the minister of Agriculture. We have assembled over 200,000 youths within 30 days. We are encouraging them to go back to the farm.
“Something happened in Nigeria that we did not notice. Last October, crude oil price started going down astronomically but cocoa price went up over 100 per cent and nobody noticed it.
“Nigeria, in the early 1930s and 1940s, was the largest exporter of cocoa in the world and the farmlands are still there.
‘’So what we have done now is another positive indicator for the nation’s economy.
“We have assembled youths and we are giving them five acres per youth so that they will go back to the farm.
“The Federal Government is supporting us. So it is going to be a model to be replicated in all parts of the country.”
He advised the youth not to look for fast ways of making money, but to go back to the basic.
The monarch said his ascension to the throne was divine.
He said: “I have a clear strategy: if you don’t want to accept me, I will accept you. It is important and I will be persistent about it because it is a divine calling. It is not by my power nor by my might. It is a calling from the King of Kings, who appointed me to this throne.
“So, I will be persistent. About acceptability, if you do not accept me today, you will accept me tomorrow. It is a clear mission and I will be persistent about it.”
On his visit to the Villa, he said: “The meeting with the President was about peace and progress of the nation which he stands for and I stand for. What is also key is youth empowerment. That is the main purpose of this meeting.
He said the President as a progressive was happy about the idea.
