A former president of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has met with the leadership of catfish farmers in Nigeria to re-strategise for better productivity. During the meeting, he lamented the negative influence of those he called intermediaries in the business.

The farmers, under the aegis of Catfish Farmers Association of Nigeria (CAFAN), met with the former president, who is a founding member of the body at the boardroom of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, Ogun State.

He lamented that the farmers had been overwhelmed by the intermediaries in the industry, noting that there was the need to change the situation to make headway in the industry.

“The situation in catfish farming is caused by the farmers because they have allowed these intermediaries who do nothing to dictate for them. You are the ones working and they are the ones making the profit. It shows that the farmers are not liberating themselves.

“If you want to liberate yourself, within a year we can do it. And that is what we have to do. We have to re-strategise,’’ Obasanjo said.

While expressing satisfaction in returning to the association after what he described as an interregnum, the former president assured that the industry would be at an enviable height in no distant time if they worked together as a body.

“I started the Poultry Farmers Association, and as a result of its achievements, I began the catfish association too. What put me off was that I was arrested, detained and imprisoned. When I came back, I had thought I could return to my farming business before I was taken to the golden cage in Abuja. I will say it has been an interregnum. But I am back home now,’’ he said.

The national president of the CAFAN, Sunday Musa Onoja, said the exemplary traits of the former president in farming could not be overemphasised in and outside the country. He added that the association would, no doubt, tap from his experience to take catfish farming to the next level.

The association’s identification card was presented to Obasanjo by its chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Tayo Akingbolagun.