Ahead of the 2023 general elections in Nigeria, the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo has stated that the country was in need of ‘men and women of integrity’ to make things better.

The elder statesman further expressed optimism that whatever the situation and condition was in the acclaimed Africa’s giant, all would be well with the country.

Obasanjo, who said this at a Global Crusade organized by the Deeper Life Bible Church in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital territory, and monitored online, Tuesday, 3rd April 2022, urged Nigerians to have faith in God.

The erstwhile President, who just turned 85, stated that considering the situation of things, Nigeria and the entire world required God’s visitation, hence urging all children of God to seek His face for visitation.

“If you consider what is going on in our cities, our states, our country, our region of West Africa, our continent and indeed our globe, our world required crusade of this nature.

“Some people accused us, Christians of `religiosity’ without spirituality. Yes, that has been the position of the world even in the time of Jesus Christ, but should we lose hope? No.

“There is no time in the world that things have been bad that it is not the children of God that stood out,” he opined.

He went further to state that Noah stood out in his time and also Job, who God described as a man who feared God and shun evil and a man of great integrity.

“Nigeria needs such men of integrity at this present moment. I believe that because of these kinds of men and women of such virtue in Nigeria, God will open his eyes and have mercy on this country.

“Unless those who don’t want to be honest with themselves will say that all is well, but if we trust in God and believe in Jesus Christ all will be well. Children of God, whatever may be our situation, whatever may be the condition, let us have faith in God, and all will be well.” Obasanjo enjoined.

On his part, the General Overseer of the Church, Pastor Williams Kumuyi, who had earlier paid a visit to the former president, prayed to God to grant him many more years to contribute to the progress of the country.

Kumuyi stated that his earlier visit was to show respect to Obasanjo and to also invite him to the crusade where he could share his words of wisdom with the people and the global community.

The general overseer, in his message, opined that God had prepared complete dominion over the circumstances of the world through Jesus Christ, saying the only way to have complete dominion over problems and other circumstances was to live in holiness and consecration to God through Jesus Christ.

Obasanjo ought to define what he meant by ‘men and women of integrity’ in his speech that could best be described as a sermon. It’s time we use more words to buttress the literal meaning of our statements in respect of the impending era of leadership transition in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, Obasanjo should rather consider retiring from active politics. Though he remains an erstwhile president of Nigeria, it’s high time he thought it wise to honourably retire from the country’s political space.

I, and my likes, are no longer interested in listening to his sermon concerning how a leader should emerge in Nigeria. He and his likes should let Nigerians be, so they can make their collective choice in their right senses.

This is how he was given the opportunity to participate a few years ago and he ended up convincing Nigerians that Muhammadu Buhari was the messiah the country needed. But at the moment, he is the greatest antagonist to the present administration. Who is deceiving who?

This may sound absurd or ridiculous to say but the fact remains that you as an individual don’t have the power or right to take your own life or commit suicide whenever you want. Just like it is against the law of nature for you to end your life, it is also against the law of the government to end your life in Nigeria because as a Nigerian citizen, your life belongs to the government.

Safe to say that you are not the owner of your life, you are just the custodian, the government of Nigeria owns it and you should be accountable or held accountable for your life. 

That is why you have been given the constitutional right to life. This is the first provision of chapter 4 of the constitution which provides for Fundamental Human Rights every individual enjoys as a citizen of Nigeria;

S.33. 1. Every person has a right to life, and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life, save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria.

By this purport, no one has the right to suicide despite the circumstance or situation: (Suicide, simply put is death caused by injuring oneself with the intent to die. A suicide attempt is when someone harms themselves with any intent to end their life, but they do not die as a result of it).

Just as no other person has the right or power to take your life illegally or they will be prosecuted for murder or manslaughter so also, you as an individual do not have the right or power or take your own life, an attempt to do that will constitute an offense.

You are categorically not permitted to take your life or end your life by yourself under any circumstance despite the situation. If you ever try to commit suicide you have committed an offense punishable under section 327 of the criminal code act which provides;

S 327 Any person who attempts to kill himself is guilty of a misdemeanor and is liable to imprisonment for one year.

It is only nature and the government that has the power to take or end your life. Nature has taken your life when you die of natural consequences and the government can end your life in the execution of a judgment as a punishment for the crime (usually capital offense) committed by you.

Next time before posting online or threatening to commit suicide, remember that any attempt to suicide already makes you a criminal and you can be arrested and prosecuted for it and the punishment for it is a one-year jail term.

In all sincerity, I am not insensitive or trying to downplay the daily struggles individuals face that warrant them to resort to suicide as a way out but you need to stay alive because a wise man once said that once there’s life there is hope.

Say No To Suicide 

Nigeria’s Hello Tractor has secured $1million in financing from Heifer International for its Pay-As-You-Go tractor financing program. The investment is intended to be used to provide loans for tractor purchases—loans that can be repaid from revenues earned by leasing them to local farmers.

Known as the “Uber for Tractors”, Hello Tractor connects tractor owners with small-scale farmers in need of tractor services. It also offers software and tracking devices that allow farmers to book tractor services from local tractor owners via a mobile phone app. The benefit for farmers is that they get a critical service formerly unavailable to them, and owners see a fleet optimization opportunity that also minimizes fuel theft and fraud.

Its program, “Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) Tractor Financing for Increased Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria,” already has enabled tractor purchases in the states of Nasarrawa, Abuja and Enugu. These purchases could make tractors accessible to thousands of smallholder farmers via the increasingly popular Hello Tractor leasing platform.

Founded by Jehiel Oliver in 2014 , Hello Tractor currently serves over 500,000 small farmers across Africa with over 3,000 tractor and combine owners.

According to Adesuwa Ifedi, Senior Vice President of Africa Programs at Heifer International, “The pay-as-you go model provides financing for entrepreneurs who want to create jobs by capitalizing on the demand for tractor services on Africa farms, but who lack traditional forms of collateral. It’s a way to unlock capital for youth who have strong business skills that can help transform African agriculture but are often overlooked by private equity investors.”

Globally there are roughly 200 tractors per 100 square kilometers of agriculture lands, but in sub-Saharan Africa, there are only about 27. This is illustrative of a mechanization deficit that has a significant impact on farm productivity and local economies in a region where most people depend on smallholder farming for income. Hello Tractor is one of many new agritech start-ups emerging across the continent that are finding business opportunities in addressing this and other farming challenges. However, while private equity groups and large impact investors have provided more than $5 billion for tech startups in Africa, very little of that financing has gone to young agritech entrepreneurs.

Ifedi noted that Heifer International is stepping into the breach to demonstrate the potential of agritech investments to generate jobs for the ten and twelve million young people enter the workforce every year in Africa– and in an economy that, according to the African Development Bank, generates only three million formal jobs annually.

In 2021, Heifer International created the AYuTe Africa Challenge, which awards cash grants annually to the most promising young agritech innovators across Africa. It also supports Heifer’s goal of helping more than six million African farmers earn a sustainable living income by 2030.

The inaugural AYuTe Africa Challenge awarded a total of $1.5 million USD to two companies, one of which was Hello Tractor. The award allowed Hello Tractor to finance 17 tractors for 17 entrepreneurs in three countries.

“We developed the PAYG program to make tractor ownership—and the reliable income these machines can bring—a reality for entrepreneurs who find it impossible to get credit through normal channels,” said Jehiel Oliver, founder and CEO of Hello Tractor.  “We look at the revenue tractor owners can generate, not how much collateral they can pledge.”

Oliver said that partnering with Heifer “enables us to extend innovative financing to people who were previously considered ‘unbankable,’ while increasing access to technology that has the potential to improve the incomes of millions of smallholder farmers across Africa.”