By; Sunday Ode, Abuja.
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi Ojaja II and the General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye were guests of President Muhammadu Buhari today at the Presidential Villa, Abuja though separately.
Adeboye who arrived President Buhari’s office soon after Oba Ogunwusi departed, was led in by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
He left immediately after conferring with his host and did not oblige State House correspondents an interview.
The Ooni spent a much longer time with President Buhari in his office after which he spoke with the correspondents.
According to the monarch, his meeting with the President was about peace and progress of the nation which he said both Buhari and he stood for.
“What is also key is youth empowerment. That is the main purpose of this meeting,” Oba Ogunwusi stated.
Fielding questions, the monarch said he had initiated a lot of social welfare programmes for his subjects especially the teeming youth population within the period of his coronation as the Ooni.
He said: “I am currently working with the Minister of Agriculture. We have been able to assemble over 200,000 youths within a space of 30 days. It is unbelievable. We are encouraging them to go back to the farm.
“Something happened in Nigeria that we did not notice. Last year October, crude oil price started going down astronomically but cocoa price went up over 100 percent 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 been able to do now is that there is another positive indicator for the nation’s economy.
“We have been able to assemble 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 very well. So it is going to be a model that will be replicated in all parts of the country.
“As a royal father, I am also encouraging the youth not to look for fast ways of making money, let us go back to the basis” he asserted.
