Constituency Project is Corruption - Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo may have started another war with the members of the National Assembly when he described the constituency projects being embarked upon by the lawmakers as "corruption."

Obasanjo said this at the opening of a two-day investment forum organised by the Niger State Government in Minna on Monday.

The forum had "Impact of Investing for Advancing Agricultural Economy and Innovation," as its theme.

Obasanjo said, "The Sultan talked about roads, I hope our lawmakers will use their position and act positively so that when they put in road projects in the budget they will not turn it into what they now term as constituency projects.

"You and I know what constituency projects mean. It is simply corruption."

The former President had been involved in verbal wars with the members of the National Assembly during and after his time in office.

He once, reportedly, described the federal lawmakers as a "bunch of corrupt elements," provoking the lawmakers to, in turn, describe him as "the father of corruption in Nigeria."

Obasanjo said federal and state governments should embark on massive rural and urban road construction to facilitate the movement of agricultural products from the farms to the markets.

"If there is anything that will take us out of recession, it is agriculture; that is the only renewable business we can do to give us all the job creation, wealth creation that we need," he said.

Also speaking, a former military Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar, noted that in another 33 years, the world population would hit the nine billion mark with Nigeria accounting for five per cent of this global population, stating also that by then food would be the greatest challenge.