On Monday, Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari implied that the country had abandoned agriculture in favour of oil and is paying dearly for it due to the fall in global oil prices. This he said while urging the South Sudanese government to invest more in agriculture and not to be solely dependent on oil revenues to grow the nation’s economy. Receiving the outgoing South Sudanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Makuet Riak, at the State House in Abuja, President Buhari in a statement by his special adviser, Media, Femi Adesina said South Sudan can avoid the mistake made by Nigeria in her over-reliance on oil revenue.
 
The President told the outgoing envoy that Nigeria’s economy, which has been heavily dependent on oil over the years, has been adversely affected by the drop in global oil prices. “Food security is important to any country and that is what we are trying to achieve here, years after we `threw away’ agriculture for oil,’’ the President said. For South Sudan, oil is the most important source of revenue in the country but it is expected that the country will diversify just like Nigeria is trying to do.

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