Obasanjo Pleads With Indian Community To Contribute To Nigeria’s Development
Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has appealed to the Indian Community to contribute to the growth and development of the Nigerian economy.
He made this charge during an interactive session with Indian Professional Forum at his presidential library, Abeokuta in Ogun state.
The former president noted that he personally has many sweet memories of India during his military training in Pune and other parts of the country.
He further added that he always admired India’s growth and the steps it had taken to make itself self-reliance in almost all sectors of the economic stressing that Nigeria and India share a deep bond and have many similarities.
“There is a plethora of Indian businesses that are in partnership with indigenous Nigerian businesses and are doing extremely well. They are spread all over Nigeria in almost all sectors, and even some in Abeokuta, which is very encouraging. Some sectors where India can further enhance their positive roles are education, medical, automobile industry, agriculture and others,” says Obasanjo.
He further stressed that by active coordination and learning from the Indian model, the desired growth can be achieved in a very short span of time.
Obasanjo admitted that Indian experts doing business in Nigeria are the second largest employers after the government sector and therefore contributing greatly to the growth and development of the economy.
According to him, there are also some bad elements who engaged in unfair practice in the country, urging Indian Professionals to monitor the activities of such fellows and their companies, and ensure they followed legitimate practice in all their undertakings.
The ex-president cited a particular example that during his routine medical health check-up, almost all the drugs prescribed and available even in the United States were made in India.
On his part, the President, India Professional Forum, Dinesh Rathi said the forum was founded in 1994 to create a platform to project the positive image of Indians in Nigeria
