FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo’s wife, Bola, gave a rare insight into how her husband does not joke with money.

She also disclosed how the former president does not like lazy people.

Mrs. Obasanjo said this, and more about her hus­band, at the Ogun State Third Investors’ Forum, where she delivered a speech. She married Obasanjo in 2009, exactly four years after former First Lady, Stella, died after undergoing surgery in a Spanish hospital.

“I thank God that I am with Baba. Don’t think that it is because of his money, not at all, he doesn’t joke or mess around with his money. If he says he loves you, you must be hardworking. We nicknamed Baba, wole joko jeun (meaning, enter, sit and eat) because of his busy nature. He is always attending to people. He has an answer to everybody’s problem. At times, in our house, we receive over 100 guests in a single day, and we serve food to them.

“You dare not tell OBJ (his nickname) that there is no soup in the house, except you want trouble. When he comes in, rush to the kitchen, even if there is nothing, you have to pretend that you are bringing something. If the kitchen is empty, you have to rush to the garden.”

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At that moment, the gathering erupted in laugh­ter. She continued: “There was a day someone asked me if we don’t have magazine in the house and I asked what the person needed it for and she explained that she wanted to use it to fan herself in case of power outage. I told her ‘we don’t read maga­zine here, people come here to see OBJ’s face.”

Advising government to harness vast opportuni­ties in agriculture, Mrs Obasanjo encouraged youths to go into farming in order to reduce the problem of unemployment.

“Despite the abundance of agriculture resources in Africa, sub-Saharan countries remain the world’s most insecure region. There are many factors re­sponsible for this. If you drive from Ogun State through Ibadan, you will see bushes everywhere; we need mechanised farming. How many things can our people do? Not many can bend down and try to cultivate the ground. I’m saying this so our govern­ment will do something about it…”