••••NEEDS NATIONAL RECONCILIATION – OBASANJO
•••SAYS I’M TOO OLD TO KEEP QUIET ON NATIONAL ISSUES
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has described the present Nigeria situation as more divided than it has ever been after the 2023 general elections.
The former President called for urgent national reconciliation to ally the fears of the aggrieved and the youths for national peace and cohesion.
Obasanjo made the observation at the public presentation of the “From Elections To Governance & Performance
Presentation of “THE UNENDING QUEST FOR REFORM: An Intellectual Memoir” by Professor Tunji Olaopa, in Abuja on Thursday.
Obasanjo, said he is too old to keep quiet on national issues.
He suggested three ideas to enrich the conversation at the event put together by Nextier, SPD, a public policy firm.
“One, given what we saw during the election, Nigeria is now even more divided and more corroded than we thought. This places a deep onus on any administration following the current one, to urgently facilitate the process of national moral rearmament and national reconciliation for the aggrieved and will lead us across Nigeria and to assuage the youth.
“This must be done in sync with the imperative of national value orientation that Nigeria requires to build a collective sense of enduring and local values and national belonging.
“Two, governance in Nigeria now calls for thinking outside the box in terms of development financing, this has become inevitable in the face of Nigeria’s dwindling fortune, in oil revenue, Nigeria’s huge foreign indebtedness and the urgency of diversifying the Nigeria’s neocultural economy.
“We cannot be spending like drunken sailor on frivolities and corruption and expect development and growth. Such situation cannot take us into the fourth industrial revolution already underway…
“My experience and understanding however, is that the money to develop and grow our economy is out there if we provide conducive environment for it to come and stay.
“Three, political will, political action and administrative efforts must be invested on reforming the public service into a capability ready institution that could enable Nigeria’s development agenda beyond 2023.
“All of these and more are necessary to correct and not to repeat the sickening and painful show of shame which the elections of 2023 generated into.
“Let me conclude by stating clearly that I am now too old to keep quiet and watch Nigeria seemingly clueless launch into dystopia. All efforts are now required from all well many and committed patriots to rescue the nation from the precipice. And when I look at the audience I have a feeling that among the people who can do it and who must do it are some of you here.
“It has become my own personal obligation, continuing in my relentless service as letterman, dedicated in my twilight years to say the truth, as I see it, so as to push Nigeria, in the direction of our collective aspirations. What is our collective aspiration? – a better society where all Nigeria can become what the Almighty God destined it to be.
“In times like this, some of us have to adopt the attitude of being known to be blind and not being afraid of the dark. But we must continue to work for the light of all…”
