Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria lament the high level of disunity in Nigeria, he point out that the condition Nigeria is passing through now is worsened than what the country experienced during the civil war.
Obasabjo expressed this on Thursday in a one-day 2019 annual retreat/conference organised by the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria (ACAEBIN) that was held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Obasanjo said, “When we look at this country today, even during the civil war, we were not as divided as we are today. Today, we are in danger if we don’t take partnership seriously.
“Partnership within our people and partnership within Africa and the rest of the world,”.
He urge Nigeria leaders to take the issue of governance various serious especially now when population is on the raise.
Good governance will defeat illiteracy that is rampart among our citizens, and will in turn, lead to human development.
Some other things, he called on leaders to provide include education, housing, healthcare and more importantly employment for the citizens.
“The first is politics which is governance. Unless we get governance right, any other thing we are trying to do will not be right,” he said.
“The second is population. Our population at independence, we were estimated to be 45 million, but today we are 200 million. By the year 2050, we will be over 400 million.
“Normally, the population should be an asset but looking at the condition we are in now when in the North-East of Nigeria, the percentage of adult literacy is about 53%. You can see that, we have a problem and education is basic in all human development.
“How do we think of setting education to be useful? Those people who will make our education over 400 million in years’ time are already born, and you cannot unborn them. so the problem is here, what do we do?” he asked.
In contributions, the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Finance, Mr Adewale Oshinowo, say that the state is good used of its resources to touch the lives of residents while halting any leakages.
He said, “Our motivation, as an administration, towards making lives abundant for our good people is to ensure optimal utilisation of the available resources and block all leakages and wastage of our resources”.
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