How do we resolve this country's problems?
These were some of the questions yesterday at an intellectual exercise
to mark former President Olusegun Obasanjo's 78th birthday.
Two distinguished citizens - former Chief of Defence Staff Gen.
Martin Luther Agwai and National Office for Technology Acquisition and
Promotion Director-General Dr. Umar Bindiri - tackled the topics of
the day.
But it was Obasanjo himself who summed it all up. The problem,
according to him, is leadership.
The lectures were delivered at his Presidential Library in Abeokuta,
the Ogun State capital.
The former president, who praised his guests for coming to honour him,
reiterated that his loyalty to the country comes first and cannot be
undermined.
He said once Nigeria gets it right by putting the correct leader in
place, the nation's thirst for greatness, all-round growth would be
fulfilled.
He said it would take one person - the leader - to make the positive
difference everybody is yearning for, adding that Nigeria has not got
every other aspect of her life right because the leadership question
has not be addressed.
Obasanjo said: "Loyalty to Nigeria should not be undermined by
anything, except the truth; what is right and what is in the best
interest of this great country of ours. May God continue to bless
Nigeria.
"We have listened to two beautiful lectures, presentation or what you
will call them. For me, it has been very instructive and I have not
been disappointed by either of the presenters and they have met the
expectations.
"But you have seen that they haven't presented us with magic as
solutions to our problems and there is nothing they have told us that
is impossible but all they have said boils down to one thing and one
thing only - leadership.
"And until we get it right, anytime we do not get it right, we cannot
get any other thing right, don't let us deceive ourselves, whether it
is security, science and technology or innovation or the development
of the economy or education they all boil down to leadership and at
all levels.
"May God give us the leadership that occasions like this deserve in
Nigeria. Because when we have that, we will get there. I'm an
incurable optimist about this country, and may be because I have seen
in a little bit in my short span of life, a little bit of what is
possible and a little bit of what can go wrong and what can be made
to go wrong.
"And may be that is why I am, incurable optimist and I believe that
all will be well in this country. We have no choice anyway, all has to
be well.
"We are about 180 million now, our brothers and sisters in West Africa
are worried, and when they talk to me and I said why are they worried,
they said, 'if half a million Nigerians go to Republic of Benin, we
will overwhelm them; if two million go to Ghana. That is a big
problem.
"Even Britain is worried. They are worried. They said the problem is
that if one million Nigerians go to Britain, they said in 10 years
time, there will be 10 million Nigerians in Britain and they will
rather keep us here.
"There is no reason why any Nigerian child, at this point in time
should not have a basic education, food and nutrition, not only
Nigeria child, any Nigerian should not go to bed without food.
"We have the resources to achieve all that, that we are not achieving
it does not mean we don't have the resources. It is because we haven't
manage our resources well.
"Employment. If all other things are right, there should be no reason
for any Nigerian who wants to be employed not to have the opportunity
for employment. And if the things that all the young ones are
expecting are not there, in 15 years time, they will be good recruits
for Boko Haram or its equivalent. Do not let us deceive ourselves.
Read more at The Nation Online:
http://thenationonlineng.net/new/the-leader-nigeria-needs-now-by-obasanjo/
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