Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called for more unity in Nigeria as he raised an alarm that the nation is currently in danger.
According to the former president, the situation in the country now is worse than what was experienced during the civil war.
Former President Obasanjo stated this, on Thursday, during a one-day 2019 annual retreat/conference organised by the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria (ACAEBIN) which held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
In his words, “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 said.
Obasanjo also called on leaders to take the issue of governance seriously especially considering the nation’s increasing population.
He believes that if governance is effective, illiteracy will be eradicated among citizens which will in turn, lead to human development.
Among other things, the former President called on leaders to provide education for citizens, housing, healthcare and more importantly employment for the people.
“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.
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“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 his remarks, the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Finance, Mr Adewale Oshinowo, noted that the state is maximizing its resources to impact the lives of residents while blocking 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”.