Nigeria unstable, pain abounds—Obasanjo

Former President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo declared on Saturday that Nigeria was growing more complicated, turbulent, and unpredictable.

The nation was perilous and full of hunger and misery because of insecurity, he said.

To improve the lot of all Nigerians, the leadership must, in his opinion, wake up to its duties.

In Lagos, he delivered these remarks as the public lecture chairman at the Africa Methodist Council Heads of Conference Summit and Women’s Movement Leadership Summit.

Presenting the talk was Bishop Ivan Abrahams, General Secretary of the World Methodist Council, on “Leadership in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous World”.

In his introductory remarks, Obasanjo urged Nigerian leaders to rethink the global scene.

How are we to rethink the universe? That is what I think the world needs to be reevaluated. What further has to be done? We would face problems in this world, Jesus Christ himself warned us.

You have two points, I will grant. Awake up! We need a fresh batch of servant, transformational, and moral leaders.

“This new generation of leaders will lead by showing love and leading the re-evaluation and transformation,” he declared.

“Nigeria as it is now is volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, and dangerous,” he added.

“We own resources; we own seventy percent of the copper in the world. Japan is devoid of mineral resources. Singapur is far worse. Not enough money!

All of our resources, though, will be in vain if we lack leadership. African leadership is therefore crucial.

Without leaders with this kind of vision, expertise, and understanding, we cannot build an Africa of hope and prosperity, free from oppression, and one of security and peace.

He also said that he was counselled to run for president a second time by president Desmond Tutu and the late South African freedom hero Nelson Mandela.

“The only country I visited outside of Nigeria was South Africa,” he added, “when I was under pressure to assume leadership of Nigeria after I was released from prison. I went to consult Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela.

Olu, follow your instincts, Nelson advised. “If your people want you to serve, serve and stop making excuses,” Tutu stated.

Once home, I made the decision to run for Nigerian president.

When I was elected, I discovered that the years I spent in jail helped me in my job as president.

Good things can come of bad. That also occurred to Nelson Mandela.

“We should maximise the usage of our excellent leaders as they don’t flog. Take advantage of it when you get one in a generation. Let us pick up the proper lesson from them.

The absence of the appropriate kind of leaders will prevent us from making the world less volatile, straightforward, or clear. These are leaders who emulate Jesus Christ and strive to be like him.

In response to a query raised during the Q&A session, Obasanjo declared that it was a major catastrophe that history had been taken out of the national curriculum.

He replied, “I don’t know where we got the notion that history shouldn’t be taught in our schools. That concept is foolish.

It resembles forgetting one’s name. Disaster will ensue. Where we got it is beyond me. Some people think we should not hear about a certain part of history.

Even within your own life, there are always good and negative things. I run a school, as you may be aware, and history has to be taught properly there. Then you are free to extract everything you see fit.

With regard to slavery, the slave trade, and colonialism, no race in the world has suffered as much as the black race.

There are currently some in America who teach that the slave trade was a myth and that both white and black people travelled to the Caribbean in quest of better opportunities.

Shipped there as slaves, we were. We cannot let it to happen because it will lead to our enslavement once more.

Working with some individuals to preserve the slave trade in our past is the responsibility I have set for myself. We have to maintain the slave trade at the forefront and not let anyone deny its veracity.

Talking further, the former president claimed that Nigeria’s problems began with the discovery of crude oil there.

Crude oil is one of the things that has brought Nigeria a little bit of bad luck, he remarked. It was unfortunate because we were drinking and dozing. It forced us out of agriculture. An asset wasted is oil. Renewable is agriculture. We have to revisit that.

We need to provide our young people with something because they are become restless, irritable, and dangerous.

Give them work, education, and empowerment if we are to stop that. It will not be long before they attack us during the day in our homes if we do not.

Not even food is enough produced by us. We import food for around $20 billion. Sixty percent of the arable land is uncultivated. The one grown is not put to its full potential. Leadership that will guide us to the promised land is what we need.”

He advised upcoming politicians, noting that it was unfortunate that most of them pursued politics as a career without having a backup plan.

“A different kettle of fish,” he declared. They must exist, at least somewhat, in the outside world.

You can’t be a politician by trade. One career you enter without training is politics. You can declare yourself a politician when you get up today.

“You need to have an other source of income if you want to be a successful politician.

“I always told them, ‘Look!’ when I was president because I had to listen to my party and they sought to push me in the wrong path. Over there is my farm. Take a job. Back to my farm I go.

A second address is not something some politicians have. That is really regrettable. Anything will be supported by a politician without a second address. His morality, principles, and dos and don’ts are nonexistent.