FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday lamented that Nigeria is not what it should be.
He said this at the Wilson Badejo Foundation, WBF 15th Annual Lecture with the theme: ‘Overcoming the Twin Challenge of Poverty and Insecurity in Nigeria: Way Forward’.
Obasanjo, who said that insecurity feeds on poverty and poverty feeds on insecurity, pointed out that if we do not take the right step and make the right choice, not only would the two continue to fester on, they will consume the country.
His words: “The General Overseer of Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria, Sam Aboyeji said his father is coming in 2023, I want to wait and see his father come, but seriously Nigeria is not what it should be today. If anybody feels anything to be contrary, his or her head would be examined and nobody would do it for us, nobody needs to be blamed.
“The choice is in our hands, I see faith and half a dozen, I don’t know what choice you want to make out of that two. Don’t let us deceive ourselves, we have a choice; either we are making the choice or we are not making the right choice and if we don’t make the right choice, we don’t blame anybody but blame ourselves.
“If we make the right choice, we would overcome the twin challenge of poverty and insecurity which are symbiotic.
“I want to thank God for the life of Wilson Badejo because if not for the life that he lived we would not have been here because he died. I thank God for the interaction I had with him when he was alive.
“If not for God I would not be here with you today, because Abacha told at least three people who told me, (one of them Arisekola) that three of us would not come out of prison alive, Shehu Ya’Adua, MKO Abioka and myself.
“The other two did not come out alive. I am not mocking them but just to glorify God, I am not better than those who did not come out alive.”
Also speaking, Director-General of the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, NIIA, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, urged Nigerians to go and be counted saying 2023 is the next bus stop.