A former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has said the outcome of this year’s general elections has made Nigeria more divided than before and urged the incoming administration to initiate the process of addressing ethnic divisions.
Obasanjo spoke at a conference in Abuja organised by Nextier and the Ibadan School of Governance and Public Policy with the theme: “From Elections to Governance and Performance”, and the public presentation of a book: “The Unending Quest for Reforms: An Intellectual Memoir”, written by Prof Tunji Olaopa.
He described the outcome of the polls as a “sickening show of shame” and urged the next government to facilitate the process of national reconciliation to assuage the youths who were aggrieved by the outcome.
He further said that owing to the country’s multifaceted challenges, he was “too old to keep quiet” and would continue to voice concerns on the state of the nation.
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He said, “Given what we saw during the elections, Nigeria is now even more divided and more corroded than we thought. This places a deep onus on any administration following the current one to urgently facilitate the process of national moral rearmament and national reconciliation that will enhance healing for the aggrieved and will lead us across Nigeria and to assuage the youths.
“This must be done in sync with the imperative of national value orientation that Nigeria requires to build a collective sense of enduring local values and national belonging.
“Governance in Nigeria now calls for thinking outside the box in terms of development financing. This has become inevitable in the face of Nigeria’s dwindling fortune in oil revenue, Nigeria’s huge foreign indebtedness and the urgency of diversifying Nigeria’s neo-cultural economy.
“We cannot be spending like drunken sailors on frivolities and corruption and expect development and growth. Such a situation cannot take us into the Fourth Industrial Revolution or prepare us for the future.
“My experience and understanding, however, is that the money to develop and grow our economy is out there if we provide a conducive environment for it to come and stay.
“Political will, political action and administrative efforts must be invested in reforming the public service into a capability-ready institution that could enable Nigeria’s development agenda beyond 2023.
“All of these and more are necessary to correct and not to repeat the sickening and painful show of shame which the elections of 2023 generated into.
“Let me conclude by stating clearly that I am now too old to keep quiet and watch Nigeria’s seemingly clueless launch into dystopia. All efforts are now required from all well-meaning and committed patriots to rescue the nation from the precipice.”
By Abdullateef Salau & Abbas Jimoh
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