.Laments level of disunity
By Valentine Amanze
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has decried what he described as high level of disunity in Nigeria.
He also lamented that the situation was worse than what was experienced during the civil war.
He stated this during a one-day 2019 annual retreat/conference organised by the Association of Chief Audit Executive of Banks in Nigeria (ACAEBIN) which held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, yesterday.
“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 said that if governance was effective, illiteracy would be eradicated among citizens which would in turn, lead to human development.
Among other things, the former President urged leaders to provide education for citizens, housing, healthcare and more importantly employment for the people.
His words: “The first is politics which is governance. Unless we get governance right, any other thing we are trying to do will not be right.
“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?”
In his remarks, the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Finance, Mr Adewale Oshinowo, said that the state was maximizing its resources to impact the lives of residents while blocking any leakages. According to him, “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”.