says Nigeria, not doing badly at 55
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari’s zeal for good governance, corruption-free Nigeria and robust economic networks are paying off since the president was allowed, for the first time, to sit at the table with other World leaders at 70th Session of United Nations General, saying it was an indication that Nigeria is doing fine.
Obasanjo added that the diplomatic impressions of both former and present World leaders on President Buhari being observed by the former president showed that Nigeria had come to the limelight of international recognition and diplomatic relations, which would in the long run, be of great benefits to socio-economic and political development of the country.
The former president, who spoke on Nigeria’s 55th Independence Anniversary at his country home in Abeokuta on Thursday, revealed that the diplomatic impressions received from Bill Clinton, ex-President of United States, Gordon Brown, ex-Prime Minister of United Kingdom and other leaders immediately after the session, was promising and would have positive impacts for Nigeria.
He said, “I heard some of the comments of those he met, the comments that probably not come back to him. He met Clinton for almost one hour. And President Clinton, when I joined him for his global initiatives, he talked to me about his impression of our President, it was favourable.
“Gordon Brown and I met him and we talked about issues. The few other leaders who met him gave me their impression and his debut so to say. It has been good. I think we are at the table; what they use to say that Nigeria is not at the table, now we are present at the table.”
Speaking on Nigeria at 55 years of nationhood, Obasanjo said Nigeria is not doing badly in the comity of Nations in the World, adding: “Fifty five years in the life of a nation is comparatively young, growing and when you look at the life and history of those that you may call settled societies or reasonably matured countries, we are not doing too badly.
“They have had missteps just like we are having missteps, they have made mistakes and most of them have learnt from their mistakes, they have been dynamic in the way they have progressed and I believe that we are doing the same thing.
“What is important is that certain cardinal principles, cardinal features of our national live, values, should not be eroded and then we should also be willing to learn from our mistakes.
The President in his statement said Nigeria has the marks in making the potentialities of a great nation is just question of actualizing our potentialities and that will require all hands on deck; men, women, muslims, christians, young and old, irrespective of our location, our tribe, our social standing, Nigeria needs all hands on deck.
And we must also realise important issues that we must not play with; we must not play with the issue of education, we must not play with the issue of health for our people, we must not play with the issue of employment for our teeming population, particularly for our youths.
“We must not play with the issue of economy, we must not play with the issue so security and peace, we must not play with the issue of justice. Justice and peace go hand in hand, we can’t have injustice and expect place to reign supreme.
“These are some of the things, and then of course, corruption must not have resting place within our society, we must kick corruption out because it destroys almost everything and I am not talking about corruption of money; corruption of attitude, nepotism, favouritism, they are corruption in different forms and all aspects of corruption must be kicked out of our society”, he concluded.
