April 06, (THEWILL) – Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called for national reconciliation to assuage all aggrieved, especially the youths, following the outcome of the just concluded general elections in Nigeria.
The former President made the call on Thursday, in Abuja, at a public lecture, put together by Nextier, SPD, a public policy firm.
Speaking as a guest at the public lecture, Obasanjo said Nigeria is more divided than it has ever been after the general elections.
Canvassing three ideas to put the conversation on the public lecture series tagged, “From Elections to Governance and Performance”, the former President said, “One, given what we saw during the election, 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 for the aggrieved and will lead us across Nigeria and to assuage the youth.
“This must be done in sync with the imperative of national value orientation that Nigeria requires to build a collective sense of enduring and local values and national belonging.
“Two, 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 a drunken sailor on frivolities and corruption and expect development and growth. Such a situation cannot take us into the fourth industrial revolution already underway or be fair, also defeat.
“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.
“Three 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. And when I look at the audience, I have a feeling that among the people who can do it and who must do it, are some of you here.
“It has become my own personal obligation, continuing in my relentless service as letterman, dedicated in my twilight years to say the truth as I see it, so as to push Nigeria in the direction of our collective aspirations. What is our collective aspiration? A better society where all Nigerian can become what the Almighty God destined to be.
“At times like this, some of us have to adopt the attitude of being known to be blind and not being afraid of the dark. But, we must continually work for the light of all.
“Once again, congratulate you, Tunji, for your continuing labour on behalf of the Nigerian public service and most importantly, for adding this significant intellectual memoir to your huge collection of publications and to the annals of administrative reforms in Nigeria, at this defining and auspicious moment like this.
“This memoir must find its way into all federal and state Ministries as well as the National Libraries in Nigeria. Of course, it must become one item in the fundamental reading list of all serious-minded Nigerian, development workers, public managers, policymakers, development theorists and planners and administrative scholars.”
