Obasanjo Raises the Alarm over Nigeria’s Disunity

Femi Ogbonnikan in Abeokuta

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has raised the alarm over the current state of disunity in the country, stressing that Nigeria was not as divided as this during the civil war in comparison to the worst situation of things as they are now.

Speaking at a one-day ‘2019 annual retreat/conference and general meeting’ of members of Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria (ACAEBIN) held at Park Inn, Abeokuta in Ogun State yesterday, Obasanjo, who was a guest speaker on the topic 5Ps, urged Nigerians to partner one another at home, within communities, states, countries, sub-African region and African continent.

“When we look at this country today, even during the civil war, we were not as divided as we are now. Today, we are in danger if we don’t take partnership serious. That partnership should be within our people, Africa and the rest of the world,” Obasanjo said.

According to the former president, private sector is the life blood of development in every economy of a country.

He said: “As chief audit, it is defined by virtue of what you are doing as a profession. If the audit is awry, banking business will not be right.

“What I want to emphasise is that it is a must as Nigerians and Africans that we have certain elements that we have to take very seriously which I put as 5Ps.

“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 was estimated to be 45 million, but today we are almost 200 million. By the year 2050, we will be over 400 million. Normally, 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 percent, and education being the basic of all human development, you can see that we have a problem.

“How do we think of setting education to be useful? Those people who will make our education over 400 million people in many years’ time are already born, and you cannot unborn them. So the problem is here, what do we do?

We must provide education for them, housing, healthcare and most importantly, employment for them.

“One thing that I believe will help us is to provide employment is agricultural business. And you in the banking business must pay attention to how we build the agriculture sector. I am not talking of horticulture, I am talking of the whole value chain, from land preparation to the end product. And if we are able to get that right, maybe we will be able to get the issue of employment for our teeming youths right as well as rural development right.

“The next one is prosperity. I am not being bothered about Nigeria or Africa’s poverty. We have everything to generate wealth. We have God-given resources under our soil. We also have human resources. If we bring these together, then we will definitely get prosperity

“Another one is security. People must be protected in all aspect. Protection of lives and property is most important.”

In his welcome address, Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, said the state government has always been desirous of partnering practical efforts that positively impact on the lives of the people, particularly, in the area of financial management.

“Our motivation as an administration towards making lives abundant for our good people is to ensure optimal utilisation of the available resources as well as block all leakages and wastage of our resources,” Amosun said.

The governor, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Adewale Oshinowo, while speaking on the theme: ‘Banking in the digital age: challenges and opportunities’, noted that “as the operating environment changes, the knowledge and skill required to effectively perform audit assignments have become more sophisticated.”