FORMER President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has claimed up that his generation has fizzled Nigeria in the way of taking the nation to the Promised Land even as argued for pardoning.
He made this known at a one day symposium composed by the Kaduna Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mines and Agriculture (KADCCIMA) on Monday.
Be that as it may, the previous Nigerian pioneer expressed that what his era has passed up a great opportunity in developing the country monetarily, they have possessed the capacity to convey through keeping the nation joined together and stable under the present majority rule agreement.
According to him, following quite a long while of administration, he bemoaned that the present era of authority couldn’t hit the nail on the head in settling the issues confronting the nation, while focusing on that different nations that started the trip with us as sovereign countries have abandoned us.
He told the young people and different dignitaries who were at the event, “look, don’t worry unduly about the mistake the generation before you had made”, adding that “We must accept that we are human”.
His words: “When people talk to me and said yes, you are wrong. I will accept that my generation had done a number of wrong things. But, we must have done some good things as well”.
Obasanjo traced the journey of the nation from Independence to date, saying that “the generation before us gave us and our country independence. It doesn’t matter what you want to say about them. The Awolowos, Nnamdi Azikiwes, the Sadaunas, Aminu Kanos, Tafawa Balewas etc. they gave us independence, they were not perfect and if you like you can even go from now till tomorrow to condemn what they did, but they gave us independence”.
He asked Nigerians to take comfort that “My own generation fought for the unity of Nigeria. You cannot deny that. There are many things we must have done wrong but we fought for the unity of this country. I still have sharp nails from grenades that entered my body that our brothers shot at me during the civil war. But, at the end of it we reconciled”.
“In addition, my generation laid the foundation of democracy in the country. Our democracy is not perfect, our democracy is a journey and not a destination, and we must continue to improve on it.
“My sons and daughters, what will your generation do? ”Condemnation is easy but what will you do? There are some people who have taken the bull by the horn and tried their best. But, all in all Nigeria.is still intact.
“There are many countries that fought civil wars and they are not together. Yugoslavia, Pakistan, Sudan, we fought a civil war sadly, but we are still together. I think for God and thank those who made that possible”.
Besides, former President Obasanjo blamed the absence of center and capacity of the country’s authority to deal with the unpredictable issues of the economy, saying that if Nigeria must get it rights in its just voyage the issue of poor initiative must be settled.
Said he: “Part of our problems is that our leaders have not taken the bull by the horn, ready to buy the bullet. We cannot have it easy like that for us to develop. You must be ready to take the bull by the horn. India, Malaysia, and some other countries did it. We have to do it one time or the other”.
“One of our problems is that we take one step forward and another backward. If Dangote and others have taken over the refinery that we privatized at that time we won’t have had all the problems we had with petroleum shortage and all that. But, that was not done”.
“Now, the point is this, Aliko Dangote by himself today is building a refinery, 650,000 barrel per day refinery. That is what we are consuming may not be more than 500,000 barrel per day. So, if building a refinery that can supply all that we need is what is desirable, then we are making progress”.
