Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has prayed to God to give Nigeria the leader who will move quickly to put right so many things that have gone wrong in the past few years saying that there were too many think-tanks in the country. He emphasized that what is needed currently are ‘do-tanks.’
According to Obasanjo, the nation is experiencing a peculiar set of challenges, which required leaders with requisite experience for such challenges, saying: “May God give us leaders that occasion like this deserves.”
Obasanjo who was addressing guests at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokutatoday, during the celebration of his 78th birthday and 2015 annual summit said that with the enormous resources the nation is blessed with, no Nigerian child should lack access to education, food and employment.
He stressed that the mismanagement of the resources had landed the country in its current mess even as he said: “My concern is that we have too many think- tanks; we need more of do-tanks. The point is we can do and we have no reason why we can’t do and we have also seen that one individual can make a difference.
“There is no reason why any Nigerian child, at this point in time, should not have a basic education, food and nutrition. Not only Nigerian child, no Nigerian should go to bed without food.
“We have the resources to achieve all that; that we are not achieving does not mean we don’t have the resources. It is because we haven’t managed our resources well.
“Employment, if all other things are right, there should be no reason for any Nigerian who wants to be employed not to have the opportunity for employment.”
He noted that if the unemployment malaise persisted for the next 15 years, “and if all those things that all these young ones are expecting are not there, in 15 years time, they will be good recruits for Boko Haram or its equivalent.” [myad]
