On Tuesday, former President Olusegun Obasanjo cautioned Nigerian leaders to stop blaming God for insecurity, bad economy, poverty, and other challenges confronting the country.
Obasanjo said the nation’s woes remain the ‘choice’ of the leaders and followers, stressing a change of narrative as the country approaches 2021.
The former president said this at his Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State, in his 2021 message to Nigerians.
According to him, with enormous resources available in the country, Nigeria does not have to be poor and no Nigerian must go to bed hungry.
He described 2020 as a year of many challenges but urged Nigerians to work and pray hard to achieve “a glorious 2021”.
Obasanjo said, “I like the motto of a school which says ‘work and pray.’ Some people say it should be ‘pray and work’, but it doesn’t matter to me what order I put it, but prayer must go with work and work must go with prayer.
“And I believe we need to work hard in this country as we pray hard so that the coming year, the year 2021 will be a glorious year for us. But it will not happen unless we work to make it happen.
“We do not have to blame God for our situation; we have to blame ourselves. Nigeria does not have to be poor. No Nigerian must go to bed hungry. That we have a situation like that is a choice by our leaders and followers alike. My prayer is that God will make the year 2021 a better year for all of us, but it will not happen without work.”
On strategy to recover the economy from recession, Obasanjo said, “When we do the right thing. We are not doing the right thing now. When we do the right thing, the economy will be what it should be.
“We have gone from one form of insecurity to a bad economy, and on the top of it is the COVID-19. Some people, either for insecurity or the bad economy or COVID-19, have gone to the great beyond. I will say to those who have departed, particularly in this year of challenges, may their souls rest in perfect peace.”
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