Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, called on youths in the country to work together in making it uncomfortable for old leaders to remain in government.
Obasanjo stated this while speaking on a virtual interview with academic and historian, Toyin Falola, on Sunday.
The ex-president while answering a question from youth during the interview said, “You (youths) have everything going for you and I don’t want you to feel discouraged. Things are bad in Nigeria but I believe it is only for a short while because it depends on you.”
“Whatever my generation might have done wrong and I will be the first to admit that my generation has done a lot of wrongs, (but) it is for your generation to do it better.”
“Don’t just sit down and complain. Sitting down and complaining will make you be on the same level and you have to get what I called the critical mass of likeminded people who will be ready to say let us bring about the change. You can bring about the change if you get a critical mass of people that are ready to slug it out.”
“When people say when will these old hags go out of the way? I tell them they won’t go out of the way, you have to make them go out of the way. They won’t voluntarily go out of the way, you have to make it uncomfortable for them; I am not talking of violence but bringing pressure to bear to make it uncomfortable for them to go out of the way.”
The ex-president also said the worsening insecurity in the country was discouraging investors from coming into Nigeria.
He said, “When I talk to people particularly about development, they tell me money is out there for all the development that we want in Africa and particularly in Nigeria but the condition must be right.”
“Now, who would put money in a situation of insecurity –Boko Haram, banditry, kidnapping? Who would put money in that? And these investors are hard-headed calculators. They will sit down and do the calculation and give you why they should not come in. We had opportunities but squandered those opportunities.”