Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the outcome of this year’s general elections has made Nigeria more divided than ever before, stating that the administration after President Muhammadu Buhari’s must find ways of healing the wounds caused by the division.
Obasanjo spoke on Thursday at a national seminar titled ‘From Elections to Governance and Performance” organised by the Nextier, in collaboration with the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP), and the public presentation of a book, ‘The Unending Quest for Reforms: An Intellectual Memoir’ written by Prof. Tunji Olaopa, founder of ISGPP.
According to Obasanjo, he is too old to keep quiet on national issues and that the election outcome of the 2023 elections was a “sickening show of shame.”
“Given what we saw during the election, Nigeria is now even more divided and more corroded than we thought. This places a deep onus on any administration following the current one, to urgently facilitate the process of national moral rearmament and national reconciliation for the aggrieved and will lead us across Nigeria and to assuage the youth.
“This must be done in sync with the imperative of national value orientation that Nigeria requires to build a collective sense of enduring and local values and national belonging. Let me conclude by stating clearly that I am now too old to keep quiet and watch Nigeria’s seemingly clueless launch into dystopia.
“All efforts are now required from all committed patriots to rescue the nation from the precipice. And when I look at the audience, I have a feeling that among the people who can do it and who must do it are some of you here.
“It has become my own personal obligation, continuing in my relentless service as a letterman, dedicated in my twilight years to say the truth, as I see it, so as to push Nigeria in the direction of our collective aspirations.
“What is our collective aspiration? A better society where all Nigerians can become what the Almighty God destined them to be. At times like this, some of us have to adopt the attitude of being known to be blind and not being afraid of the dark. But we must continue to work for the light of all,” Obasanjo said.