Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president, has claimed that Nigerians shouldn’t be impoverished because the nation has an abundance of natural and human resources.
Speaking at a dinner held in his honour on Friday at Government House in Umuahia by the Abia State Government, Obasanjo said that despite the country’s plenty, it still suffers from poor resource management.
He said: “Nigerians have no business with poverty because God has given us all that we need.
“If we are mismanaging what God has given us, we do not have God to blame, we have ourselves to blame.”
The former president commended Governor Alex Otti of Abia State for his administration’s transformation efforts, highlighting the widespread public approval of his governance.
He lauded the governor’s impact on the state and encouraged him to maintain the current trajectory of progress.
Obasanjo reiterated that the country’s fortunes would be greatly improved if at least 18 governors were performing their duties effectively.
The former military Head of State also restated his enduring concern for the well-being of Nigerians and the quality of governance delivered by public officeholders.
“For me, whether you don’t greet me or I greet you and you don’t answer, what is important to me is that the people of this country are getting what they deserve and what they deserve is good governance,” he said.
He continued by recalling an instance when Rotimi Amaechi, the previous minister of transportation, was not aware of an existing national railway development plan. According to Obasanjo, Amaechi needed to be guided to the archives in order to obtain the required records.
In his speech, Governor Otti expressed gratitude for the previous president’s steadfast support, stating that vision and tenacity are essential components of good leadership.
He reminisced on the tough route of his political career, defined by a decade of endurance and resilience.
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“Once you have vision, you have to keep to it. It took us ten years to get here. The two elections we contested from 2015 to 2019, we won clearly but they were all stolen.
“A lot of people had given up hope and said it wasn’t going to work, but I was sure that I heard clearly from God,” he said.
