From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, former president of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has said the country needs leadership that will get everybody to work towards solving the myriad of socio-economic and political challenges besetting the nation’s progress.
The ex-president made the disclosure when he spoke with journalists shortly after he visited Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State at Agodi, Ibadan, yesterday.
Obasanjo, who did not specifically mention 2023 general election, said he was in Ibadan to pay a belated condolence visit on Makinde over the demise of his mother and to attend a book launch in honour of the late strongman of Ibadan politics, Chief Lamidi Adedibu.
“There are many challenges in Nigeria today. There are challenges of security, economy, and political stability among others. These challenges are not really new, except that they have taken a different dimension. But human challenges are meant to be solved or overcome by human beings, which means that all hands should be on deck.
“I believe that the most important aspect of dealing with all the challenges we have is: one, leadership; two, coming together, that is, all hands being on deck. We all have to come together. But then, there must be leadership to get everybody to work.”
On calls for the sack of service chiefs to tackle insecurity issues in the country, Obasanjo simply responded: “I did not appoint security chiefs, how can I ask that they be sacked?”
When pressed to give his ‘fatherly’ advice to President Muhammadu Buhari on how best to tackle insecurity in the nation, Obasanjo: “If I have a fatherly advice for the security chiefs, I will not give them through the media.”