FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo has warned Nigerians against making the wrong choice in the 2023 general elections.

Obasanjo who spoke on Wednesday as the special guest of honour at the Wilson Badejo Foundation’s 15th Annual Lecture in Lagos said Nigeria will be destroyed if voters elect the wrong persons in 2023.

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Speaking on the theme ‘Overcoming the twin challenge of poverty and insecurity in Nigeria’, the former President said Nigeria has not taken its rightful position because of the damaging effects of poverty and insecurity.

He however expressed hope that the nation will witness progress if right leaders were elected in the next general election.

“It is either we make the right choice in 2023 because if we make the right choice, we would get there.

“However, if we do not make the right choice in 2023, things would consume us and we pray against that one. We must make the right choice in 2023.

“Nigeria is not where it is supposed to be today. If anyone says it is okay where we are at the moment, then the person’s head needs to be examined,” Obasanjo said.

Speaking further, the former President said, “My friend, late Ahmed Joda, used to tell me that God has given us everything a nation needs and there’s no need for prayers because if God has given you everything and you squandered it, then something is wrong.

“I told him that even at that, we still need prayers as a nation because what is good needs prayers and on the other side too, we still need more prayers.”

Earlier, the Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Eghosa Osaghea, in his lecture explained that when “one’s country fails the individual, then that individual becomes a failure”.

He added: “Poverty cannot divide us but it binds us. What divides us is corruption. If you see street protests across the world, it is the poor who do it. Corruption, by whatever means, is what causes division.”

Osaghea urged the government to live up to it’s responsibility by providing security and basic amenities for the common good of all Nigerians.

Sinafi OMANGA

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Sinafi Omanga is a multimedia journalist and researcher with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. He has a keen interest in humanitarian reporting, social justice, and environment.
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