Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed concern over the current state of Nigeria, likening it to a ticking time bomb due to the hardships faced by its citizens.
Speaking at Dele Momodu’s leadership lecture, Obasanjo emphasized that Nigeria should not be experiencing severe poverty when China was able to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
He stressed the importance of education in tackling poverty and suggested that improving access to education would help alleviate hunger and poverty across Africa.
Obasanjo also highlighted the crucial role that leadership plays in addressing these issues and emphasized the need for proactive measures to combat hardship and deprivation.
He said: “In all works of life, we must have leaders whose characters display ‘communality’.
“Leadership is the greatest ingredient for ending poverty. There’s no human endeavour that does not thrive on leadership.
“To get it right, we must ensure no child is uneducated.
“Nigeria can eliminate hunger and poverty with integrity, discipline, and good governance.
“We can do it if China can lift 700 million people out of poverty.
“Nigeria should have no business with abject poverty. If we don’t take responsibility, we all sit on a gunpowder keg.
“Until we banish poverty in Africa, international communities will not recognize us as a serious continent,” he said.
