Obasanjo: "Nigeria has no business with poverty and insecurity."

Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the director general of the World Trade Organization, and Olisa Agbakoba, a former president of the Nigeria Bar Association, among other well-known Nigerians, all proposed remedies to the problems the nation was experiencing.

They talked on Saturday at King's College's 113rd birthday celebration. The King's College Old Boys' Association sponsored the anniversary talk with the theme "Building the Nigeria of our dreams."

Obasanjo, who presided at the King's Week 2022 colloquium at Kings College in Lagos, claimed that Nigeria's choice of leaders was to blame for the nation's poverty, insecurity, and other problems.

We are down the tubes because we are economically and politically divided. Nigeria is not present at the diplomatic table. Prior to this, we could send troops to the Republic of Benin but not to the Sudan, Serria Lone. White, yellow, and black are the three main races in the globe. For the time being, Nigeria, with its 225 million people, is leading the black race, China is leading the yellow race, and America is currently leading the white race. We can take care of the continent and the black race if we stop letting ourselves down. Political polarization, poverty, and insecurity are not Nigeria's business.

It is a decision made by our leaders, whether consciously or unconsciously. God did not pick it for us. If it isn't what God has chosen for us, we can do better. We have made some progress in Nigeria, but we have not kept up the good work.

Nigeria needs a social contract, in Okonjo-opinion, Iweala's that would direct the country in the management of its resources.

If it is properly handled, Nigeria can fight poverty and improve people's lives, she said. We exclusively rely on one source of income; our sources are not diverse. Nigeria does not have a sacrosanct social compact; there needs to be a rule that specifies what should be sacred. To decide how to manage, save, spend, and take aggressive activities on our revenues, we should have guiding principles. As a nation, we must establish a set of benchmarks for how to manage our economy. We stand to gain a great deal if we accomplish this.

We've attended a lot of conferences; now, according to Agbakoba, it's time to address the real issue because, unless the violations are addressed, we won't be able to go past this.

Another guest speaker, Prof. Attahiru Jega, a former INEC chairman, urged Nigerians to participate in the political and electoral processes in order to raise the caliber of candidates that political parties put out for elective offices.

"From 1999 until the present, there has been a striking deterioration in the caliber of leaders. This is a result of Nigeria's leadership and electoral processes not using the proper selection and criteria.

The better for us, in the opinion of Dr. Sony Kuku, the former president of KCOBA, "if we have the right people that love Nigeria, if we can get people into governance without godfatherism, "Ghana must go."