Nigeria Not Yet A Nation, Says Obasanjo

 

Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday said the greatest challenge confronting Nigeria is nation-building, noting that Nigeria is only a country yet to attain nationhood.

 Speaking at the Prize/ Award presentation to the winners of the 2021 schools debatecompetitioninUmuahia, the Abia State capital, Chief Obasanjo, said: “One of the things we need in this country is nation-building. We have a country, not a nation. And you cannot have that except you build equity, equality, fairness, and justice, where everyone will be free to realize their full potential.”

The TheformerPresidentsaid security and education (the topic of the school debate) were essential tools of the development of any nation, adding thatanynationthatneglected that would pay dearly for it. According to him, national security guarantees personal security, adding that personal, food, job securities, etc. were directly linked to national security.

He also said every family and State in Nigerianeedsecurityjustasthe country needed it. To the student winners of the debate, he said: “One of the things you need to cultivateinlifeiscommunication. You cannot go far if you can’t communicate.

If you have a good idea it cannot be useful without communication.” Chief Obasanjo later presented prizes to the winners, Immaculate International School, Standard International Secondary School, and Ndume Otsuka Secondary School, who won the first, second and third prizes respectively. Earlier, the president of Vision Africa Radio, the organizers of the competition in collaboration with the state’s Ministry of Education, BishopSundayOnuoha, said the theschools’debatehadgrown over the years to become a state event in which students of secondary schools were givenopportunitytocompete for prizes as a motivation to greater academic attainment.