Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has warned that Nigeria and other African countries must urgently tackle poverty before it causes a major crisis. He said this during a leadership lecture in Ibadan titled “How to End Hunger and Poverty in Africa.”
Obasanjo said Nigeria has no excuse to be suffering from abject poverty. “If China can lift 700 million people out of poverty, then Nigeria should have no business with abject poverty. Until we banish poverty in Africa, the international community will not take us seriously. If we don’t take responsibility, we are all sitting on a gunpowder keg,” he said.
He also stressed the importance of leadership, education, and good governance in ending poverty. “Leadership is the greatest ingredient for ending poverty. No human activity can succeed without it. To get it right, we must ensure no child is uneducated,” Obasanjo said.
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The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, also spoke at the event. He encouraged Nigerians to support the government and promote local products.
Ogunwusi said, “If we want to break poverty in this country, we have to be patriotic in all ways — from the food we eat to the clothes we wear. We may not get it right at first, but very soon, we will be the envy of the world,” he said.
Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, who also attended, blamed a lack of humility and fear of God among leaders.
“Most political officeholders are too big to reach out to the people. The problem we have is that people don’t have the fear of God,” Adeleke said.
Adeleke added that he had invited Obasanjo to see the development in Osun. “I am trying to build the Atlanta standard of spaghetti junction,” he noted.
The event was organized by Chief Dele Momodu, who launched a new leadership centre in Ibadan to promote solutions to poverty and hunger in Africa.