2023 will either birth a new Nigeria or ground it —Obasanjo

FORMER President  Olusegun Obasanjo has described 2023 as the year that will either bring about the emergence of a  new federation or make the country slide into dissolution.

Speaking on Wednesday  when he hosted members of the Tiv Professionals Group at his Penthouse residence within the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) premises in Abeokuta, the former president  urged the nation’s  leaders to ensure that the year 2023 is a watershed in Nigeria.

He noted that all efforts must be geared towards ensuring that 2023 marks the beginning of a new Nigeria,  warning  that if the feeling of rot in the system continues, the nation will be slide into dissolution. He warned those beating  the  drums of war to desist from such, adding that they do not have the interest of the minority ethnic groups at heart.

Obasanjo said: “I do believe that whatever else we do, we have to make the year 2023 a watershed for Nigeria. The year 2023 should give us the beginning of emergence of a new federation or feeling that the rot continues, and then, we are  going to be sliding into dissolution. God forbid.

“If the Yoruba can stand as a country, if the Igbo can stand as a country, if the Hausa/Fulani can stand as a country, if the  major tribes decide to break up from the country, where do you want the minority ethnic groups to stand? That, many  Nigerians don’t know about, unfortunately. “Where do we want those minority groups to stand?

Wherever they stand, now they are by virtue of Nigeria’s present situation a little bit protected. But if Nigeria  breaks up  and they are in a smaller country, they will be oppressed. They will always be exterminated. Are we thinking of that?

“I believe that if we will get it right in Nigeria, any leader must look at Nigeria with the prism of the diversity of Nigeria.  For as long as you look at Nigeria with the prism of your ethnic group, then you aren’t going anywhere; either your  ethnic group or religious group. “But is there hope? There is hope.”

On handling the security challenges facing the  country, Obasanjo urged the Federal Government to adopt a
‘carrot and stick’ approach. He objected to the payment of ransom to kidnappers, urging the Federal Government to  rather come up with decisive steps to deal with criminalities.

Obasanjo argued that payment of ransom to kidnappers  and bandits would further encourage criminality. He decried  that both the administrations of former president Goodluck Jonathan and that of Muhammadu Buhari engaged in  paying ransom to kidnappers and bandits. He said: “Some people are still reaching out, and hoping that lives can still be  saved.

But a situation whereby anybody thinks paying ransom is the way out, that person is a folly. He is a folly. This is because when you pay ransom, you encourage. But if you are not going to pay ransom, you must have the means to deal heavily  with it. You must have the stick to deal with it. “Government has always paid ransom. Not only this government, even  during Jonathan (administration).

They paid ransom, but they denied it.” The leader of the group, Professor Zocharys Anger Gundu, in a paper  presentation, decried the killing of innocent Nigerians in Benue State by those suspected to be herdsmen and bandits.  He called on the former president and other eminent personalities in the country to wade into the situation, saying  “blood is flowing in Benue State and Nigeria seems to be losing the battle against insecurity.”

Gundu called for payment   of compensation to victims of killings and destruction in Tivland while also calling for the  proscription of armed Fulani groups and intensified advocacy against nomadic pastoralism and hosting. Gundu said:  “There are different shades of instability in the country.

Nigeria is truly bleeding to death. There’s even a population  fault-line which could lead to the ‘Lebanon Trap.’ “All patriots must stand together; but if others have to be enslaved  before the country can survive, we will prefer, as Tiv people, to take our destiny in our hands.”

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