Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has emphasised the need for the government to foster security and prosperity among other things for the citizens, noting that there would be no governance without the population.
Obasanjo made the call on Friday while speaking in Lagos at a book presentation, titled ‘Pillars of Statecraft: Nation-Building in a changing world’, authored by his daughter, Kofo Obasanjo-Blackshire, positing that the population is core and all other things would amount to nothing if there is no population to deal with.
“When you talk of prosperity, it’s for the people, when you talk of governance it’s because of the people, when you talk of partnership it’s for the people.
“To me population is core and all other things either support, enhances or detract from it but the population is the core. As a nation, you cannot say you don’t have population to deal with.
“I believe that the way you take, regard or value the population determines what you do. If you want to make your population what it should be, you should be able to deliver what is relevant and important.
“That value will depend on education, health, food and nutrition, housing, including all the elements that make you feel that your population is important,” he said.
“Population counts. All other things will amount to nothing if there is no population to deal with. When you talk of prosperity, it’s for the people, when you talk of governance it’s because of the people, when you talk of partnership it’s for the people.
“I believe that if you want to know how a country regards its population, go to the prison and the hospital. How they treat their people in prison and how they look after their sick people will tell you the value they have for their population,” he emphasized.
Director, Africa Progress Group, Prof Peter Okebukola, who wrote the foreword of the book, in his remark, noted that if the leadership and the followership of Africa could apply the fear of God in their daily lives, most of the challenges confronting the continent today would vanish like most in the early morning sun.
The author, Kofo Obasanjo-Blackshire, stated that democracy remained the best political model for inclusive nation-building, stressing that adaptation of Western-style democracy to enable young states to attain robustness in their institutions must be the focus of any attempts at state-building.
“We have seen evidence of similar failure in recent times in the efforts to adopt solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic from the West.
“For instance, implementation of complete lockdowns in Nigeria, a nation whose economy relies heavily on subsistence day-labourers, without providing the safety net or cushion of furlough schemes, national welfare and other support systems which countries like the UK were able to offer their citizens, led to riots, protests and unrest.
“Likewise, Nigeria and other former colonies’ adoption of liberal democracy must accommodate their specific circumstances,” she said.
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