Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has raised the
alarm on the current state of disunity in the country, stressing that Nigeria
was not as divided as this during the civil war in comparison to the worst
situation of things as they are now.
Speaking at a one-day ‘2019 annual retreat/conference and
general meeting’ of members of Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks
in Nigeria (ACAEBIN) held at Park Inn, Abeokuta in Ogun State on Thursday,
Obasanjo, who was a guest speaker on the topic 5Ps, urged Nigerians to partner one
another at home, within communities, states, countries, sub-African region and
African continent.
"When we look at this country today, even during the
civil war, we were not as divided as we are now. Today, we are in danger if we
don't take partnership serious. That partnership should be within our people, Africa
and the rest of the world," Obasanjo said.
According to the former president, private sector is
the life blood of development in every economy of a country.
He said: "As chief audit, it is defined by
virtue of what you are doing as a profession. If the audit is awry, banking
business will not be right.
"What I want to emphasise is that it is a must
as Nigerians and Africans that we have certain elements that we have to take
very seriously which I put as 5Ps.
"The first is politics which is governance.
Unless we get governance right, any other thing we are trying to do will not be
right.
"The second is population. Our population at
independence was estimated to be 45 million, but today we are almost 200
million. By the year 2050, we will be over 400 million. Normally, population
should be an asset but looking at the condition we are in now, when in the
North-east of Nigeria, the percentage of adult literacy is about 53 percent,
and education being the basic of all human development, you can see that we
have a problem.
"How do we think of setting education to be
useful? Those people who will make our education over 400 million people in many
years’ time are already born, and you cannot unborn them. So the problem is
here, what do we do?
We must provide education for them, housing, healthcare
and most importantly, employment for them.
"One thing that I believe will help us is to
provide employment is agricultural business. And you in the banking business
must pay attention to how we build the agriculture sector. I am not talking of
horticulture, I am talking of the whole value chain, from land preparation to
the end product. And if we are able to get that right, maybe we will be able to
get the issue of employment for our teeming youths right as well as rural
development right.
"The next one is prosperity. I am not being
bothered about Nigeria or Africa’s poverty. We have everything to generate
wealth. We have God-given resources under our soil. We also have human
resources. If we bring these together, then we will definitely get prosperity
"Another one is security. People must be
protected in all aspect. Protection of lives and property is most important.”
In his welcome address, Ogun State Governor, Senator
Ibikunle Amosun, said the state government has always been desirous of partnering
practical efforts that positively impact on the lives of the people,
particularly, in the area of financial management.
"Our motivation as an administration towards
making lives abundant for our good people is to ensure optimal utilisation of
the available resources as well as block all leakages and wastage of our
resources," Amosun said.
The governor, who was represented by the state Commissioner
for Finance, Mr. Adewale Oshinowo, while speaking on the theme: ‘Banking in the
digital age: challenges and opportunities’, noted that "as the operating
environment changes, the knowledge and skill required to effectively perform
audit assignments have become more sophisticated."
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