FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo says the Nigerian youths participating in the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests are fighting a legitimate cause and deserve a listening ear.
“What the youth (protesters) are demanding are very legitimate and should be listened to or why should they be denied what rightfully belongs to them?
“They are frustrated, they are hungry, they are angry, they are unemployed, they deserve to be given listening ears,” Obasanjo said at his residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Obasanjo spoke while receiving six members of the House of Representatives who are co-sponsors of bills on single term of six year, rotation of presidency between the north and the south as well as rotation of governorship slot among the three senatorial districts of each of the 36 states.
In his remarks, Obasanjo said that successive administrations had not built on the foundation he laid while he was in office, saying that this had also caused a lot of drawbacks for the country.
He said, “More than anything else such as changing our system of government, moving to a single term of six or four years, we must change our ways of doing things in this country. We must decarbonise our brains, we must change our mentality and characters.
“How I wish that the succeeding governments are building on the foundation we laid even if not so fast as one would have wanted it but sadly the blocks we put there are even being removed.
“What I Know about Nigeria is that yes, if we get it right, the leadership, the team, because one tree does not make a forest, you need a good leader but you also need a good team for a well done job.
“The point is that if we get this right in about two and half years, we shall get some of the challenges behind us and in about 10 years we will have gotten a solid foundation and in about 25 years we will be there.
“But what we have always done is to take one step forward, two steps aside and four steps backwards and it is why we are where we are in the country.
“For me it is not so much about the system but we may need to rethink the liberal democracy where we talk of loyal opposition. What we do in Africa is that we sit down and get consensus and after we have done that there is no opposition. Everyone is on the same page and we move together.
“The word for opposition in all African languages that I have looked into is enemies. What do you do with loyal enemies? Nothing like that once you take it, it belongs to you, the winners take all and the opposition goes into the wilderness. That is what we do but this is not good. We need everyone to join hands together and move society forward.
“The issue for me if we get it right whether we have a single term of six years or two terms of four years is that we must decarbonise our brains and mentality.”
Speaking on the planned single term agenda, he said, “Look if you give him (referring to any elected president) a period of single term of six years, he can go ahead and still do the evil he would have done in two terms of four years (each). The only difference is that he would have done that within the period of six years and not four years and that is if he is not reelected for another four years.
“To me this is not out problem, our main problem is ourselves and until we take care of ourselves. If we like, let us adopt single term of six years, one term of four years among others with the same mentality and same way of doing things, nothing will change
“So the very beginning is ourselves. Yes system, yes we have to rethink our democracy but the character of people in government must change. With all due respect, most of those in government should right now be behind bars or in gallows”.
Obasanjo said that the three arms of the government, the civil service and the private sector must change their ways “otherwise we all sink in the same boat called Nigeria.”