Ruling Nigeria requires ‘madness’ – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said on Thursday ruling Nigeria requires passion and “madness.”

Obasanjo stated this when he hosted a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant, Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, at his penthouse residence in the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

He said Nigeria was in a critical need of a leader driven by passion and madness to put it on the right footing.

After his meeting with Hayatu-Deen, Obasanjo also hosted the former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, who is vying for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket.

The ex-President said he was perturbed as many other Nigerians on the current situation in the country.

He insisted that Nigeria requires a leader with passion, innovation, and vision for the country.

He said Nigeria can overcome its security challenges within two years with the right leader who would be willing to make tough decisions.

Obasanjo said: “It is an agonising situation for you, obviously, and also for me. I want to emphasise the point that the Nigerian situation, as bad as it is, will only be put right by Nigerians at the forefront of our situation. So, Nigerians have to brace themselves up to do what needs to be done to put Nigeria back on the right path.

“And you are right in saying that, wherever you go now, one of the things you hear is that Nigeria is not on the table, but why shouldn’t Nigeria be on the table? What does it cost Nigeria to be on the table?

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“I will say four things, of which I was reminded this morning. One is knowledge. If Nigeria is not at the table, maybe the knowledge that we should have of ourselves, of our situation, of our continent, and indeed of the world is not that adequate, if that knowledge is adequate, we will do what is right, when it is right and how it is right.

“The second is vision, what is the vision that we have? And if you have no vision, you may have eyes, but you are blind. And I believe that is part of our situation.

“The third is passion. And when you said, that you are involved in this, with a passion and I was telling some people this morning that, passion means madness, that you are mad about Nigeria, I am and I have no apologies for that because I have no other country I can call my own and I have no other country I can go to and say yes, I have come to live here.

“Passion means being mad about Nigeria, having a touch of madness, and I look at you (Hayatu-Deen) and say yes, you are mad about Nigeria too.

“Fourth one is innovation. We cannot be doing the same thing that we have done in the past that did not pay us and continue to repeat it and expect any change, we have to move out of it, we have to innovate, we have to re-strategise.”

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