Fight for Nigeria’s survival, Obasanjo tells youths

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has told youths to take up the responsibility and effect the needed change in Nigeria instead of blaming the previous generations for the nation’s decay.

The former President said this at the 100th-year anniversary of Ijero Baptist Church in Lagos on Sunday.

Obasanjo said the generation before him fought for Nigeria’s independence while his generation fought for Nigeria’s unity during the civil war.

He said the subsequent generation also fought for democracy.

Obasanjo, therefore, said it was time for the next generation to make its own contribution to national development instead of complaining.

He said, “Recently, a son of my friend looked at everything around him and got angry and went to meet his dad who is my age mate. He told his father that our generation is a lost one. The father did not pay him any attention so he came to meet me.

“He told me what he told his father and justified it by telling me that he went to the university and graduated but got no job. So, our generation has failed him. So I told him that it is normal because that was how we used to blame the generation before us.

“But I told him that the generation before mine was the one that fought for our independence. Whichever way we want to criticise them, they gave us independence. Then my generation which you say is not good, fought the civil war. We fought for the unity of Nigeria and if we did not do so, you probably would need a visa to travel to Kano or Port Harcourt. Not only that but that generation also established the foundation of democracy.

“So what do you claim your generation has achieved? It is part of it. We have seen what successive leaders of each generation have done, what can we say about you? What can we say about your generation?”

Obasanjo, who noted that he attended the Ijero Baptist Church for the first time in 1946, said that the fact that the church was still standing after 100 years was worth celebrating.

The minister in charge, Rev. Olayemi Aderibigbe, who also inaugurated the Ijero Baptist Church History Book, urged youths to continue to build on the good which the church had done over the years so as to be able to give a lasting legacy to the next generation.