Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that Nigerians ought to blame themselves and not God for the current state of the nation.
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Obasanjo said this at his Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State, in his 2021 message to Nigerians on Tuesday, December 29.
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According to him, with enormous resources available in the country, Nigeria does not have to be poor and no Nigerian must go to bed hungry.
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"I like the motto of a school which says 'work and pray.' Some people say it should be 'pray and work', but it doesn't matter to me what order I put it, but prayer must go with work and work must go with prayer.
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And I believe we need to work hard in this country as we pray hard so that the coming year, the year 2021 will be a glorious year for us. But it will not happen unless we work to make it happen.
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We do not have to blame God for our situation; we have to blame ourselves. Nigeria does not have to be poor. No Nigerian must go to bed hungry. That we have a situation like that is a choice by our leaders and followers alike. My prayer is that God will make the year 2021 a better year for all of us, but it will not happen without work."his message read
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On the strategy to recover the economy from recession, Obasanjo said
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"When we do the right thing, the economy will be what it should be.
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We have gone from one form of insecurity to a bad economy, and on the top of it is the COVID-19. Some people, either for insecurity or the bad economy or COVID-19, have gone to the great beyond. I will say to those who have departed, particularly in this year of challenges, may their souls rest in perfect peace."
