'Restructure your mentality first before you talk of restructuring Nigeria' - Obasanjo says

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has disagreed with some members of the political class that has been calling for the restructuring of Nigeria. In a recent interview with Channels TV, Obasanjo said what Nigeria needs urgently is the restructuring of our mentality and not the country.

According to him, restructuring our mentality on the kind of country we want and working towards it would get us the kind of country we so much desire to have.

“I have asked six different people who talk about restructuring and six of them gave me different point of views. The other day some people even came to me and what they were talking about doesn’t make sense. We have a country that God has endowed. Now the management of that endowment is what we all have to put all our hands on. All hands must be on deck and look at how to deal with it. Some of them are nostalgic about the independence that they are restructuring. Some of them are nostalgic about immediate post independence. Some of them are nostalgic about their tribe. That is their restructuring. I cannot be part of that. My own restructuring is that we have to restructure our mentality. We have to restructure our mind. We have to restructure our understanding of Nigeria. What country do we want? If we decide on what country we want, then how do we get that country. How do we get the inclusiveness? How d we get every Nigerian feeling a sense of having a stake in the country?”.