Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has lamented the current state of Nigeria.
Obasanjo insisted that bad leadership has made Nigeria drip in bitterness and sadness.
He spoke at an event at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.
Obasanjo said bad leadership has made it difficult for Nigeria to attain its destiny of being a land flowing with milk and honey.
He, however, urged Nigerians to change the narrative.
Obasanjo said: “My prayer is that all of us will have something to contribute to making this country what God has created it to be – a land flowing with milk and honey.
“Right now, it is a land flowing with bitterness and sadness; that is not what God wants this country to be.
“We must change the narrative; we must talk to ourselves in the civilized language.
“Nowhere you go in this country (that) you will not see geniuses in any section. So why should we look down on ourselves?” he asked.
For Tunde Bakare, Senior Pastor of the Citadel Global Community Church, corrupt leaders have steered the country to its current state.
Bakare, who contested with President Muhammadu Buhari as running mate in the 2011 claimed the President never listened to his ideas on how to move the country forward.
The cleric, who spoke with BBC Yoruba, recalled how Nigerians voted for Buhari because they believed thought that he would understand Nigeria’s complexities and lead it on the right path being a former military leader.
He said the same set of people who laid faulty foundation for the nation as youths have refused to quit the state as adults.
They brought us here before they grew old in the job and refused to leave”, he said, warning that “Nigeria will continue to deteriorate unless we turn around and make amends and ask those stronger than us to help us.”
On how he met Buhari, the cleric said: “I was in my house when I started the Save Nigeria Group. It was to help the country. I never knew Jonathan or Yar’Adua. God only showed me a vision and I started moving around, saying ‘do not let Nigeria go bad’. Professor Wole Soyinka, Akinrinade, renowned people of Yoruba extraction joined us.
“That was where Buhari first saw me and decided he could bring me close. We too, we wanted to know his intentions for Nigeria. That was how we met in Kaduna. I had in mind to help Nigeria but when Awolowo could not become the president, as a good person, I washed my hands off.”
He blamed the growing agitations for secession on the state of affairs in the country.
Bakare said: “We should find a way of making Nigeria progress. We can’t leave our country for another. We have to take a stand and make Nigeria work. When separatist groups see that things are getting better in the nation, they will drop their grievances.”