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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed that Nigeria needs more rebels who will speak truth to power not minding whose ox is gored.
The former president stated this on Saturday while unveiling the autobiography of the Babanla Adinni of Egbaland, Tayo Sowunmi, titled ‘Footprints Of A Rebel’ in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.
“Our country, Nigeria, needs more rebels,” he said in his brief remarks while addressing an audience at the event. “Those who would look at things straight in the face and say, ‘This is not right! This, I will not be part of, this is not good for Nigeria.”
The elder statesman stressed that more rebels who would stand and speak for the truth were required for Nigeria to move forward.
According to him, whoever must live a life of honesty and integrity must be a rebel as Nigerians have no other country to call theirs.
“Looking at the title of the book, I ask myself, why would someone call himself a rebel?” Obasanjo queried. “But it is good. The truth is that if you have to live a life of honesty and integrity, you have to become a rebel.
“There would be some time you would be asked have to do something, but you would say no, this is not right. And when you say that you will become a rebel. You may even become a persona non grata. There is no country that we can call our own except Nigeria.”
The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, also gave a speech at the event titled “Worthy Nation Building Legacies By The Older Generation Of Nigerians.”
He called for inter-generational reintegration between the older and younger generations, as part of efforts to rebuild the country.
Bakare, a former running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari, stressed that the effort to rebuild the nation had suffered because of the marginalisation of the youth and the progressives who abandoned politics.