THE POLITICIAN COLOURED NOVEMBER 2013 | Page 104

Nigeria became the investment hub of Africa as foreign investors flocked to our shores and sunk billions of dollars into our economy due to the enabling entrepreneurial environment that was created by the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration. Women took their rightful places as leaders of sev- eral government ministries, Nigerians in the Diaspora began to shut up shop and return home to take advantage of the countless economic opportunities that were now available, and many of them have never looked back. Both Citigroup and the World Bank gave the Nigerian economy a clean bill of health and cited that Nigeria was the nation to watch with regards to economic supremacy in the new markets. Over and above this catalogue We are a nation that has been blessed by God with unprecedented Natural and human resources and with a population fast approaching 200 million, it is truly an entrepreneur’s wet dream. 200 million people who need to be fed, clothed, educated, housed and entertained, and the entrepreneurs that can supply those needs to the population will prosper, and are indeed prospering beyond their wildest dreams. Look around you, the Indians, the Chinese, the Europeans and Americans are flocking to our shores in order to capitalise on this economic renaissance, and the Lebanese have practically made Nigeria their home because they know that they cannot prosper in Lebanon in the manner with which they are doing in Nigeria. President Obasanjo fought tireless for the preserva- tion of our national unity via the strategy of political inclusion. He made sure that all the ethnic/geopolitical zones across the nation where fairly/proportionately represented and that the proverbial “national cake” was evenly distributed across the states. of achievements by the President hallOlusegun Obasanjo administration, The principles of fairness and equity where the and in marks of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration had ended, the greatest fete of his administra- 2007 when his tenurefor unity andhe once again demonstrated his passion national tranquillity by supporting a candidate of Northern extraction to tion has to be the creation and prescontest the PDP presidential primaries, that candidate ervation of the unity of Nigeria. not only won the primaries but he later went on to win elections 2007. Without comproA kingdom divided against itself the Presidentialbe no unityinand those who refuse the mise there can the wisdom of the unofficial “zoning” cannot stand, irrespective of the seenot have the interest of Nigeria at heart.arrangement do vast natural and human resource that such a kingdom might possess. The divine wisdom, with which President Obasanjo Even in a family unit which sociol- regularly functioned in, is what saved our union and kept the nation united. One tribe/ethnic group cannot ogy describes as the smallest unit of hope to govern peacefully if they don’t recognise the socialisation, there cannot be prog- leadership qualities/potentials in neighbouringtotribes. Every ethnic group in Nigeria has something conress and prosperity outside of unity. tribute towards the leadership of the nation and the recognition of this truth and its pragmatic implementaNigeria has never lagged in poten- tion by the Obasanjo administration was what secured forever the oneness of Nigeria. tial or in economic possibility. 88