Former Executive Secretary of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof Usman Yusuf, has said former president Olusegun Obasanjo knows a lot of secrets about Nigeria, and should be taken seriously when he says something.
Yusuf who made the statement during an interview with Daily Sun, also said all the agitations by groups in the country are purely out of selfish interests, not really in the interest of the people. He said what the ordinary Nigerian from the South wants, is no different from the ordinary Nigerian living in the North which he says is simply a "decent life".
Speaking on the former president, he said, "Former President Obasanjo knows a lot that I do not know by the nature of his office, so wherever the likes of him opens his mouth to talk, we should listen and the leadership should also listen. For me, just like every other citizen in the country, there are lots of issues. We have insecurity, we have economy, we have fuel, we have tariff; there are lots of challenges that we Nigerians are all worried about regardless of where you come from.
"President Obasanjo is privy to a lot of information and intelligence that you and I are not privy to. The words of elders are the words of wisdom; wisemen hear and get wiser. It is not everything that Obasanjo or any critic of government says that the government should dismiss and say ‘you are our enemy.’ Your critics sometime are your best friends. We all Nigerians are worried about the state of the nation, and we all remain prayerful.
On why there are too many groups agitating for different things in the country, he said, "It is nothing but the selfishness of the political elites. What is the difference between Southeast and Southwest; what is the difference between Northwest and North Central, etc?
"These people want to balkanise Nigeria for their own selfish interest; it has nothing to do with the ordinary man. The aspiration of the ordinary Igbo man in Nnewi is the same as the aspiration of ordinary Hausa Fulani in Talata Mafar or the Yoruba man in Ogbomoso; they want a decent life, they want to be able to live in security, they want to be able to send their children to school, they want to be able to eat three times a day and have shelter.
"Their needs and aspirations are the same. The ordinary people will be fighting themselves, but Chukwuma, Mohammed and Bolaji on top are united, but the ordinary people will be fighting because they feel they are divided, all this has to stop. The elites and the political ruling class are the problems of Nigeria and not the ordinary people. We are just breaking Nigeria into pieces for our own selfish interest."