Former President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo says Nigerians must work and pray hard towards putting Nigeria on the part of growth and development in 2021.

He also declared that leaders should stop blaming God for the ravaging insecurity, bad economy, poverty and other challenges confronting the nation.

He noted that the nation’s woes remain the ‘choice’ of the leaders and followers, insisting that the narrative must change as the country approaches 2021.

Obasanjo said this on Tuesday at his Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, Ogun State, on his 2021 message to Nigerians.

“Nigeria shouldn’t be poor”

According to him, with enormous resources available in the country, Nigeria does not have to be poor and no Nigerian must go to bed hungry.

He described 2020 as a year of many challenges, but urged Nigerians to work and pray hard in order to achieve “a glorious 2021.

Obasanjo said “I like the motto of a school which says ‘work and pray.’ Some people say it should be ‘pray and work’, but it doesn’t matter to me in what order I put it, but prayer must go with work and work must go with prayer.

“And I believe we need to work hard in this country as we pray hard so that the coming year, the year 2021 will be a glorious year for us. But it will not happen unless we work to make it happen.

“We do not have to blame God for our situation, we have to blame ourselves. Nigeria does not have to be poor, no Nigerian must go to bed hungry. That we have a situation like that is a choice by our leaders and followers alike. My prayer is that God will make year 2021 a better year for all of us, but it will not happen without work.”

On what to do to recover the economy from recession, Obasanjo said “When we do the right thing. We are not doing the right thing now. When we do the right thing, the economy will be what it should be.”