Don't wait on government for rural developments- Obasanjo

Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has advised Nigerians to unite to improve their respective rural communities, saying government alone cannot satisfy all the infrastructure needs of rural dwellers. Delivering his goodwill message at the 2015 edition of the Ibogun-Olaogun Day in Ibogun Olaogun village, Ifo LGA of Ogun State at the weekend, Obasanjo who  described rural development as a collective responsibility, said: “As responsible people in our respective rural areas, we should not wait for the governments”. He said the physical, social and educational development of rural dwellers largely depends on whatever contributions individual members can make. “We don’t need to wait for government before developing our communities, particularly some of us who were raised from the villages. We should not wait for any government ticket. Let us think of what we can do for ourselves and our communities, what can we do for ourselves to make the village communities more habitable for us”, he said. Obasanjo, who recalled that his paternal village in Ibogun-Olaogun lacked basic amenities such as latrines and bathrooms during his childhood days, expressed happiness that the village can today boast of a Primary Health Clinic, modern toilets, good roads as well as a modern primary school all which were brought through the community efforts. “When I was growing up in this community, there was no latrine, no bathroom or clinic. But today, there are over a dozen people who would have died if the clinic we constructed through community self-effort were not in existence. “Each of us can encourage village renewal. We don’t need to wait for government if we don’t want to tarry for too long. The need to raise funds for our community secondary school was borne out of the need that we could not wait for government to do it for us. We had to carry our load by ourselves before we say government should come to our aide. That is the reality today”, he added. Former Oyo State deputy governor, Taofeek Arapaja, urged the people to heed the former president’s call. Arapaja in his goodwill message, said youths’ rural-urban migration in search of the non-existent “white-collar” jobs would be greatly checked if the rich could fraternise with rural communities to establish industries. “If Baba Obasanjo could be championing the call for rural development, there is nothing stopping us the younger ones to take to his call and go back to our respective rural areas to bring development”, he said.