The symposium was attended physically and virtually by eminent personalities, including: Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, President Nicéphore Soglo (Benin), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Professor Goski Alabi (Ghana); Ambassador Barry Desker (Singapore); Professor Juma Shabani (Burundi); Dr. Mary Khimulu (Kenya); Dr. Moussa Kondo (Mali); Professor Sarah Agbor (Cameroon); Professor Chukwuma Soludo and Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, among others.
Obasanjo, speaking on theme of the symposium, “Africa Narrative with Nigeria Situation”, insisted that Nigerians must learnt from the events of the past and put aside sentiments in choosing the next President of the country.
He said: “I cast a cursory look at some of the people running around and those for whom people are running around. If the EFCC and ICPC had done their jobs properly and were supported adequately by the judiciary, most of them would be in jail.
“Any person who has no integrity in small things cannot have integrity in big things. Fixing Nigeria must begin on the principles of nation building, not necessarily on emotion, sentiments, euphoria, ignorance, incompetence, ethnicity, nepotism, bigotry, sectionalism, regionalism, religion or class.
“The issues of security, stability, development, economy and our relationship within Africa and with the rest of the world can only be taken care of if we get the issue of the nation building right.
“We have a lot to learn from the events of the last almost 24 years and God is not to blame if we fail.
It would appear that we are not getting our priorities right and that can spell doom on our country if we fail to do what we should do for nation-building in terms of fundamentals of equity, justice, common ideals, popular education, shared values, mutual respect and equality of opportunity anchored and propelled by leaders across the board that are persons of integrity, honour, morality, competence, great virtue, courage to do what is right, humility and ability to put a team together and work with them in selfless devotion and service with the fear of God.”