Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday declared that most Nigerians leaders are empty, saying they lack the knowledge and understanding of the positions they crave.

Obasanjo said, “You will weep for our nation over their level of emptiness as far as development issues are concerned.”

The elder statesman disclosed that he is in support of necessary reforms, as total dismantling would be retrogressive and destructive.

While tasking new Nigerian leaders to remove the nation’s impediments, Obasanjo lamented that most of the leaders in positions are ready to help the development of the nation.

The former president said this in his keynote address presented via video recording at the launch of the book, ‘Reclaiming The Jewel of Africa’, written by former minister, Olusegun Aganga in Abuja.

Obasanjo, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi, agreed with the author’s call for reforms, saying, however, that “total dismantling is destructive and retrogressive.”

He observed that in the book, “adequate emphasis is not placed on leadership as the crucial and critical defining and decisive factor in determining the shape, form, direction, speed, content and trajectory of development for any human organisation and especially for a nation like Nigeria.”

To him, “leadership is the key to unlock and remove the impediment to Nigeria’s attainment of its divine stature and status and being kept a Lilliputian.”

He stated that most of the country’s leaders, “If you ask why they want to be in the position they are craving for, you will weep for your nation over their level of emptiness as far as development issues are concerned.

“What do they understand for peace, security, stability, predictability, development, growth and progress to be actualised? I believe that peace, security, democracy and prosperity must be taken together.”