Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that late elder statesman, Ahmed Joda saved Nigeria from imminent break-up back in 1966.
He stated this in his tribute to the public administrator, who died aged 91 on Friday.
The ex-president’s tribute was contained in a statement signed by his spokesman, Kehinde Akinyemi.
Obasanjo said that there were not many like Joda, whom he described as a true and great Nigerian committed to the country’s unity and development.
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“Ahmed Joda by his feature did not need to tell you was a Fulani man, but, in everything I know he did, he lived not just as a Fulani man, he lived, he worked and he laboured as a true Nigerian.
”There are not many like him, and that was what strengthened our relationship since 1959. I know that if not for people like Joda and other Senior Permanent Secretaries after the first upheaval we would have had Nigeria broken into pieces.
“Because Araba was bent on having Nigeria divided. But, it was Ahmed Joda and other Super Permanent Secretaries (senior civil servants) like Philip Asiodu, Liman Ciroma, Alison Ayida who prevailed not to have Nigeria broken up,” Obasanjo said.