Former president Olusegun Obasnjo who recently celebrated his 80th birthday although admitted to not knowing his real age has in a recent interview revealed that he was told by some people that he will be Nigeria’s last president.
The former president who during the course of the week walked out on a Police organised event for lateness of the organisers to start the program in a recent interview with journalists in Abeokuta at his Hilltop home also added that Nigeria’s basic problem is leadership.
He said: “The basic problem is leadership. Look, in 1998. People came to me and said I will be the last president of Nigeria. Why? Because they believed that by the time I finished being president of Nigeria, there would be no Nigeria left. Because we had General Sani Abacha.
“I told them I will lead Nigeria because I believe in Nigeria. And I have nothing to offer than leadership. I will offer leadership. I told them if I failed, I will return to my farm.
“But they turned out to be wrong. I was right. Because after me, we have had Umar Yar’Adua. We have had Goodluck Jonathan. We have had Muhammadu Buhari. So we have had how many years of unbroken democracy? This is the first time we’ll have this stretch. This is the first time in the history of Nigeria as an independent country that we will have peaceful handover from one personality to another in 2007. In the same party. In 2015, from one personality in another. From ruling party to opposition. These are not just easy occurrences.
“I believe we have hope. Yes, we could have achieved much more than we achieved. But we should also know that we could have been worse much more than we are.
“The generation that gave us independence. We may say whatever we like about them. But they gave us independence. My own generation is the generation that followed. You may say what you like about our generation, but we fought for the unity of Nigeria. But that should not be taken for granted. How many countries that went through civil war have broken up?
“So you may say what you like, but we now have a democratic dispensation that has lasted for almost 18 years.”