Speaking in an interview with The Point Newspaper, Obasanjo
averred that his administration’s mistakes were genuine and was devoid of
personal interests.
He said;
“People who worked with me, it doesn’t matter where they
come from, they remember what we did together. There is no question of
favouritism, there is no question of, yes, this is my kith and kin. There is no
question of this is my personal interest.
“I never say that we didn’t make mistake or we are perfect,
but whatever mistake we made was a genuine mistake. It wasn’t a mistake we made
as a result of selfishness.”
On claims of him not doing much for the Yorubas, Obasanjo
said;
“Some Yoruba have come to me and said you didn’t do enough
for the Yoruba. I said, ‘Yes, did I do for Nigeria?’ They said, ‘You did?’ I
asked, is Yoruba not part of Nigeria? If I did as I could for Nigeria and
Yoruba are part of Nigeria, then I have done for the Yoruba as well as I have
done for Igbo, Hausa and so on. I think that must guide us,” he said.
“Yes the question is what is my guiding principle? Nigeria.
You know it is true I became the President on the platform of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP). Now I am not a PDP man, I am not an APC (All
Progressives Congress) man, even I am not an ADC (African Democratic Congress)
man. But if you ask for my party, I will say Nigeria is my party.”
The former President who called on incumbent leaders to look
beyond the moment because their actions will be a reference point later in the
future, affirmed that Nigeria can be great with generational consistency in
good leadership.
Obasanjo added;
“The point you must bear in mind is that this country can be
a great country. We have everything to make this country great. And that is
what always worries me. When you see what we can do, how to do it, and we are
not doing it. That is really unfortunate.
“Can we get there? I believe we can. All we need is one generation of consistency
in leadership, we will be there. That is what we need. We need one generation
of right leadership consistently.
“When you are in a position of leadership, don’t think only of today, think of tomorrow, because, look, you would be a reference point. How did he perform? How did he do? What did he do? In future, people would refer to it. For one thing, I have no mind for malice. I cannot even think of malice. And when I have a job to do, I sink myself into it.”
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