Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed that Nigeria is living in the shadow of itself, saying that it is yet to live to the world’s expectation.
He said Nigerians should not blame God for the country’s failures since it gained independence from Britain in 1960.
Obasanjo stated this at the launch of a book by the Editor-in-Chief of Premium Times, Musikilu Mojeed, titled “The Letterman: Inside the ‘Secret’ Letters of former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo” in Abuja on Thursday.
The former President described Nigeria as a “giant in the sun” that had since underperformed by the world’s expectations.
According to him, “when Nigeria became independent, it was a giant in the sun. That was the expectation. Not a giant even in Africa, a giant in the sun. That was the expectation of the world about Nigeria.
“Have we lived up to it? No. If we haven’t, why haven’t we? I think we probably don’t appreciate what we have as a country and I believe if we do appreciate it and make good use of it, we would do better than we are now.
“I believe the right lessons must be learned. We have all that we need to have; God has given us all that we need to have. That we are not doing what we should do, God is not to blame and we should blame ourselves,” Obasanjo said.
Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Kukah, who reviewed the book, praised the former president for his outspokenness, which he described as a rarity for a soldier of his time.
“There is a streak in the letters. You will see his abiding passion and patriotic commitment to the principles and beliefs on the professionalism of the military, even at what I would call a middle-level role in his life as a soldier,” the bishop said.
“This is marked by a rare show of courage. And for me, this courage is a bit strange because as you will see, there is a stubborn streak in the quality of the letters and even the people that he addresses.
“And I’m saying to myself as I’m reading these letters, ‘Has the military changed? Was the military just some casual classroom in the ’60s?’ Because how could Obasanjo write all these kinds of things and get away with them?”
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