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  • Politics - Politics
  • Updated: July 14, 2020

Obasanjo Speaks On His Govt’s Mistakes, Favouring Yoruba As President

Obasanjo Speaks On His Govt’s Mistakes, Favouring Yoruba A

 

Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has stated that there was no question of favouritism when he was in government, stressing that everything he did while in office was in the best interest of Nigeria rather than for his personal gains.

Obasanjo, who spoke in an interview published in The Point Newspaper, a weekly Nigerian tabloid, on Monday, he pointed out that those who claimed that he did nothing for the South-West or the Yoruba were wrong.

He disclosed that some South-West elders had complained that he did not do as much for his home region (Yoruba), but he told them that if he did well for Nigeria, he had also done well for the South-West.

According to him, “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.

“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,” he said.

The former president said that any mistake made by his administration (he was Nigeria’s president between 1999 to 2007) was a genuine one that was not based on selfish interest.

He said, “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.

“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.”

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