Obasanjo tied to Nigeria’s history, says Osinbajo

Acting President Osinbajo on Saturday said former president Olusegun Obasanjo is intricately tied to the history of Nigeria in many ways.

He noted that Obasanjo was opportuned to make history and also document the account while still alive.

Osinbajo said the former president’s belief in a united Nigeria and his Pan-Africanism were among his legacies.

He said this at the inauguration of Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) and the library’s central mosque as part of activities marking the former president’s 80th birthday.

“Very few human beings have a chance of making history and fewer still have a good fortune of making history and writing it as you go and live longer to even establish a library and write history in your own words,” Osinbajo said.

“History is the most compassionate teacher. At some point in time we were told in an adage that experience is the best teacher but now we know it is only half of a well wise saying.

“The full statement of that adage is that experience is the best teacher for a fool, a wise man doesn’t need the pain of experience, history is a kinder and a more compassionate teacher.

“President Olusegun Obasanjo is therefore a gift in various ways being so intricately tied to the history of Nigeria, few years away from independence to the civil war and then Head of State with the Nigerian people and then the transition to civil rule and them from retirement and farming and being twice elected as President of Nigeria and then handed over to another President.

“At every turn, he recorded his views and perspectives and his perspectives especially of the times in various books, articles, seminars and now in this amazing monument to add credible life of service to our continent and to our world.

“We are fortunate that it is not only a life participant and sometimes victim of the twist and turns of history of our nation and continent but it is an enthusiast, erudite and resources chronic life of his contours and his textures through the years.

“Aside from all else, his enduring legacy will be his belief in one strong, detribalized Nigeria and this is so evident in the gatherings of Nigerians here and also his belief in word and in practice in an Africa united in vision and thoughts.

“Again, that Pan-Africanist vision is evident in the large gathering of African serving and former Heads of governments here present. But we diminish his vision if we do not recognize his place as a world-state man. Even that is evident from the representatives of the world that are present here today.”