God Is In Nigeria – Obasanjo Says At The Presentation Of ‘The Letterman’ In Abuja

Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday took a retrospective look at the (mis)fortunes of the country and declared that he believes that God is in Nigeria.

Obasanjo, who spoke at the public presentation of the Book “The Letterman” which is a collection of inside ‘Secret’ Letters of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo,” authored by Musikilu Mojeed, the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Premium Times, said that God loves Nigeria and Nigerians so much in spite of the so many stupid things we have done.

He noted that God has allowed Nigeria to get away with the stupid things owing to the fact that His patience has no limit of elasticity, adding however that if it does, there will soon be a day that God will say; “look I have had enough”.

Obasanjo therefore advised leaders and all Nigerians to leave a legacy of selfless service that would live beyond them.

The former President commended the author of the book, Muskilu, saying that he did an amazing job, adding however that if he was to give the Book another title different from the title, he would give it “The Audacity of An Optimist”, stressing that his letters were nothing of any personal interest to him but for the good of the communities, Nigeria, and the world at large.

In the words of Obasanjo; “I found this Book really amazing. I have finished reading it and I will ask you to try and read it. There are many things that Musikilu said that I have forgotten and he dug them up and presented them. And when I read some of the letters, I marvelled.

“I don’t believe that letter writing is out of date because you have to communicate and how then do you communicate except you will sit down in a relaxed atmosphere, have something to convey and you put it down cleanly and pass it to somebody whom you want to communicate to. I don’t see any substitute to that.

“Letter writing is also an act. When Bishop Kukah was talking to me about this Book after he has read it, he said the language. Of course you must be very careful in the choice of your language so that you convey what you really want to convey unmistakably, directly and depending on what you want to put into it, but your letter must be such that is relevant, realistic, purposeful, and goes to the point to address the issue you want to address succinctly and clearly.

“It must also stand the test of time. I will say almost all the letters stand the test of time whether it was the letter on apartheid in South Africa or between Nkomo and Mugabe, they are letters that we can say stand the test of time.

“And then when I read some of the letters in the book as put by Musikilu and I said to myself, some of you had said that, what gave me the courage. So, I then look at the letters of this book and I said well if you asked me to give it a title, and not title of “Letterman”, I will title it “Audacity of an Optimist”.

“And most of the letters you will find there, there is nothing personal to me about them. Interest of the community, the society, the organization that I belong to, the military, war front, all through the war we fought so that we minimize casualty, so that we can deal with it quickly and get through it so that the country can move on.

“And the fight against apartheid, and you will find out in all these that again not only did I write letters, in some cases I also proffer solutions, some solutions are practical, some are a little unique,” he explained.

Obasanjo said Nigerians probably don’t appreciate what they have as a country, saying that if they do and make good use of it, they will do better than they have done.

He further said; “When Nigeria became independent, it was seen as 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. Why haven’t we? It is not so far to seek. Somebody said how do we find a good leader, well we are here again”.

The Book reviewer, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, who described the Book as a masterful piece of ingenuity, adding that the author, Muskilu has secured an entry visa into the intricate mind of General Obasanjo, adding that the author served the reader with a rich, delicate, delicious salad of anecdotes, military history, diplomacy, friendship and leadership.

Kukah also said that the letters did not come from Obasanjo’s heart but from his head, adding that history is made of the sum total of an inch infinite number of small decisions taken by ordinary people whose actions are too unremarkable to be documented.

In the words of Kukah; “It is not a stretch to say that General Obasanjo is a great man, even his many detractors agree to this. You remember the story, even the man who shined the shoes of the General who wins the war has made a contribution.

“It speaks to the fact that each and every one of us has a contribution to make. It is not a stretch to say that General Obasanjo is a great man, until you realize that General Obasanjo is a walking contradiction, the most ordinary and the most extraordinary of men who can dine with presidents and still fallout and beat up somebody in Kogi.

“When President Obasanjo was President of Nigeria, he saw a policeman beating somebody in Kogi, in one of his visits to Kogi, and literally came down from the podium, called the big man and flogged the policeman for beating the poor man. But you realize that he is an extra-ordinary human-being.

“President, Chief Aremu Okikiola Matthew Olusegun Obasanjo was born with great talent and abilities. He has leverage this to achieve greatness, and has also had greatness thrust upon him by circumstances by man and God. But, Obasanjo is not a man who does everything in the house. The volume of his letters to the most senior officers who served in his time testified to this. Obasanjo wrote to almost all senior military officers, especially those in the Southwest.

“President Obasanjo is assured of a very special place in the history of Nigeria, in the history of Africa, and indeed the history of the world,” Bishop Kukah enthused.

In his own remarks, former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who was represented by former Minister of Aviation, Chief Osita Chidoka, said that former President Obasanjo is a man that is forthright and brutally frank even if his position hurts him.

Speaking in turn, the Chairman of the Occasion, Yusuf Ali SAN, called for a moral rebirth in the country stressing that Nigerians must make up their minds on the kind of country they desired to have and work the talk.

He noted that the Book is a call to the fact those who are going to rule the country should be people who are really lettered and therefore challenged journalists to make it a point of duty to unearth what our leaders are doing.

Ali said; “I also want to challenge all of us that the Nigerian project must not fail. And the challenge is simple, you cannot leave your best and the brightest to go and develop other people’s country and yours will remain.

Earlier in his address of welcome, the publisher of Premium Times, Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi said that the Book, ‘The Letterman’ promises a shrewd insight into the complexion and texture of an epoch-making moment in the broad historiography of leadership in Nigeria.

Olorunyomi said that Muskilu’s deft strategy of weaving the past with its persistent values, to the present with its fleeting anxieties, is such a decent execution of what appears to be an improbable matrimony of history and journalism.

He said that paired with his tactical insistence on interpretations, and on the keen understanding of events, rather than merely chronicling them, the author lifted the work to the heights of professional history, restoring its authenticity away from what a 1 9th century novelist, Zola, had called the vulgar nudity of facts.

He further said; “This work is also a metaphor for the Nigerian media, particularly in an election season, for the sub-text of all the letters in this book ultimately speaks to the key concern for the need for democratic governance of which goal is how to build states that are effective, responsive to social needs, inclusive, and accountable to citizens.

“We are reminded that if the practice of democracy will endure in our country, the media must insist on being sentinels of its enduring values: protecting citizen’s right to choose and replace those who govern them in a free and fair election; insisting on citizen’s right to participate in politics and civic life as citizens; demanding that citizens enjoy equality before the law, and that the human rights of all citizens be of utmost protection. This is the context that produced The Letterman, let us not forget.

“The fog that envelopes our democracy today is therefore not just a question of whether democracy is good or bad. The media has an utmost duty to be thoughtful sentinels, to provide the fora for respectful, insightful, and informed debates. Importantly, reminding citizens, as Sir Donald McKinnon urged us, that: “Democracy is not a destination but a journey.

“I hope that very institution, political party, and individual citizen will make it their business to be part of that journey,” he said.