Faces Of Africa - Chief Obasanjo at your service

General obasanjo president of Nigeria until 2007 and since then a Statesman spreading wisdom across Africa and meanwhile building his Presidential Library at home but on the downside he was suspected of corruption so who is this man that has chicken farms across Nigeria and never wears a suit Chief orasanu servicing humanity and servicing God I I I want to I I want to see um um uh what do you call I want to see uh vital oh yeah [Music] [Music] an ordinary day in aoka in Western Nigeria Chief obasanjo attending visitors to his Presidential Library complex Chief obasanjo lives here in a 50 roomed mansion on a Hilltop yes so when they get small Snak here he works but he also relaxes like watching television enjoying Nigeria [Music] playing to with love and strength [Music] [Music] and it is this buzzing nation that Chief obasanjo has been ruling as a president until 2007 retirement in his home area AB beok cuta seems not to be the option among other things he is working on his Presidential Library building that has to house a permanent exhibition of his life history and his work as the president of Nigeria in America every president from from uh Roosevelt uh go into building a Presidential Library which is taken over by a national agency to maintain and to run and the president C ceases to be the owner although it's named after him but it becomes a National Treasure as big it all might seem iGun obasanjo started small in a village as the son of a modest family his parents couldn't afford their boy more education than primary school and here amidst the rural areas they seemed not so much more to do for obasanjo than joined the army when he was 21 years old obasanjo Rose fast in the ranks and became the commander of the unit that was crucial in ending the bafra war that raged in Nigeria from 1967 to [Music] 1970 the BFRO War often turned the Nigerian civil war started after the government moved against separatists that had de declared their own bafra State under command of Colonel uku the Nigerian Army tried to reclaim bafra between 1967 and 1970 then obasanjo as a commander was ordered to lead a unit to recapture bafra and that eventually led to the surrender of the secessionists formally give up session and report for for reappointment and redeployment any future constitutional Arrangement will be worked out by representatives of the people of Nigeria that the Republic of bafra hereby ceases to exist although considered a war hero obasanjo had mixed feelings to me uh having to use Nigerians to fight Nigerians uh is not a pleasant uh task especially when the officers and Men on the other side are people with whom you have grown up together people you have trained together people you have lived together it is uh a harrowing experience his role in securing bafra made obasanjo politically interesting for Nigeria but according to namdi obasi a senior Nigerian analyst of the international crisis group his real Ascension to power came six years later in 1976 when General Goan was deposed by General mtala Muhammad because of indiscipline and poor government performance I think it was the fact that he came on the stage as part of the what we used to call the M muala Administration an Administration that came out with very well defined purposes and very well defined goals and a very well- defined time frame about how long it was going to stay in office so people thought there was a much more disciplined government and a much more purposeful government than the one before it but mtala Muhammad was assassinated in 1976 when bullets were fired at his car in an aborted coup this made his chief of staff iGun obasanjo military president of Nigeria OB basen embarked on a policy of boosting the economy by Reviving Agriculture and by improving the oil sector to facilitate exploitation of the oil fields in the niga Delta obasanjo founded the Nigerian National Petroleum corporation that is a joint venture of the government and foreign oil companies this joint venture made it possible that oil companies could receive military support from the government against protest from the local population this led to Nigeria's first oil boom in the late 1970s during these military years president obasanjo received his first opposition for giving too many favors to the army that allegedly was corrupt election in Nigeria election among the protesters was musician and activist fella couti criticizing the Army and his album [Music] zombie fella passed away in 1997 but his son FEI remembers that 1,000 soldiers sent under obasanjo's responsibility raided the compound of his father in Lagos on February 18th 1978 F's 78-year-old mother during this attack was thrown from a third floor window and died shortly afterwards her name was funo Ransom couti and at the time she was a well-known women's rights activist in Nigeria FEI CTI remembers that there was never an apology they tried to settle out of court from what I hear but my father's lawyer I think what they were trying to settle was maybe probably peanuts and my father's lawyer advised tund BR advised they go to court and make it public and then going public was when my father now lost the case and they said they can't identify who borned the house but everybody knows soldiers bur the house down everybody knows what happened on that day last year it is after the 1997 presidential elections General obasanjo showed another face he kept the pledge made by his predecessor Malala Muhammad to hand over power to a civilian government this made sheu shagari the first civilian president after 13 years of military rule I welcome wholeheartedly and accept this great Challenge and opportunity to serve my country as its chief executive from across Africa and the International Community he was lorded for having done so obasanjo says he did that because of having strong belief in democracy democracy is not a perfect form of government but in a society like our own where we have multinational groups um the Yuba the house of Lani the EOS and you have not less than 350 50 different ethnic groups now the best form of government is a government that allows for them to have a sense of participation that allows for them to discuss and debate and uh dialogue uh and democracy does that I I think OB Joy is a very wise man I think he realized that um every government however good you are will get to a point where you lose goodwi of the people and therefore it's better to quit the stage when the Ovation is still loud or loudest obasanjo at 41 retired from the military and engaged in a venture bringing him back home to the Farmland around aoka where he originated from as a believer in agriculture he started a chicken farm now 35 years later there are obasanjo chicken farms across Nigeria and they became a household name but despite oas's belief in democracy shagari was deposed after 4 years because of bad governance making it look like Nigeria was not ready for Democratic rule well I won't look at it that way I I will put it this way that once a country has been bedeviled by uh cool it take some time it takes some time so what is needed is how to move that country from K and K because K becomes a musical chair uh and that happened in Nigeria uh those who remove uh shagari in 1983 after some time they had internal uh coup or if you like Palace coup of their own and then there was another coup and uh so but but it what what was important is for the military to be made to realize that cou is not an option and after shagari mostly military presidents removed each other as a carousel leaving the country in stagnation [Music] the darkest period of Nigeria after obasanjo's first rule was the military rule of sun abacha I therefore expect of all of you at all times loyalty Good Conduct and Exemplar leadership qualities under abacha obasanjo was accused of a coup attempt and was imprisoned when in 1998 Sunny abacha suddenly died obasanjo was released and came back as president after the 1999 elections and since then they have been no more coups in Nigeria so what I did was to say look anybody any Soldier or any military man that has benefited directly from a cool process should leave the uh military um they were uh retired they were not uh punished uh the sense of saying you are uh terminated or anything but then it also sends a message that yet uh coup is not tolerated and anytime you Carri out a cool there is still uh it can catch up with you and it's caught up with people about 93 officers were retired during his presidencies from 1999 to 2007 obasanjo tried to improve the roads and transport system and to do something against Power shortages obasanjo managed to boost the economy but looking back he considers his biggest failure that he couldn't have done more well failure I wish I had had more money at the beginning of uh my Administration in 1999 when I came in in 1999 the total revenue um reserve of Nigeria was $3.7 billion uh not enough to uh to pay for our um uh import of goods and services for 3 months so that situation went on for almost four years and the people we were applying to or we were uh uh appealing to to come and invest in um in power generation we are not responding enough but but by the time we got money coming in the price of oil went up from about $9 a barrel uh when we uh came into government to uh over 40 uh dollars a barrel um then we were able to do a lot more than we have done and somehow connected to power shortages came allegations of corruption seemingly inevitable for any African leader in 2008 it showed that $16 billion was spent during obasanjo's Administration for electricity projects without significantly improving power supply obasanjo's possible involvement in embezzling funds was not proved but not investigated either a greater part of the revenue country's revenue is pent by the federal government and therefore um when you beam the SE light of corruption on States and local governments that is good enough but then perhaps you should do the same if not more intensively at the federal level and if you're doing that at the federal level then the president more than anybody else ought to be under constant scrutiny and we've never quite had that either under or under subsequent presidents FEI CTI thinks aasu has to go to court to be investigated for corruption but fears that will never happen because Nigeria is too corrupt and everybody involved that everybody that will be involved in there's no honest government that has the authorization to bring past leaders to court and this shows a president that during his career endured and survived several setbacks AO Adali is a Nigerian businessman who worked for obasanjo for the last 20 years in his African leadership Forum he knows very well how he can react to setbacks times he takes it on his chin then there are times he lets go vo and you better have a heart if he really decides to explode on you you better yes when he screams at you like you know like a regimental sergeant major on the parade ground or in the Barrack you know that kind of you feel like the whole world is going to crash on your head so if you're not strong really if you don't have the capacity to take it on the chin and just say it's just another day in the office but overall ad says the president is amicable if you respect the obass your ground rules you have to be very hardworking if you guys are going to get along you have to be very hard working that's important number two be honest with him don't play games with don't play games don't try to be clever with him no matter how bad any situation is one thing I have learned is to give it to him straight no games nothing you know he will tell you you cannot overin him you can only underinformative look the world that it will happen is he going to scream at you and you think the whole world is coming on your head but his back is actually worse than his bite and when looking at pictures of obasanjo next to the world leaders of his time another aspect of his personality appears he has not seen anywhere in a suit no no he doesn't have one he may have gone around the whole walls and all of that the essential ofel never left I's Village I believe that your culture is also part of your identity and that is something that you should never allow to be taken away from you which includes your name your food your dance and your dress so um by my upbringing I'm a man who cherish uh culture and tradition this makes obasanjo differ from other African leaders that only occasionally wear traditional dresses like South African president Zuma who doesn't do that outside his own country yeah I don't know maybe the dress that he wears H when he goes on uh occasions of tradition and all that maybe uh it's not um uh it's not as easy to wear when he goes out because there are they they have uh animal skin and and all that along with them uh I I I think in our own part um we probably we have lost uh the uh culture of animal skin many many years ago because as you said I can can wear my dress anywhere in the world occasionally gets cold so I try to uh wear some form of theral underwear why not please he is very comfortable with he's totally at home with it this Absolute Comfort in oneself reflects on oasen Jo's current construction of the so-called Presidential Library in auta he has assembled a complex of sites creating Revenue that is used to pay for the completion of the main building that will contain literature and memorabilia of obasanjo's life and work [Music] the project was initiated in 2005 and the cost is now estimated at $55 million and received a fair amount of comments within Nigeria for being too expensive while there were more urgent needs it's not the government money so I I will not go and get donation and start building Road um i i people have donated from within Nigeria from outside Nigeria when you remember these things then it it it instructs the present and it also Inspire the future it is necessary not surprisingly a part of the exhibition is to highlight the ups and downs of Bassinger's career and focusing on what he sees as his biggest achievement keeping Nigeria together and keeping it as prosperous as we could at that time that we had the opportunity Because by the time I came some people said I will be the last president of Nigeria believing that Nigeria will break up some people said well um you will not even last one year I lasted eight years um and after me two presidents have come and I pray and hope that more president will continue to come to sustain this uh democracy it is since 2007 that obasanjo left his country with an infrastructure that made it become the first economy on the African continent having surpassed South Africa but it is not calm in Nigeria with an Insurgency of the extremist movement boo Haram claiming responsibility for terrorist attacks across Nigeria and the Abduction of 100 school girls obasanjo hopes these events won't lead to another coup I hope that our leaders will make sure that the problem that we have are not problem that are brought about by their own self centeredness or their own selfishness that these problems that may normally emanate from interaction with of people within a nation will be resolved um and then who will be permanently put behind us in in this country and indeed in the rest of Africa so obasanjo doesn't mind mingling in politics for example Le by sending his critical 2013 open letter to Nigerian president good luuck Jonathan then he is a member of the Africa progress panel chaired by coffee Anan supporting Development Across the African continent for example here in darar in Sagal during an anti-drug Conference West African leaders must act courageously to protect their societies according to the International crisis group Chief obasanjo performed reasonably well as an African leader I think he must be given some credit as an African leader um first setting a very good example of um military government stepping out of um office uh yes he does get some good credit for that um we must also credit him for the fact that at the time he was civilian president he did provide some Le leadership there was some Vigor about foreign policy about connecting with other African leaders is a kind of person is a type of leader that Sports the talent recognizes the talent gives you the space to Showcase your talent within a particular framework and that's what it does if you look throughout all his time in government that's what he did with majority of the people the ministers and the heads of the various special agencies that that he had and that was why they were able to perform and Excel and that was why they were able to bring out the best that is in them on the flip side people would also say that um first of all he he dented um His Image by trying to go for a third term which is uh he has constantly denied consistently denied but which um from all indications was actually the case and then there is also the feeling that for the eight years he spent governing Nigeria he could have done you know a lot more but obviously he is will be always is respected as a leader and a remarkable one not only in Nigeria but in Africa as a whole my interest has been to have a life of service and I believe God has given me opportunity to be able to um live a life of service um and and that until I die I will want to continue to live a life of service and that is what I believe uh my life should consist of doing service to humanity and of course service to God [Music]

Channel: CGTN Africa

Views: 536,404

Keywords: Africa, News, CCTVAFRICA

Id: Azj7qk6RQdQ

Length: 29min 38sec (1778 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 03 2014