Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said African leaders were happy over the defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election.
He told an audience at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington DC that his checks in a number of African countries suggested they were happy over the result of the election.
He said some Nigerians described President Jonathan as a moving train who was stopped from collapsing Nigeria.
The former President, who led the African Union Observation Mission to the April 2015 General Election in Sudan to the event, said, “I have visited six countries since the election, they are as happy about the results. It is good not only for Nigeria, it is good for Africa and I believe it is good for the world.”
He also advised African leaders to shift from the mentality of clinching to power by all means, urging them to demonstrate statesmanship for the survival of the African continent.
Obasanjo also said that the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) , “has moved Nigeria one very important step up in our democracy.”
He also advised African leaders to have consultations with elders in order to promote public accountability and pave way for leaders who were fearful of giving up power to step down in favour of a future of statesmanship.
The former President said, “Governance reform and capacity-building programmes, for example, are apt to look everywhere but within. For a change, let us move away from the melancholic issue of what is wrong with Africa.
“If we are truly committed to invigorating conversations about an Africa-focused, Africa-led and Africa-driven framework for substantive self-determination and sustainable development, it is important to rethink and reframe how we situate Africa at the centre of inquiry.”
Obasanjo said countries like Togo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon were among countries with leaders reluctant to give up power for fear they might “land in prison or in the grave.”
“What if African statespersons made a coordinated effort, measured against concrete benchmarks, to strategically learn from their own scorecards to help implement home-grown solutions for leadership, governance and succession in government, business and civil society sectors?” he asked.
Meanwhile, a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, Princeton Lyman, described the former President as one of the world’s leading statesmen, adding that he set an example for governance.
He said the last general elections couldn’t have been successful without the input of the former President. Agency report
These old men that brought us to the present sorry state should just sit obe place and stop all these self glorification.
They ganged up against naive Jonathn and manipulated the last election aginst him. They have given power to buhari,Jonathan has accepted we will wait and see the outcome of this ugly manipulation.
Nigerians will survive the present conspiracy by axes of evil ,we have passed this road before and we will overcome thesr hollow international advertisement.
This man never stop mouthing off his foolishness. Jonathan is ten times the man you thinks you (Obasanjo) are. You, who was trying to bribe your way into third term in office, is now fanning the flame of statesmanship and relenting power at the end of their term. He thinks we are as foolish and self centered as he is. He antagonized Atiku because he refused to support his third term agenda and many others that opposed his agenda.
I wonder why he is now silent on the achievement of Jonathan and the service chiefs of the Nigeria arm forces over Boko Haram. He was aggrieved when the polls was postponed for six weeks for security reasons and condemned the action as a ploy to saboteur the whole election because, he being a semi god, he thinks he is, cannot see how they were going to achieve any success in six weeks that they couldn’t achieve in six years. I thank GOD for shutting him up and put him in his right place as a paper tiger, in appearance he looks terrifying but in reality he is not so powerful. He who once claimed an election to be a do or die matter, is now the campaigner of a peaceful election, what a hypocrite! That is the manipulator he is. A man who turn around on television and publicly torn a membership card of a party that made him a president from a prisoner, for eight years and he calls himself a statesman?
I just hope Nigerians will see him for who he truly is and not what he wants them to believe he is. A traitor and an ingrate.
OBJ at his age should be thinking of his life beyound. He thinks he will live forever. Prepare for eternity in the company of ur chickens sir.