Abuja — Ahead of 2023 presidential and general elections, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has prayed that God's patience with Nigeria does not end, asking Nigerians to ensure that the right lessons were learned in the search for new leadership.
According to Obasanjo, at independence, Nigeria was to be Giant in the Sun and just of Africa.
He spoke, Thursday, in Abuja at the public presentation of a book entitled, "The LetterMan: Inside the 'Secret' Letters of former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo", written by Premium Times' Editor-in-Chief, Musikilu Mojeed.
According to Obasanjo, when James Earl Carter (Jimmy Carter) was the President of the United States of America, USA, there was no time he had anything to do in Africa and would not inform Nigeria.
But that unfortunately, he said, that respect for Nigeria was gone.
The former President said: "Only this morning, I heard something that shocked me; here at our door, Chad.
"When Idris Dabi was killed or died, some people said he was shot from the back when he was in the war front.
"But he died and it was Doha that decided to pull the different elements in charge together, not Nigeria and Chad is at our door.
"We didn't do anything about that. I believe, to say the least, that it is not good enough.
"Again, I believe that God is in Nigeria, because God loves us so much that we got away so many stupid things.
"I sincerely hope that God's patience have no limit of elasticity. Because if it does, there will be a day that God will say look, I have had enough.
"And if God says he has had enough, it doesn't matter; Musikilu can write 20 books on letter men and letter women, it won't help us.
"So, I believe that the right lessons must be learned. We have all that we need to have. God gave us all that we need to have. That we are not doing what we need to do, God is not to blame. We should blame ourselves."
The former President said he was not aware of the book, but only got to know about it last week Monday when two copies were brought to him with a letter inviting him for the event.
He said that he was highly flabbergasted when he read it and that after reading it, he found out that the book is really amazingly good and a must-read.
The book was presented by the former Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Mrs Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru.
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The LetterMan is a 465-page book on 25 selected letters with different subject matters.
Roll call
Dignitaries at the launch were former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, represented by former Aviation Minister, Osita Chidoka; former Governor of Bayelsa State, Henry Dickson; the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Ahmed Bola Asiwaju Tinubu, represented by former Minister of Culture and Tourism, Femi Fani Kayode.
Other were former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Dr. Modibbo Umar; former Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi; immediate past Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, represented by the Director-General of the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF; Minister of State, former Minister Bolaji Abdullahi; former Managing Director of Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, among others.
Also represented were the Governors of Kaduna, Kogi, Sokoto, Minister of Information and Culture; Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, among others.
