I am sorry for Nigeria - Obasanjo - Laments the rubbishing of his track record

Idowu Samuel, Abuja - 13.04.2008

Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has reviewed his service to Nigeria and the sacrifices which he believes he had made as he expressed regrets on the consistent bashings he has been receiving from every segment of the country.

Obasanjo said he has been worried for the future of the country for failure by Nigerians to show even a modicum of appreciation to all he had done only for critics, most especially the media, to declare his eight years of leadership in democracy an utter failure.

The former president unearthed his grievances against the ungrateful attitude of Nigerians to some of his friends who attempted to sympathise with him at his Otta home on the public opprobrium which has consistently been trailing his eight year regime as the president of Nigeria.

One of them who spoke with Sunday Tribune in Abuja said Obasanjo was never crestfallen about the media bashings of his policies, but was angry that only a few could appreciate the sacrifices he made as the President of Nigeria and the visible achievements left behind by his civilian government.

Obasanjo was said to have complained bitterly about the down playing of his track record by a cabal of critics in Nigeria and attributed such to selfish reasons.

Obasanjo, according to the source, believed that he is being made the only subject of attack in Nigeria at the moment because his government denied a set of Nigerian elite the opportunity of having their ways against national interest.

He alluded to a remark by the former President about his surprise that most of those who were struggling to wine and dine with him in his days at the presidential villa have now turned out to be his leading critics, a reason he said he nursed a deep sense of regret about the future of Nigeria.

The source said Obasanjo told him and others that he was not moved by the resolve by Nigerians to turn him into a cannon fodder for attacks on everything that went wrong in Nigeria having been familiar with the manner that Nigerians willfully turn all their past leaders into villains.

He said Obasanjo proved to his visitor that they could not point to one out of the past rulers of Nigeria who received praises from the citizens of the country after leaving power, concluding that he really was not surprised by the way he is being generally scorned at the moment.

He said the former president reaffirmed that he was not shaken by any form of criticism from any quarter having seen it all and having passed through the most heart rending difficult times in his life.

According to our source, the former president was of the view that he did not require anybody’s sympathy on his present travails and that of his family as according to him he was capable of fighting his own battle.

He said in the tick of public bashing of his regime and all that he represents in Nigeria today, the former president sleeps and closes his eyes and has never betrayed emotion going by the way he has been attending to issues after leaving power.

The source however said Obasanjo’s consolation now lies in his conviction that every action he took while in government as the president was in tandem with the Presidential power conferred by the constitution.