BEVERLY HILLS, February 26, (THEWILL) – Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed that when pressure was being mounted on him upon release from prison to contest as president in 1999, he cleared his confusion by seeking advice from the late South African president, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
He spoke on Sunday at a thanksgiving service held at the Treasure House of God, Abeokuta, which was organised by the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Ogun State chapter to commemorate his 80th birthday.
The one-time head of state said, “When I came out from prison for the offence I didn’t commit and people started putting pressure on me to be Nigeria’s President, I was confused but in that confusion I seek advice not from here.
“I went first to Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Mandela said ‘Olu (Olusegun) whatever your instinct tells you, follow it.’
“Tutu, after listening to me, said: ‘are you tired of serving God and your people?’ He now said my advice to you is that go and do what your people asked you to do.
“When I now came back, one day I was reading the book of Esther and I saw where Mordecai said you are here for your people and I started changing my mind from there,” he revealed.
He further disclosed that God has been too partial to him by bestowing unwarranted favour on him.
Obasanjo, who wondered why God has been so merciful to him, declared that he had gotten much more than he deserved in the journey of life.
He said despite his imprisonment on a trumped up charge of coup plotting by the late General Sanni Abacha, he came out alive and later became a president in 1999.
Obasanjo explained that given his background as a poor Ibogun village boy, with stark illiterate parents, he never dreamt his name would be heard in the nearest hamlet, not to talk of Nigeria and the world over.
He said he would always be grateful to God for showing overwhelming grace on him. His words: “God has been partial to me by showing me so much favour that I do not deserve.
“If you don’t know anything about me at all, go to the village where I was born. I was born by parents that were illiterates.
There was no road to the village then. One could not boast of even being known in the next village. “God has done so much for me more than I deserve.
I thank God for this,” the ex-president added.
Obasanjo, who was decorated by CAN as the Asiwaju Onigbagbo of Christians in Ogun State, expressed gratitude to the organisers of the programme.
Earlier in his sermon, the Deputy National Vice President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, described Obasanjo as man of destiny.
The elder statesman, who would turn 80 on March 5, said he had no regrets attaining such an age.
