I came into politics by accident — Obasanjo

VANGUARD

Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has said that he never wanted to be a politician, but he became one by accident.

The former President made the submission while speaking with a group of youths under the aegis of ‘Africa for Africa Youth Initiative’, (A4A), at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta.

He said, “I never wanted to be a politician, I became one by accident, but the love of my people, love for my country and humanity made it something that I am coming into”.

He charged politicians to aspire to go into politics to serve their people.

“Politics is about service, you must give service and nobody is too old or too young or too poor to give service. When we begin to give quality service, then we shall have qualitative governance.

Speaking on the recent coup in some African countries, Obasanjo declared that any conditions that encourage coups in the continent should be avoided as much as possible.

He said, the rising military coups in Africa show that the people are tired of some things in their countries and in need of a liberator.

The former President said, he would not support a coup considering his experience in the hands of former Military dictator, late General Sanni Abacha.

He called on the government of various African countries including Nigeria, to ensure they don’t push the youths to the point of preferring a military takeover with their policies.

He said, “Having suffered in the hands of Abacha, I won’t support a military coup. But if it has to come, what can we do?

“The point is this, do we have conditions that encourage the type of things that are happening, if we don’t have the conditions that encourage them, they may not happen.

“That does not mean it should be encouraged. What it means is that we should make sure that we do everything to prevent coups from happening.

“When you see things that happen in many countries, and I will not exclude Nigeria, then you wonder and don’t forget, don’t forget particularly the youth, they support most of these coups.