Olusegun Obasanjo is a Former Nigerian President and one of the living icons of Nigerian democracy. Born March 5, 1935, Olusegun Obansanjo was Nigeria’s military head of state from 1976 to 1979 and a democratically elected President from 1999 to 2007.
He was a vocal critics of Late Sani Abacha and was imprisoned between 1995 to 1998 for allegedly plotting a coup against Abacha. He was later released after Abacha’s death in 1998 and was elected Nigerian President in 1999.
Here are Top 20 Quotes of Olusegun Obasanjo.
20 Famous Quotes of Olusegun Obasanjo
1. Nigeria has no business with poverty. With our human and material resources, we shall strive to eradicate poverty from our country.
2. Corruption is the greatest single bane of our society today.
3. For Africa to move forward, Nigeria must be one of the anchor countries, if not the leading anchor country. It means that Nigeria must be good at home to be good outside. No doubt, our situation in the last decade or so had shown that we are not good enough at home; hence we are invariably absent at the table that we should be abroad.
4. Let me make a solemn pledge before all of you, before the whole world and before God, that I will devote all my energy and all I possess in my power to serve the people of Nigeria and humanity.
5. We regard America and Europe as old friends. We keep old friends, but we make new friends in Japan, India, and China.
6. My gut feelings and my faith tell me that until God shuts a door, no human can shut it.
7. I am a black man inside and outside and you are white men on the outside, but inside, you are Africans like me.
8. There is no part of the world where corruption is absolutely eliminated.
9. If I am not above the law, nobody in this country can then claim to be above the law.
10. I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge that our foreign friends are welcome to join in our endeavor to develop the resources of our country.
11. I believe God knew what he was doing when he put oil under our ground. It should be a means to an end.
12. The givers of most of the corruption in Africa are from outside Africa.
13. We will as soon as possible reexamine our laws and policies and eliminate all obstacles to genuine investment
14. Fighting corruption is not a one-night affair.
15. We must demonstrate the political will and assume the responsibility for the historical wrongs that are owed to the victims of slavery, that an apology be extended by states which actively practiced and benefited themselves from slavery.
16. I can assure you that Nigeria is not just the number one item on our agenda. Nigeria is in fact the only item on our agenda.
17. If you deceive me once shame on you because I have trusted you once and you have deceived me, if you deceive me twice shame on me because I have learnt my lessons and you have deceive me and if you deceive me for the third time shame on me because am a compound fool.
18.We still have a long way to go. It is, indeed, disconcerting to observe that the problems of poverty, underdevelopment and global inequity not only persist but it rising fast under the impact of a fast globalizing world economy.
19. The truth is that we must ask ourselves a number of critical questions about our recent history. It is only after we have been through with such critical self-examination, can we confidently point out the failures of the industrialized countries who have reneged on their commitments and promises for official development assistance, speedy debt remission and a fair international trading regime.
20. Failure to improve the quality of rural life is largely responsible for the rural-urban migration, which has today become a common feature of most developing countries, especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa. Consequently, the social infrastructural facilities in such urban settlements rapidly become inadequate and over-stretched resulting in social tension and sometimes outbreak of violence.