Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has dismissed claims that he once sought a third term in office, insisting that no Nigerian can produce evidence to support the allegation.
Obasanjo spoke on Wednesday at the Democracy Dialogue of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation in Accra, Ghana, where he tackled the controversy head-on.
“I think I’m not a fool. If I wanted it, some thought I wanted it, I know how to go about it. And there is no Nigerian, dead or alive, that will say I called him and told him I wanted the third term. None.
“I keep telling them that, look, if I wanted to get debt relief, which is more difficult than getting a third term and I got it, if I wanted a third time, I would have got it too,” he said.
The former president argued that securing debt relief for Nigeria was a far greater challenge than pursuing a third term, stressing that if he had truly desired it, he would have succeeded.
Obasanjo also cautioned leaders who cling to power, describing the mindset as a “sin against God.” According to him, effective leadership belongs to the young, vibrant, and dynamic, not to those who refuse to step aside.
“I know that the best is done when you are young, ideal and vibrant and dynamic. When you are ‘kuje kuje’ you don’t have the best.
“But some people believe that unless they are there nobody else. They will even tell you that they haven’t got anybody else. I believe that that is a sin against God, because if God takes you away, which God can do anytime, then somebody else will come, and that somebody else may do better or may do worse.
“I don’t say he will do the work better. He may do better, he may do worse, but somebody else will come,” Obasanjo stated.
