Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has once again stirred curiosity over his true age, admitting that he still doesn’t know how old he really is, and is relying on his surviving primary school mates, all now above 90, to guess.
He made the revelation during the Toyin Falola Interviews series, a high-profile conversation featuring Professor Toyin Falola, Bishop Matthew Kukah, and former presidential candidate Professor Kingsley Moghalu.
Obasanjo said his only clues about his real age are the six classmates he knows are still alive, none younger than 90, leaving Nigerians to estimate his own age.
The former President also explained why he established the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, describing it as a national vault of memory and a bridge between generations.
“We have digitalised over 3m materials. We still have about the same number, 3m to digitalise,” he said, noting that the archive holds everything from his primary school record card to letters he wrote in prison, including one he sent to Abacha after his son died in an accident.
He stressed that Nigeria’s problem has long been poor record-keeping, and that the library was created to preserve the past, document the present, and inspire the future.
Obasanjo added that even relics from his time in prison, including crops of maize he planted, are preserved.
“I don’t know my exact age but I could judge from those who were in school with me… I believe there are six of my classmates in secondary school that I know are still alive and none of them is less than 90 years of age. So I leave it to you to guess what my age could be,” he said.
He argued that one of the biggest gaps in Nigerian society is the failure to sustain institutional memory.
“Why the Presidential Library? I believe one of the things we don’t do too well in our society is that we don’t keep records too well, institutional memory is not what we do very well,” he said.
