Nigeria’s former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has said no amount of threats and intimidation will stop his struggle for a better Nigeria
The elder statesman made the statement on Sunday when a former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa paid him a courtesy visit to consult on his presidential ambition.
Obasanjo said that no right-thinking Nigerian would be satisfied with the situation in the country currently.
The former president added that he was ready to make more sacrifices for the nation having fought to defend Nigeria during the civil war and sent to jail over a phantom coup allegation.
Obasanjo who said that he had been threatened and intimidated because of his conviction for a better Nigeria urged Bafarawa, one of the presidential aspirants on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to pursue his dream of making Nigeria better if elected president in 2019.
He said, “The situation of Nigeria today is not the one any right thinking Nigerian should applaud. And my own strong belief is that Nigeria deserves better than we have now. And we can get better than what we have.
“And so, you are to see what you can do, that is why you are aspiring to make Nigeria better than what it is today.
“Nobody who loves Nigeria will not want it to be better than it is today and I, definitely, have made personal sacrifices and I will make again. Talk of fighting in the battlefield and shedding of one’s blood, or even talk of going to prison, because I believe in democracy.
“I went to prison for doing nothing wrong. I have also been intimidated and threatened. What would you do to intimidate somebody like me? Whatever you are trying to do to me, people have tried to do it to me in the past, and it amounted to nothing and it will amount to nothing.
“Because before I act, I pray to God to guide me and I think of Nigeria first, particularly the majority of Nigerians who are underprivileged, whose situation we need to improve upon.”
He appealed to Nigerians to remain more determined in their quest for a better nation, advising that they should shun divisive tendencies.
“If we do not act together as we should act together, Nigeria will not be what it should be in 2019. Aspiration? Yes, but the objective must be clear. If the opposition starts going in different directions and pulling in different ways, Nigeria’s situation will not change.
“A population of 200 million, for us to continue to complain that things are not right, we are doing the same thing as we have done before. And if we keep doing the same thing, the result will not be different. If we want a different result, we must do things differently. And I believe we can do things differently,” Obasanjo stated.
