Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has dismissed long-standing claims that he once sought a third term in office, insisting that no evidence exists to back such allegations.
Speaking on Wednesday at the Democracy Dialogue of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation in Accra, Ghana, Obasanjo stressed that he never pursued an extension of his tenure.
“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 emphasized that achieving debt relief for Nigeria during his administration was a far greater challenge than extending his presidency, adding that if he had truly wanted a third term, he would have succeeded.
He also cautioned leaders against clinging to power, describing the belief that they are indispensable as a “sin against God.”
“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 added.
