Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says every decision he took while in office was in the best interest of the country and not for personal gain.
Obasanjo said this in an interview with The Point Newspaper published on Monday.
The former number one citizen said he did not focus on making one region better than the others, adding that those who claimed he did nothing for the south-west or the Yoruba were wrong.
“People who worked with me, it doesn’t matter where they come from, they remember what we did together. There is no question of favouritism, there is no question of, yes, this is my kith and kin. There is no question of this is my personal interest. I never say that we didn’t make mistake or we are perfect, but whatever mistake we made was a genuine mistake. It wasn’t a mistake we made as a result of selfishness,” Obasanjo said.
On neglecting the Yoruba while in office, he said, “Some Yoruba have come to me and said you didn’t do enough for the Yoruba. I said, ‘Yes, did I do for Nigeria?’ They said, ‘You did?’ I asked, is Yoruba not part of Nigeria? If I did as I could for Nigeria and Yoruba are part of Nigeria, then I have done for the Yoruba as well as I have done for Igbo, Hausa and so on. I think that must guide us.
“The point you must bear in mind is that this country can be a great country. We have everything to make this country great. And that is what always worries me. When you see what we can do, how to do it, and we are not doing it. That is really unfortunate.
“Can we get there? I believe we can. All we need is one generation of consistency in leadership, we will be there. That is what we need. We need one generation of right leadership consistently.”
Obasanjo advised the current leadership of the country to be inquisitive about what is going on around them, instead of shutting their doors.
