Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has reiterated his choice of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party Peter, insisting that he possessed qualities of the kind of leader the country needs at this time.
Obasanjo spoke while featuring on an interactive session of the Experiential Leadership in Africa (TEL-Africa), as part of activities held on Thursday to mark the centenary celebration of the Baptist Boys High School, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The former Nigerian leader stressed that only “unpatriotic and bad Nigerians” will vote for a candidate with bad character in the forthcoming general elections and appealed to young citizens to take ownership of the elections and vote right.
“It is either you are wicked, you are unpatriotic or you are really, really a bad citizen of this country and then if this is who you are, what do you want God to do with you and that is the way I see it,” Obasanjo said.
He noted that the school had produced prominent Nigerians who have distinguished themselves in all works of life, including the private sector, academia, military and paramilitary, civil society, traditional rulership, and politics.
Reflecting on the June 12 1993 election which was later annulled, Obasanjo said the institution would have produced two Nigerian presidents if not for the desperation of Moshood Abiola, the first communication industry millionaire in Nigeria and acclaimed winner of the election.
“If not for Nigerian bad belle, MKO Abiola would have been president and with me as president, we would have needed one more old student of BBHS to be president for us to permanently locate it in BBHS after three times. And that is a challenge for up-and-coming generations of old boys,” Obasanjo said
He added: “For the last three days, I have had about 35 youths who I have been talking to, and they have all told me that education, security, and corruption are what they are concerned about; the question is, who then can do it?”