Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed that he tried as much as possible to avoid getting involved in politics.
Explaining, Obasanjo stated that as a trained soldier, his natural instinct was to avoid politics, hence his reason for attempting to stay away.
The former President however revealed that it seems the more he tried to run away from politics, the more power kept pursuing him.
Naija News reports Obasanjo made the observation in Abeokuta, Ogun State, during a symposium, organized by the national leadership of the Keggites Club of Nigeria through the Unity in Diversity Forum
The event with the theme: “Depreciating Cultural Values and Virtue in the Era of Social Media: Causes, Challenges and Solutions,” held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta as part of activities to celebrate the 85th birthday anniversary of the former president.
Before the comment by Obasanjo on his foray into politics, one of the speakers at the event, Dr. Yemi Faroumbi, a former Nigerian Ambassador to the Philippines had observed that Obasanjo never ran after power.
Responding to the observation by Dr. Faroumbi, Chief Obasanjo agreed with him, pointing out that in his case, it was power that was running after him.
He said “I was at a time as you (referring to Faroumbi) mentioned, reluctant to be in political power. I was trained as a soldier. One of my trainings is that soldiering and politics don’t go together and I stuck to that.
“But as you rightly said while I stuck to separation between soldiering and politics, power started chasing me and I ran, and I ran and I ran and until I could not run out of the reach of power. I believe that without being immodest, the fact that I was not looking for power, power was looking for me make a drought of business.”
This article was originally published on Nigeria News