Although he expressed pessimism over governance in Africa continent, the former military Head of State warned that several conditions could ripen a potential putsch in Nigeria.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that he would not want a military rule in Nigeria again because of his experience in the hands of the former late military dictator, Sani Abacha.
Although he expressed pessimism over governance in Africa continent, the former military Head of State warned that several conditions could ripen a potential putsch in Nigeria.
Obasanjo spoke Tuesday, when the Africa for Africa Youth Initiative (A4A) paid him a curtsey visit at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Ogun State.
According to People’s Gazette, he said, “Yes, I love democracy. Having suffered at the hands of Abacha (Nigeria’s late military dictator), I will not want a military rule. But if it has to come, what can we do? I will just say okay oh.”
The former president regretted that coup d'etat would not be happening if not because we created the condition for it. “The point is this: do we have conditions that encourage the type of things that are happening? If we don’t have the conditions that encourage them, they may not happen. That does not mean it should be encouraged. What it means is that we should make sure that we do everything to prevent coups from happening.”
The former president stressed that “youth are looking for liberators, and we must bear that in mind.
“Why do we have to allow the youth to start looking for liberators beyond the government of the day? Why?" He queried adding. "When you see things that happen in many countries, and I will not exclude Nigeria,” he however, pointed out, “then you wonder and don’t forget, don’t forget particularly the youth, they support most of these coups. The one in Gabon, the coup leader, was being carried on the head by the youths, not by old wretched men and women like me.”
There has been a wave of military coups in the last three years in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Sudan, and most recently the Niger Republic and Gabon.