Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says many Nigerians saw him as a “miracle performer” when he was elected president in 1999 after decades of military rule.
Obasanjo, who stated this at an international colloquium in Abeokuta, Ogun State, to mark his 89th birthday, said the expectations were due to Nigerians’ enduring years of military dictatorship, economic stagnation and institutional decay.
“When I was elected President in 1999, the Nigerian people had endured years of military dictatorship, economic stagnation, and institutional decay. They did not elect a president, some of them thought; they elected a miracle performer,” he said.
The former president added that when immediate transformation did not occur overnight, he could sense public disappointment.
“And when the miracle did not arrive in full measure overnight — as it never can — I could hear the murmurs of some of them. This is the burden: to be elevated by hope and measured by time, often simultaneously,” he said.
In his address titled, “Burden and Blessing of Leadership: Reflections from Global Africa to the World,” the former president reflected on the weight of leadership.
He said a leader carries the burden of being the repository of other people’s hopes — hopes that are often larger than any human being can satisfy.
Obasanjo further stated, “There is a particular loneliness that comes with leadership that cannot be described to anyone who has not experienced it. It is not the loneliness of being alone — for a leader, particularly a political leader, is never alone. There are always ministers, advisers, generals, aides, supplicants, flatterers, and critics surrounding you.
“The loneliness I speak of is the loneliness of final decision. The moment when all the briefings have been received, all the arguments have been made, all the options have been presented — and you alone must decide. And your decision will affect millions of lives. That weight does not distribute itself. It settles on one pair of shoulders – the leader’s shoulders.”
He recalled his experience as a military commander at the end of the Nigerian Civil War in January 1970, when he led the Third Marine Commando Division.
He said, “I remember a few days before the Nigerian Civil War ended in January 1970. I was commanding the Third Marine Commando Division. My troops were positioned for the final push. Hundreds of thousands of Igbo civilians were trapped, starving, dying. On one side was the imperative of ending the war quickly to stop further suffering. On the other was the risk that a military advance would deepen the humanitarian catastrophe.
“No textbook told me what to do. No senior officer was going to make that call. It was mine alone. I made it. We saved life by not shelling Owerri. History has rendered its verdict.”
Obasanjo also spoke about the personal cost of standing by principle, referencing his imprisonment under former military ruler, Sani Abacha.
He said, “Then there is the burden of principle. Leadership without principle is management — useful, perhaps, but not leadership. True leadership requires the willingness to hold a position when it is unpopular, to say no when yes would be more convenient, to name a truth that powerful interests wish suppressed. This costs friendships. It costs alliances. It sometimes costs your freedom — as I learned in the Prison under Sani Abacha, where I was held for three and a half years, tried before a kangaroo tribunal, and very nearly executed.”
Despite the burdens, Obasanjo said leadership also carries profound blessings, including the opportunity to serve and shape history.
Addressing younger leaders, Obasanjo warned against seeking office for comfort or personal gain, adding, “I want to say something directly to the young leaders in this room and to those who will read or hear these words: do not enter leadership imagining that it will be comfortable.
“Do not seek it because you want comfort. The burden is real. The sacrifices are real. The nights of uncertainty, the mornings of what is happening, the weight of choices that have no good outcome — they are real. If you are not willing to bear this burden, please — for the sake of the people you would lead — step aside for someone who is.
“Leadership is not a picnic and if you are unfit for it and you wangle yourself into it for ulterior motives, you will be of great disappointment to yourself, to majority of those you lead and there will finally be the judgement of God.”
