Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has
launched his autobiography, titled ‘My Watch’.
The book, which contains several national
issues from past to present, was launched at
the Lagos Country club Ikeja, Lagos, Tuesday,
December 9.
Below are 7 excerpts from ‘My Watch’.
1. “I remember that in 1978 or 1979 Chief
Awolowo visited me while I was military head
of state and shared with me how he would
always stay at home to attend to the work at
hand and only make a private visit to the UK
once a year for health reasons if he became
president of Nigeria.”
2. “I made it clear to the chief that once he
became president of Nigeria, he could have
no private visit to anywhere as such.
Wherever he would be, he would be on duty,
and the totality of his life would be public. I
jokingly added that the only privacy he might
lay claim to would be when he was at home
with Mama Chief H.I.D., and that even then
his security staff would be on twenty-four-
hour duty.”
3. “The unprepared and unplanned transition
from Yar’Adua to Jonathan was a more
difficult exercise in some respects. One
reason was the ‘cloak and dagger’ manner in
which Yar’Adua’s illness was handled. The
illness of a President cannot be regarded as
private. His health has implications for the
security and wellbeing of the nation. For the
president and those around him to have
attempted strenuously to keep the fact of the
severity of his illness from public smacks of
ignorance of the enormity of what the job
entails and the level of provinciality of their
understanding, attitude, and approach.”
4. “Do not believe the president’s words, but
should only his actions. The president seems
to display the habit of pretending to have no
knowledge of the very things he sanctions.”
5. “The news was fairly well-circulated that
an elder statesman who formed a close
relationship with President Jonathan very
early in his presidency came to the
conclusion, after six months, that the
president has not got what it takes to lead. It
was the same elder statesman who
reportedly tried to jolt the president into
action by telling him that there were five
president in Nigeria, and these were his wife
the first lady, Diezani, Oduah, Ngozi and the
president himself, and that he was the
weakest of the five.”
6. “I understand the president tried to make
excuses for everyone, but President
Jonathan is not too weak to be able to butter
his bread and, if necessary, to engage the
services of Satan to achieve his self-
centered interests on the altar of all else.”
7. “The longest period that I have met one-
on-one with the president was for one hour
and ten minutes. That whole time, the
president talked about nothing that was in the
interest of Nigeria; instead he kept pointing
out his supposed enemies and various
matters that would not serve his interests. I
could not stop myself from blurting out: “Mr
President, no Nigerian should be your enemy.
You have to be like rain falling on good and
bad people alike. With that experience, I was
not surprised that the president went dancing
twenty-four hours after the Nyanya
explosion.”