10/30/2025
Presidents of the United States have only visited Nigeria three times: Jimmy Carter in 1978, Bill Clinton in 2000, and George W. Bush in 2003. And each time they visited, the person leading Nigeria was Olusegun Obasanjo.
No matter what you may say about him, he is one of Nigeria's most significant leaders.
He defeated the rebel Republic of Biafra on Thursday, January 15, 1970 and achieved the remarkable feat of capturing their leaders and bringing them to Lagos to declare unconditional surrender.
This is significant as records have now emerged showing that British Prime Minister Harold Wilson had decided that if Biafra were not militarily defeated by Nigeria in 1970, Britain would intervene with a two-state solution.
In essence, Obasanjo saved Nigeria!
Additionally, he was the first Nigerian leader to have a natural term. Balewa was killed, Ironsi was murdered, Gowon was overthrown, and Murtala was assassinated.
He was also the first military ruler in Africa to hand over power to civilians voluntarily.
And he is the most self-documented Nigerian leader, having written at least eleven books that I am aware of, and possibly others that I am not conscious of.
What many Nigerians do not know, and which General Babangida confirmed in his book, A Journey in Service, is that the rank and file of the military did not want General Obasanjo to hand over power. But he did in 1979.
And until he returned twenty years later in 1999, no Nigerian leader had a natural term in office.
Shagari was overthrown, as was Buhari. Babangida was forced to step aside. Shonekan was shoved aside, and Abacha died under still unclear circumstances. And Abdulsalami only spent less than a year before handing over.
Why do I give this account?
As a country, we often wait for our heroes to die before honouring them.
This man ended the Liberian Civil War, restored a democratically elected Fradique de Menezes to power after he was overthrown in 2003, funded the South African liberation movement, ensured that the MPLA became the democratically elected government of Angola as opposed to the Western backed UNITA, aided FRELIMO in their war of independence in Mozambique, nationalised African Petroleum, implemented the Indigenisation Decree that Gowon passed but did not implement, paid off Nigeria's entire debt, made GSM phones and the Internet available to the ordinary person in Nigeris for the first time, hosted the only Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in Nigeria, tactfully diffused the Sharia crisis that could have devastated Nigeria, set up the EFCC and gave Nigeria her first systematic anti corruption war.
Mandela did a lot for South Africa, but I am not sure that he did as much for Africa as General and later President Obasanjo did.
A man I greatly admire and whose books I have voraciously read multiple times.
Even if nobody says thank you to you, my house and I appreciate you, Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo, a great son of Nigeria and Africa. An Omoluabi atata!
May God bless you and your household.
Reno Omokri
Gospeller. Deep Thinker. . Ruffler of the Feathers of Obidents. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Hodophile. Hollywood Magazine Humanitarian of the Year, 2019. Business Insider Influencer of the Year 2022. 21st Most Talked About Person in Africa, 2024.
