Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo has described his imprisonment by the former head of state, late Gen. Sani Abacha(rtd) as a blessing.
Obasanjo also said his prison experience had enriched him as a leader, adding that, it is one of the factors which immensely contributed to his achievement as President.
He spoke at the maiden edition of ASIS International, ASIS 206 Lagos Annual Leadership Retreat, held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta.
“My prison experience enriched me, in fact it contributed to my performance while I was in office. A leader must learn from every situation.
“Although, nobody wants to go to prison but, I was in prison when I started learning and keeping myself occupied. I wrote four books while I was in prison rather than become moron and doing nothing.
“But I was sure that the man who kept me in prison will not bring me out and I was as well sure that I will get out of prison. Honestly, the prison experience has enriched my life.
“In every sense of the world, governance should be for all. During my first term election, the Yorubas did not vote for me and within the first six months in office I called all the people that contested elections in the entire Southwest and I told them that ‘ don’t look for argument, the Yorubas did not vote for us for whatever reason, but ,I want to charge you to ensure that you vote for us next time’.
“And I told late Segun Agagu that I will start from your state and I went back to them and I started from Ondo by getting prominent people from Alliance for Democracy (AD) because there are three prominent political parties then and they were AD,PDP and APP and in 2013 we won by the grace of God.”
Meanwhile, the former president has thrown his weight behind the move to review the act setting up the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to reduce security threats in the country. Obasanjo, whose administration in 2005, provided the legal statute for the transformation of the civil defence, emphasized that there was nothing wrong to seek improvement for the organization, especially in accommodating the private security professionals in the country.
