Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, has described former president Olusegun Obasanjo as a rare human being fortunate enough to make history with his establishment of a presidential library.
Osinbajo said this on Saturday at the Grand Opening of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library Complex, which was part of the activities marking the 80th birthday celebrations of the former president.
He said, “Very few human being have the chance to make history and few have a good fortune of both making history and writing it as they go on earth and living long enough to even establish a library of history in your own world . Baba Olusegun Obasanjo is certainly one of those, truly a rare human being.
“There are two advantages to writing history; the first one you can add a few nice things about yourself. The second advantage is that it is the sure way of preserving the failures and the successes of the past.”
The acting president, who went down memory lane on Obasanjo’s reign as a one-time military head of state and later became a two-term civilian president, described him as a gift tied to the history of Nigeria in many ways.
Osinbajo said, “President Obasanjo is a gift to us in various ways. From a few years away from independence to the civil war to military rule and then the head of state-a head of state who kept faith with the Nigerian people by ensuring a transition to civil rule and then from retirement to farming, to be twice elected as Nigerian president and handed over to another president at every time. You are even more an incredible life of service to our nation, to our continent and to our world, his enduring legacy will be belief in one strong and detribalized Nigeria.”
Osinbajo, therefore, noted that the legacy of the former president would continue to live forever among Nigerians and in the entire world.
While speaking , Obasanjo gave insight into the three things that must not be lacking in the library, which included revenue generation.
He said that most facilities needed to serve the community and the library must be active and dynamic.
He said, “We realised from the beginning that three things must be incorporated into the building and establishing of the Presidential library in our type of situation. One, we must incorporate revenue generating units to ensure substantial funds are generated to support what donations we may continue to receive. Two, there must be enough facilities to serve the need of the community and to impact positively on the community; in a way it must be a community project from the point of view. Three, it must be active and dynamic, not inactive, but also instructive and inspiring. It must also be a centre for knowledge, information and values. To a large extent, we have been able to incorporate these three aspects. So, we have a mission to preserve the past, capture the present and inspire the future, sustain our culture and encourage tourism . We have played on the internet and they are actively live in our records.”
The former president, who expressed regret that he could not preserve some vital materials during the civil war and when he was the military head of state, thanked God for giving him the second chance to preserve some materials through the establishment of the library
“This library is the combination of fulfilment of dreams an vision, which began in 1988 . When I came to realise how much vital materials that should have been preserved from the civil war and from our period of military government were allowed to waste carelessly , then I tried to see what could be salvaged and preserved. It’s not much except some materials on the civil war, which I was able to micro film. Materials were lost but lessons were learnt. God of second chance provided the second opportunity and the lessons learnt were put into practice. In spite of the lessons learnt, we did not know for sure how our dreams would come true,” he said.
The President of Liberia, Elen Johnson Sirleaf, said that the Presidential Library would serve as a strong legacy for retired presidents to emulate and preserve the history of nation-building for postrity.
She said, “History will bear truth to this precedent-setting presidential initiative in Africa that will spread a strong legacy for retiring president to emulate to record and preserve the history of nation building for prosperity and for the benefit of today and future generation. A nation must believe in three things-it must believe in the past, it must believe in the future, it must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people to learn from the past in creating their own future.”
On his own part, Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, who described Obasanjo as an icon not only in the state but also in Nigeria and the entire Africa, stressed that the library was being commissioned for the benefit of humanity and mankind.
“It is part of history as the long awaited world class library is being commissioned today for the benefit of humanity and the overall enhancement of mankind. Permit me to talk about one of the titans and icons of Ogun State, icon of Nigeria and the entire Africa, whose contribution to the entire world cannot be underestimated,” he added.
Presidents from other African countries such as Liberia, Togo, Malawi, Gambia, Burundi, Kenya, Republic of Benin, Ghana, among others, graced the occasion.
Other guests included former president Goodluck Jonathan; former head of state, Abdulsalami Abubakar; Finance Minister , Kemi Adeosun; former governors of Ogun State , Olusegun Osoba and Gbenga Daniel; factional National Chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and Alhaji Aliko dangote, among others.
