Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that he would forever be grateful for the noble roles played by the anti-apartheid revolutionary and former South Africa President, Nelson Mandela, to secure his release from prison.
This is just as he lamented the unhealthy relationship between Nigeria and South Africa saying the two countries should have come together in collaboration to move the Africa continent forward in democracy, good governance and economy.
Obasanjo, who was arrested and sentenced to prison under the military rule of General Sani Abacha in 1995, said he would always be thankful for the role Mandela and other South African leaders played in trying to secure his release from prison.
He spoke recently on the occasion of his 82nd birthday held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital where the President of the Inkatha Freedom Party of South Africa, Prince Mongosuthu Buthelezi, MP delivered a lecture on ‘Colonialism, Apartheid, Freedom and South Africa rising’.
The former president, who said that before he went to prison he had had a meeting with Mandela and former South Africa President, Thabo Mbeki, on how Nigeria and South Africa could move the continent forward, lamented that the collaboration of the two nations had ceased to exist for long.
Obasanjo, while emphasising the need for the two countries to work together rather than resorting to competition, said unless the two African nations came to the round table to dialogue on Africa’s development, it might continue to suffer a serious set back.
He, however, urged President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa to work with Nigeria government on how to move Africa forward in areas of democracy, good governance and development of nations’ economy if reelected as president.
He said, “The roles that Nelson Mandela and the rest of you played in trying to secure my release is noble and I will be always grateful for that. We thought that Nigeria and South Africa will be working together in moving African forward. That has ceased almost completely from the time of Thabo Mbeki and myself in government.”
