Any leader who wishes to die in office is free – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has come hard on African leaders who hold tight to political offices despite constitutional provisions and age factor, saying that any leader who wishes to die in office is free to do so as the country will still move on while he goes down to the grave.

Obasanjo stated this during an interaction with the BBC World Service programme Hard Talk in London.

The former President was of the view that Africa must change the way it conducts its affairs, adding that for Africa to become an emerging economy, African leaders must work for the development of the continent and formulate new strategies to get the continent out of the woods.

“Africa faces a ticking bomb, if Africa doesn’t change its ways of doing things” Obasanjo warned.

He said that African leaders must begin to think out of the box, conjecture new ideas, new strategies and new policies for transforming the continent, so that it can become the long awaited economic and social destination for the world.

Obasanjo said, “If we do not do anything right, if we continue business as usual, all we we are saying is it cannot be business as usual. We must think out of the box and we must act out of the box”.

He argued that while he was in government, he was involved in the fight against corruption and to strengthen the fight, he established anti-graft agencies which has remained the tool for the war against corruption in the country.

The former president said, “When I came in, there was no EFCC to fight corruption, there was no ICPC to fight corruption. Those institutions today are the institutions that Nigeria is using to fight corruption. You may not see that but we have started”.

The former President also said that President Muhammadu Buhari has taken a step further in the fight against corruption and terrorism while scoring Buhari with low marks on economy and foreign relations.

Despite insinuations from the programme presenter that Nigeria’s economy, Obasanjo reiterates his support for Buhari and insisted that Buhari has done well in some areas and should be given the credit.

He said, “I don’t know what you mean by old status quo, Buhari has just been there for two and a half years and what I said about Buhari before he got there has not changed.

“I have said that Buhari is not strong on the economy and it has not changed. I have said that Buhari is not strong on foreign affairs, it has not changed. I said that Buhari will fight corruption, Buhari has made attempt to fight corruption. I said Buhari will fight insurgency, Buhari has tried to fight insurgency. Please give him that credit.

“Now,if you see only pessimism, then I do not see only pessimism.”

The Daily Times recalls that Africa has been criticized for parading some of the oldest leaders in the world. Some of such leaders include Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (91), Beji Caid Essebsi of Tunisia (88), Paul Biya of Cameroon (82), Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria (78), Manuel Pinto da Cosata of Sao Tome and Principe (77), Alpha Conde of Guinea (77), Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia (76), Peter Mutharika of Malawi (74), Alassane Ouattara of Ivory Coast (73) and Jacob Zuma of South Africa (73.

Some of such leaders have also received some knocks as they reportedly spent substantial parts of their days in office on medical vacation while others lack the capacity to stretch the economy, evolve and implement innovative ideas due to some natural causes like age.