Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president, claimed that after years of military rule, Nigerians expected him to work miracles when he was elected president in 1999.
He expressed sadness at not being able to immediately change the nation.
Speaking at an international colloquium celebrating his 89th birthday in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Obasanjo claimed that the expectations stemmed from the years of military tyranny, economic stagnation, and institutional disintegration that Nigerians had to endure.
The Nigerian people had suffered years of institutional deterioration, economic stagnation, and military tyranny when I was elected president in 1999. Some of them believed that they had elected a miracle performer rather than a president, he claimed.
The former president discussed the burden of leadership in his speech, “Burden and Blessing of Leadership: Reflections from Global Africa to the World.”
And I could hear some of them murmuring when the miracle did not come in full measure overnight, as it never can. This is the burden: to be measured by time and elevated by hope, frequently at the same time,” he stated.
He claims that a leader bears the responsibility of holding onto the hopes of others, which are frequently greater than any one person can fulfill.
“Those who have never been in a leadership position cannot really express the unique loneliness that comes with it. A leader, especially a political leader, is never alone, thus it is not the loneliness of being by yourself. You are constantly surrounded by ministers, counselors, generals, aides, supplicants, flatterers, and critics.
“I’m talking about the loneliness that comes with making a definitive decision. When you are the only one left to make a decision after all the briefings, arguments, and options have been provided. Millions of lives will be impacted by your choice. There is no self-dispersion of that weight. He stated, “It settles on one pair of shoulders, the leader’s shoulders.”
