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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has stated that Nigerians expected him to perform miracles when he was elected president in 1999 after years of military rule.
He said there was disappointment when he failed to transform the country overnight.
Speaking at an international colloquium held in Abeokuta, Ogun State, to mark his 89th birthday, Obasanjo said the expectations were due to Nigerians’ enduring years of military dictatorship, economic stagnation, and institutional decay.
“When I was elected President in 1999, the Nigerian people had endured years of military dictatorship, economic stagnation, and institutional decay. They did not elect a president, some of them thought; they elected a miracle performer,” he said.
Delivering his address titled “Burden and Blessing of Leadership: Reflections from Global Africa to the World,” the former president reflected on the weight of leadership.
“And when the miracle did not arrive in full measure overnight, as it never can, I could hear the murmurs of some of them. This is the burden: to be elevated by hope and measured by time, often simultaneously,” he said.
According to him, a leader carries the burden of being the repository of other people’s hopes, hopes that are often larger than any human being can satisfy.
“There is a particular loneliness that comes with leadership that cannot be described to anyone who has not experienced it. It is not the loneliness of being alone, for a leader, particularly a political leader, is never alone. There are always ministers, advisers, generals, aides, supplicants, flatterers, and critics surrounding you.
“The loneliness I speak of is the loneliness of final decision. The moment when all the briefings have been received, all the arguments have been made, all the options have been presented, and you alone must decide. And your decision will affect millions of lives. That weight does not distribute itself. It settles on one pair of shoulders, the leader’s shoulders,” he said.
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