TheCable

Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria, has showered encomiums on President Muhammadu Buhari, saying world leaders have confidence in his capability to transform the country.

Obasanjo, who just returned to Nigeria after attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, said the impression the international community has about the Nigerian leader would have positive effect on the country.

He was speaking at his hilltop mansion in Abeokuta, capital of Ogun state, on Thursday.

“The United Nations has shown solidarity since its establishment. It has been providing an annual arena for leaders to vent their views either on issues of particular interest with them in their country or issues that are of regional interest or issues of global interest and it is good that our own president was able to participate this year,” he told reporters.

“I heard some of the comments of those he met, the comments that probably not come back to him. He met former president Bill Clinton and Clinton talked to me about his impression of our president, it was favourable.

“Gordon Brown and I also met him and we talked about issues. The few other leaders who met him gave me their impression and his debut so to say. It has been good.

“I think we are at the table; what they use to say that Nigeria is not at the table, now we are present at the table.”

Obasanjo described corruption as the major factor hindering the progress of the country, saying Nigeria has not done badly in its 55 years of existence since independence.

“Fifty-five years in the life of a nation is comparatively young and when you look at the life and history of those that you may call settled societies or reasonably mature countries, we are not doing too badly,” he said.

“They’ve had missteps just like we are having missteps. They have made mistakes and most of them have learnt from their mistakes. They have been dynamic in the way they have progressed and I believe that we are doing the same thing … we must kick corruption out because it destroys almost everything and I am not talking about corruption of money alone; I’m talking about the corruption of attitude, nepotism, favouritism.

“There is corruption in different forms; all aspects of corruption must be kicked out of our society.”