Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that his imprisonment by the regime of General Sani Abacha prepared him to be a better president.
He added that the imprisonment was a blessing which greatly broadened his horizon.
Obasanjo disclosed this at the maiden edition of ASIS International, ASIS 206 Lagos Annual Leadership Retreat, held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta.
He said, “My prison experience enriched me, in fact it contributed to my performance while I was in office. A leader must learn from every situation.
“Although, nobody wants to go to prison ,but, I was in prison when I started learning and keeping myself occupied. I wrote four books while I was in prison rather than become moron and doing nothing.
“But I was sure that the man who kept me in prison will not bring me out and I was as well sure that I will get out of prison. Honestly, the prison experience has enriched my life.
“In every sense of the world, governance should be for all. During my first time elections , the Yorubas did not vote for me and within the first six months in office I called all the people that contested elections in the entire Southwest and I told them that ‘ don’t look for argument, the Yorubas did not vote for us for whatever reason, but ,I want to charge you to ensure that you vote for us next time’.
“And I told late Segun Agagu that I will start from your state and I went back to them and I started from Ondo by getting prominent people from Alliance for Democracy (AD) because there are three prominent political parties then and they were AD,PDP and APP and in 2013 we won by the grace of God.
“So, if you said because you are only voted for by a section and those who did not vote for you will not enjoy patronage, I don’t know what to call it but some call it marginalisation and poor governance.”
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