Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has revealed that African Leaders should treat their former Presidents with more dignity, ”not like animals in a cage.”
Obasanjo, made this remark while speaking at a French Embassy event, in Pretoria, at the launch of the French translation of a book he co-authored with three others, including Writer and Consultant Greg Mills, called: “Making Africa Work”.
Obasanjo said: “I came to Zambia when President Kaunda was being harassed, and I thought in Zambia, or any other country in Africa, we should treat our past Presidents with a little bit more dignity”, he said.
“If President Kaunda had done anything that is wrong, deal with it humanely, but let me know what exactly he has done, so I can go to him as my elder brother. And what he said to me, is President Kaunda removes all the books from the shelf in the State House, and I said: ‘Is that all?’”
Obasanjo said he went to Kaunda, and asked him what was the matter. Kaunda said there was “not a single book” when he moved in, and all the books in the shelves were his.
Obasanjo stated that he went back to Chiluba and offered to “go around the world, and collect more books” from the printers and publishers he knew, to fill up his shelves.
Obasanjo said he told Chiluba to treat Kaunda well, because he was the first President to have the opportunity to treat a past resident well.
Obasanjo further stated that, he also spoke out when former Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, was “being treated like an animal in a cage” when he had to face various trials in Egyptian courts, before being acquitted earlier this year.
