Nigeria’s Obasanjo urges leaders to publish books

Raila Odinga. Olusegun Obasanjo urged African leaders to emulate Odinga and publish books. Photo credit: Niaje.com

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo today urged African leaders to consider publishing books on their experiences in power.  

 

Speaking during the launch of Flames of Freedom, Raila Odinga’s autobiography in Nairobi’s Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Obasanjo said that by chronicling their experiences while in power, leaders contribute a lot to the betterment of humanity.

“You deprive the future generation a lot when you refuse to write a book,” he said, before urging Charles Njonjo in particular to rescind his hardliner stance on writing an autobiography. 

Njonjo, Kenya’s first Attorney General, had earlier said that he had toyed with the idea of writing a book for some time, before deciding to abandon the idea altogether. 

Obasanjo, whose full names are Oluṣẹgun Mathew Okikiọla Arẹmu Ọbasanjọ, is a cherished scholar and a democracy enthusiast. A career soldier, Obasanjo was Nigeria’s military ruler between 1976 and 1979 before he became a democratically elected president between 1999 and 2007. An avid reader, Obasanjo has seven books to his name. 

He told of a story of a Nigerian Attorney General he tried persuading to write an autobiography, and how this leader kept avoiding his persuasion. One day, the government official owned that he was afraid of writing a book, for the establishment would jail him for betrayal, Obasanjo explained. 

Not even the promise by Obasanjo that the manuscript was to wait until the first African Attorney General was out of office before going to bed convinced the official to write a book, he added. At this point, the exemplary orator offered that leadership and sacrifice are inseparable. 

Obasanjo described his host as good father and husband, attributes that he said lack in most African leaders. Raila sacrificed his own life for the wellbeing of Kenya, Obasanjo said, and mentioned the promulgation of a new constitution in 2010 as the fruit of this struggle. 

Flames of Freedom, a publication of Mountain Top Publishers, is Odinga’s memoir that captures his growing up, family life, as well as business and political careers. It peaks at his political career as Kenya’s Prime Minister under President Mwai Kibaki’s helm. 

“Writing a book requires discipline, courage and integrity,” said Obasanjo, as if preempting Odinga’s experiences in writing. In 2006, through Babafemi Badejo, Odinga published Enigma in Kenyan Politics.

 

“While in prison, I used to write on exercise books,” said Odinga. “They confiscated all the exercise books when I was set free, promising to send them to me. I haven’t gotten them back up to this day,” he explained.

Speaking during the event, Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, Kenya’s Vice President during Kibaki's reign, intimated that Flames of Freedom had reinvigorated his desire to write an autobiography.