Obasanjo participated in an interview with the African Defense Forum (ADF) in 2007.
ADF: You were imprisoned for three years, from 1995 to 1998, for your opposition to Sani Abacha’s military regime. Given the high cost of standing up for these democratic ideals, why did you do so?
Obasanjo: You have to be prepared to give up something if you really believe in something. You cannot profess to believe in something and then refuse to put in the necessary effort. As I felt it was necessary, I took action to support my belief that the military should not hold political power.
You will fall for everything, in my opinion, if you don’t stand for anything. You have to be prepared to pay whatever price in order to live a life that is devoted to principles, to particular standards and regulations. In the end, you might be proven correct, but you also need to be prepared to accept being proven incorrect. In this instance, it appears that I have been validated over time.
ADF: After being freed, you stood for election as a civilian and won the presidency in 1999. As president, you forced the retirement of 93 military officers shortly after taking office, making military professionalism one of your top priorities. What message did that send to the nation and the military, and why was it important?
Obasanjo: The military removed civilians in a musical chairs fashion; the civilians returned, and the military removed them once more, and so on. “Look, what can we do to stop this cycle of coups?” people exclaimed. “We can put it in the constitution that a coup is treason,” some people said. The issue with that is that coup perpetrators are aware that their actions constitute treason.
They don’t leave anything up to chance because of this. I reasoned that you could easily discourage people from attempting to stage coups by ensuring that, no matter how long the process takes, those who stage coups or gain the greatest advantage from them will not profit. After that, you make it simple for people to decide against joining coups. I retired those officers because of it. It wasn’t because they weren’t good people; in fact, we later called some of them to join political parties, appointed some of them as ambassadors, and brought back some of them into the military. A few went on to become democratic governors.
However, coup-making was frowned upon and is still frowned upon today. The idea is to act professionally even after you have arrived as a military professional. Commit your life to serving humanity by serving your nation and its citizens. You have the freedom to change your profession whenever you want to. However, avoid using the military and the weaponry provided to defend your state to destroy it. Refrain from seizing control of your nation under duress.
