Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed his profound respect for four prominent Nigerians for their patriotic spirit and commitment to providing solutions to two critical situations he faced while serving as Nigeria’s military head of state.

Obasanjo, who held this position from 1976 to 1979, mentioned Sir Kashim from Borno, Akanu Ibiam from Enugu, Chief Adebo from the west, and the late Sultan Abubakar III, the biological father of the current Sultan of Sokoto, for their wisdom and roles in passionately uniting the country.

During the formal unveiling of 136 housing units procured by the Sokoto state government, the former President recalled two sensitive and difficult situations that required solutions during his time in office.

According to him, the issue of sourcing dollars for intending pilgrims and the participation of northern women in voting during the 1979 elections that brought in late President Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari’s government were the challenges which solutions required the wisdom of some of the prominent persons.

He said: “The first Hajj exercise under my leadership was a total of 150,000 Nigerian pilgrims who needed dollars for their BTA. It took us some effort to secure dollars for them then.

“In the following year, sourcing dollars became more difficult and almost impossible and I could not decide to reduce the number of Nigerian I tending pilgrims.

“I had to rush to Kashim who immediately referred me to then Sultan Abubakar III and on reaching him; he asked me to decide the number to perform the Hajj which I shook my head. Meaning I could not. He said you are the head of state just decide. I still felt uncomfortable with that.

“He (Sultan) pegged a number and I said yes somewhere around that would be better to enable us to source the dollar for their BTA”, that came and passed successfully for the pilgrims who performed Hajj that year, Obasanjo said.

However, the second and alien episode that seemed difficult to overcome was northern women’s participation in voting which prompted the former President to still return to the Sultan for a solution.

According to Obasanjo” I went back to Sultan Abubakar for his counsel and wisdom. He asked: Is that the problem? I said yes. He said you can go to sleep. It’s not a problem.”

The former President said that was how both issues were addressed and solutions proffered with ease and the ejections were conducted peacefully. (The Nation)

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