Obasanjo - I’m not dead

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday denied reports that he was dead.

Obasanjo, in a telephone interview with SATURDAY PUNCH from his Abeokuta home, claimed that some people wanted him dead.

The former President, who appeared to have been inundated with enquiries concerning the state of his health, said it had pleased God to spare his life despite the wishes of his unnamed detractors.

Speaking in his trademark heavily accented Yoruba, an excited Obasanjo said,

“Won fe ki n ku ni; n o tii ku!” (They want me to die. I’m not dead yet).

He wondered why some people would wish him dead, saying he believed that those who wished him dead might think that he was responsible for some “problems in the country.”

He said, “I think some people think I’m the one responsible for the problems in the country and feel the only thing that can solve the problems is that I die. But God does not think that way. They are wicked people.

“But you can see that I’m alive and well. I’m not dead. Thank you!”

Some unnamed sources had claimed on Friday afternoon that Obasanjo had died of an undisclosed ailment, but no one was able to ascertain the origin of the rumour.

The former President was earlier reported to have slumped on Monday at the 70th birthday thanksgiving service for Maj.-Gen. Olu Bajowa (retd.) at Igbotako, Ondo State, a report the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party debunked.

A few weeks after he was declared as the elected President in 1999, Obasanjo was reported to have died in Abuja, a report that turned out to be a false alarm.

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