After 12 years of physical construction, the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Saturday, March 4, 2017 was opened to the public.
The library, tagged as “first of its kind in Africa”, was declared open at 12 noon by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia as she unveiled the inauguration plaque for the library.
The audience comprised 14 serving and past presidents from Africa including Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.
Also present were former Head of Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan; former military Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar; President Goodluck Jonathan; former United States’ Ambassador to the UN, Mr. Andrew Young; National Leader of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; former Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Mr. Koffi Annan; Governor Ibikule Amosun of Ogun State; Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State; and the industrialist, Alhaji Aliko Dangote.
Other dignitaries at the event also include: Presidents Faure Gnassingbe (Togo); Ernest Koroma (Sierra – Leone); Patrice Talon (Republic of Benin); Nana Akufo – Ado (Ghana); Joyce Banda (Malawi); Pierre Buyoya (Burundi); former presidents John Kufour of Ghana; Benjamin Mkapa (Tanzania), Amos Sawyer (Liberia), Nicephore Soglo (Republic of Benin) and Prime Minister Raila Odinga (Kenya).
Also present were former governors Olusegun Osoba, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Emmanuel Uduaghan, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, Femi Otedola, Andy Uba, Prof. Ibidapo Obe, Senator Florence Ita – Giwa, former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, and the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, among others.
Obasanjo, going down the memory lane, said the library was a combination of vision and dream which he conceived in 1988.
He lamented his inability to collect historical materials especially during the civil war, save those he could micro-film, however he reiterated that the library is meant to correct such mistakes.
The former president said the library would help in sustaining Nigeria’s heritage, inspire the future and enhance tourism.
He, however, berated those who opposed the project either out of ignorance or mischief.
He singled out former Ogun State governor Olusegun Osoba for praise, saying it was the journalist turned politician that made land available for the library.
He also thanked former military head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar for setting him free from Prison.
Guest after guest paid tribute to Obasanjo for building the library. Acting President Osinbajo described Obasanjo as a world statesman and a gift to humanity who has the rare luck of making history and writing it in his own word with the OOPL project.
He noted that history is one sure way of preserving the lessons, failures and successes of the past so that humanity can approach the future with more sure-footedness and less pains.
He explained that the OOPL is a demonstration of Obasanjo’s legacy and belief in one strong Nigeria as evident by the huge turnout of Nigerians to witness the inauguration.
“Very few human beings have a chance of making history and fewer still have a good fortune of making history and writing it as you go and live longer to even establish a library and write history in your own words,” Osinbajo said of Obasanjo.
“History is the most compassionate teacher. At some point in time we were told in an adage that experience is the best teacher but now we know it is only half of a well wise saying.
“The full statement of that adage is that experience is the best teacher for a fool, a wise man doesn’t need the pain of experience, history is a kinder and a more compassionate teacher.
“President Olusegun Obasanjo is therefore a gift in various ways being so intricately tied to the history of Nigeria, few years away from independence to the civil war and then Head of State with the Nigerian people and then the transition to civil rule and them from retirement and farming and being twice elected as President of Nigeria and then handed over to another President.
“At every turn, he recorded his views and perspectives and his perspectives especially of the times in various books, articles, seminars and now in this amazing monument to add credible life of service to our continent and to our world.
“We are fortunate that it is not only a life participant and sometimes victim of the twist and turns of history of our nation and continent but it is an enthusiast, erudite and resources chronic life of his contours and his textures through the years.
“Aside from all else, his enduring legacy will be his belief in one strong, detribalized Nigeria and this is so evident in the gatherings of Nigerians here and also his belief in word and in practice in an Africa united in vision and thoughts.
“Again, that Pan-Africanist vision is evident in the large gathering of African serving and former Heads of governments here present. But we diminish his vision if we do not recognize his place as a world-state man. Even that is evident from the representatives of the world that are present here today.”
President Johnson-Sirleaf lauded Obasanjo for the Presidential library and urged other African leaders to emulate him.
She advised African children, adults, and friends to visit OOPL to feel the exhibits from the life and times of a great son of Nigeria and Africa.
According to her, the library will continue to be a living legacy and a living testimony of Chief Obasanjo’s indefatigable accomplishments in Nigeria, Africa and the world.
She said: “History will bear truth to this precedent – setting occasion in Africa that will spell a long legacy of successful retiring Presidents to record and preserve the history of nation building for prosperity and for the benefit of today and future generations.”
“The lessons herein are more than academic or events from the past, when history and technology meet as eloquently displayed in Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, history becomes alive as a dynamic reality and development of human kind for our people, our children who will read events of history, who will live, interact, feel and challenge the interpretation of past events.”
Also speaking, ex – President Jonathan, said Obasanjo’s life and achievements attested to the truth that one can come from nowhere to become somebody. He also added that Obasanjo’s life is a lesson to the nation’s youths to be focused and determined in life.
Dangote said Obasanjo had made Nigerians proud with the first Presidential Library sited in Nigeria by a Nigerian.
