Olusegun Obasanjo
Nigeria has no business with poverty. With our human and material resources, we shall strive to eradicate poverty from our country.Collection: Business
Corruption, the greatest single bane of our society today.
My joy knows no bounds... I will devote all my energy and all the powers available to me to the service of Nigeria and humanity.
Let me make a solemn pledge before all of you, before the whole world and before God, that I will devote all my energy and all I possess in my power to serve the people of Nigeria and humanity.
My gut feelings and my faith tell me that until God shuts a door, no human can shut it.
Unfortunately, the true force which propels our endless political disputes, our constant struggles for political advantage, is often not our burning concern for democracy, it is often of our dedication to the principle of the rule of law.
I am a black man inside and outside and you are white men on the outside, but inside, you are Africans like me.
I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge that our foreign friends are welcome to join in our endeavor to develop the resources of our country.
I will not say the fact that there are no European Union observers at an election means that it will not be fair and free.
Pope John Paul II not only visited Nigeria twice but stood by the country in its fight against dictatorship and injustice.
We will as soon as possible reexamine our laws and policies and eliminate all obstacles to genuine investment.
We will work to bring an element of stability to the price of oil.
What the oil producer gets paid is about 16 percent. The majority of it is tax, which in fairness to the government of this country they have accepted and admitted.
If I am not above the law, nobody in this country can then claim to be above the law.
There is no part of the world where corruption is absolutely eliminated.
Fighting corruption is not a one-night affair.
The givers of most of the corruption in Africa are from outside Africa.
We regard America and Europe as old friends. We keep old friends, but we make new friends in Japan, India, and China.
I believe God knew what he was doing when he put oil under our ground. It should be a means to an end.
When I left office in 1979, I was about the only one who had really left public office on my own.
If you deceive me once shame on you because I have trusted you once and you have deceived me, if you deceive me twice shame on me because I have learnt my lessons and you have deceive me and if you deceive me for the third time shame on me because am a compound fool.Collection: Lessons
Femi Fani Kayode is my boy. Provide him food, he will eat and then sing for you. He’s a smart boyCollection: Smart
Even Jesus Christ cannot conduct a free and fair election in Nigeria.Collection: Jesus
School is not meant for the poor, only for the rich.Collection: School
To feed our people we must first feed our soilCollection: People
Democracy should be nurtured and sustained in Nigeria and in our part of the worldCollection: Democracy
I don't see why anybody should worry.Collection: Worry
Yet there comes a time in the life of a patriot when abdication would amount to a betrayal if not outright treachery.Collection: Betrayal
North and south must also adopt measures to arrest the growing phenomenon of illegal capital flight and the repatriation of illicit wealth siphoned abroad by corrupt political leaders and their collaborators back to their countries of origin.Collection: Country
At the same time, African aims to intensify cooperation with China in the fields of trade, investment and agriculture.Collection: Agriculture