…ex-president holds memorial service for late American leader
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Sunday expressed deep sorrow over the passing of his close friend and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, describing him as a “lover of humanity and a man of God.”
Speaking during a memorial service held at the Chapel of Christ the Glorious King, located in the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun state, Obasanjo said the event was organized to honour Carter’s legacy as a global leader and righteous man whose influence transcended borders.
The service featured a memorial sermon delivered by the President of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, Rev. (Dr.) Israel Adelani Akanji.
Obasanjo mourned Carter as a great and true friend, expressing confidence that they would reunite in Paradise. He praised Carter’s leadership style, which emphasized humility, collaboration, and leading by example.
“One great lesson I learned from President Carter was that in his leadership, he carried along an army of co-workers who shared the ideals and burdens of the work. He led by example and humility, which ensured his success,” Obasanjo said.
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The former president also reflected on the shared aspects of their lives, including modest family backgrounds, disciplinarian parents, and military careers. He lauded Carter’s contributions to dismantling apartheid in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia and recalled how Carter intervened to save him from being executed during the regime of late Nigerian military dictator General Sani Abacha.
Obasanjo emphasised that Carter’s righteousness and dedication to humanity made him a world leader worthy of eternal remembrance.
He said: “But why should I decide to have a service in memory of an American President who lived and died almost 5000 miles away? It is because he was a great world leader, he was a righteous man whose righteousness spread over the whole world; he was a lover of humanity, a man of God; and he was a great and true friend of mine.
“In terms of early life background, I shared similarity with President Jimmy Carter. He was born into a farming family in Plains, Georgia, and I was born into a farming family in the rural village of Ibogun-Olaogun in Ogun State.
“He grew up under a father and mother who were disciplinarians, who instilled in him the essence of discipline, morality, hard work, integrity, kindness and humility, compassion for the poor, and a strong belief in God. My parents inculcated similar attributes in me as I was growing up in a rural area that had no piped water, and no electricity just as it was in Plains, Georgia, while Jimmy Carter was growing up there. He beat me though in one respect, there was the road to his settlement, there was no road to my village. We walked to every place or, at best, we were carried on bicycles. President Carter had a military background which I had and, in fact, we met when I was a military Head of State.
“But if not that we were both in politics, our paths may not have crossed. When I became Nigeria’s military Head of State, one major issue that Africa was facing, among others, was removing the last vestiges of colonization and getting rid of apartheid all in Southern Africa.
“The then policy of the US Government under President Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. courageously implemented by Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger, was, to put it mildly, unsympathetic to African interest in Southern Africa. We stood uncompromisingly on our policy of Africa being the centre-piece of our foreign policy and could not get along well with the US Government of President Ford and his Secretary of State on their constructive engagement with Southern Africa.
“We were hoping and praying for a change in the US Government leader as elections came up in November 1976 in America. In preparation for the change that we hoped for, if it would come, we looked for and reached out to a close collaborator of Presidential Candidate Jimmy Carter in Andy Young. Our prayer was answered as Jimmy Carter won the election and Andy Young was a Cabinet member of the Administration and US Permanent Representative at the United Nations, UN. The Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, was the direct opposite of Kissinger.
“Obviously, Andy had prepared the ground for the new relationship between Nigeria and the US on one hand and, by extension, between the US and Africa. As soon as Carter was sworn in, I wrote him a letter of congratulations expressing our hope and aspiration for a close and amicable relationship. On January 26, only 6 days after he assumed office, President Carter wrote me a delightful letter which in part reads:
“As I begin my duties as President of the United States, I want you to know that my administration will join all friends of Africa to help achieve real independence and further economic and social progress for all peoples of that continent. I recognise that Nigeria has a special role to play, justified not only by her size and economic importance, but also through the special dedication of her leaders to the ideals of freedom, self-determination, equal rights, and development.
“Nigeria’s efforts to achieve these ends at home and abroad are widely known and respected. As a matter of immediate attention, I want to assure you that the United States remains deeply concerned about the situation in southern Africa. We are fully committed to continuing the search for peaceful solutions to the problems of Rhodesia and Namibia. My administration will carry on the efforts already begun to bring about peace and justice in the region. In the future, we will use our influence and good offices wherever they may be best applied to accomplish this goal.”