Other world leaders were impressed after meeting Buhari – Obasanjo

Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday stated that a number of world leaders have told him they were very impressed with President Muhammadu Buhari during their meetings with the latter in the course of his recent trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The former president while speaking in his Abeokuta home, on Nigeria’s 55th independence anniversary also stated that the nation was not doing badly notwithstanding its “mistakes and missteps” in the past.

    Obasanjo said: “I heard some of the comments of those he (Buhari) met; the comment that probably will not come back to him. He met Clinton for almost one hour and President Clinton, when I joined him for his global initiative talked to me about the impression of our President, it was favourable.

    “Gordon Brown and I met him and we talked about issues. The few other leaders who met him gave me their impression and his debut so to say, it has been good. I think we are at the table, what they use to say that Nigeria is not at the table, now we are present at the table.”

Obasanjo further noted that Nigeria was now well positioned with the administration of President Buhari for both recognition and active participation in global politics in a manner that would likely elicit positive attention from the international community.

According to Obasanjo, feelers from the world leaders and statesmen during the recent UN summit showed that President Buhari did not only have a good outing there, but also helped to place Nigeria at a strategic position for global politics.

He advised Nigerians to remain willing to learn from past mistakes while core national values must be upheld to enable speedy growth and progress.