Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday said Nigeria needs more rebels who will tell the country’s leaders the hard truth.

“Our country – Nigeria – needs more of rebels. Those who will look at things straight in the face and say this is not right. This is spot on. This, I will not be part of. This is not good for Nigeria,” Mr Obasanjo said. 

The former president made this statement while unveiling Tayo Sowunmi’s autobiography, titled ‘Footprints of a Rebel’ at Abeokuta. 

“Looking at the title of the book, I ask myself, why would someone call himself a rebel, but it is good. The truth is that if you have to live a life of honesty and integrity, you have to become a rebel,” Mr Obasanjo further stated. 

“There would be some time you would be asked to do something, but you would say no, this is not right. And when you say that you will become a rebel. You may even become a persona non grata,” he explained. 

Since leaving power in 2007, Mr Obasanjo has been a critic of his successors, calling former President Goodluck Jonathan and President Muhammadu Buhari out on national issues at different times in open letters.

However, Mr Obasanjo was known to have maintained a hostile attitude towards critics of his government, forcing the likes of Eidris Abdulkarem, a Nigerian rapper whose song, ‘Nigeria Jagajaga’, criticised Mr Obasanjo’s government in 2004, to flee the country. 

Under Mr Obasanjo’s watch, in 2003, Human Rights Watch reported that “the Nigerian government has been responsible for killings, torture, and harassment of its critics over the last two years.”