Former President Goodluck Jonathan has revealed how late Kenneth Kaunda, in 2006, prophesied his emergence as Nigeria’s president.

“In 2006, when Kaunda had ended his visit to us in Yenagoa and was returning to Zambia, I remember seeing him off to the Port Harcourt airport in neighbouring Rivers state,” said the former Nigerian leader. “As he stood up and was about to board a vehicle that would convey him to the aircraft, he turned back and said to me, ‘Young man, you will be the president of this country one day’.”

According to a statement he issued on Sunday, Mr Jonathan revealed this in his speech at the second Kenneth Kaunda Memorial Public Lecture on Saturday in Pretoria, South Africa.

Mr Jonathan noted that Mr Kaunda’s prediction surprised him because he did not have plans to rule Nigeria at the time.

“Myself and my secretary to the state government (SSG), Ambassador Boladei Igali, who was with me, simply looked at each other in amazement because the presidency was never in our dreams at that time. Farfetched as these words seemed to me then, I later saw his prophecy fulfilled in my life within a decade,” stated the ex-Bayelsa governor.

Mr Jonathan added, “So I can say that KK was the man who saw tomorrow as it related then to my political future and fortune, as I eventually became the president of my country.”

Mr Kaunda, the first president of Zambia who served from 1964 to 1991, also known as KK, died on June 17, 2021.

“My political journey was not the one which attracted much attention from spiritual leaders and seers because many then could not see me playing notable roles in the national affairs of my country since I was not active in partisan politics back then,” the former Nigerian president stated. “However, I must say it now that Kaunda, in the early days of my political career, captured my political trajectory to the presidency in an accurate prophetic revelation that has continued to amaze me till this day.”

The former Nigerian president also said his political experience, in certain ways, mirrored that of Mr Kaunda.

Like Mr Kaunda, he said he handed over to the opposition party after losing the election.

“I am glad I made that happen without any contestation in the interest of peace and sustainable democracy. Let me end by saying that Dr Kaunda’s political profile as a leader and Pan-Africanist experienced varied fortunes,” Mr Jonathan explained. “But in the end, he refused to be defeated and lived his life to show others that politics is about the people and that there is life after office.”

He further described Mr Kaunda as a “man of the people right to the end of his ripe old age of 97 years when he passed on,” adding that “this is what I am learning from him as I continue to devote my time to the pursuit of peace, good governance and sustainable democracy in Africa.”

(NAN)