Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has shared how a fellow African leader once phoned him in shock over an impeachment attempt against him while he was in office. Obasanjo said the dramatic call came when a member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives moved to impeach him during his presidency.
According to a video clip shared by Symfoni TV, the former leader explained that the conversation happened while he was in Europe. He recounted that the unnamed president could not understand how a sitting Nigerian president could face impeachment, a process rare in many African countries.
Obasanjo recalled telling his colleague that Nigeria’s constitution clearly provides for the removal of a president who commits serious misconduct. He said the other leader urged him to change the law instead. “He told me, ‘Go back home and amend that constitution,’” Obasanjo said, adding that the foreign president had the power to rewrite his own nation’s laws but could not grasp why Nigeria’s rules were different.
Narrating the exchange, Obasanjo said: “I was president then and one Na’aba in the National Assembly decided to impeach me. I was talking with this African president outside Nigeria, in fact outside Africa. We were in Europe and he called me and said, ‘Hey my brother, what is this nonsense you people in Nigeria want to introduce to Africa? Somebody will say he’s impeaching the president.’ I told him our constitution allows that if the president commits any misconduct. He said, ‘Go back home and amend that constitution.’ But he didn’t understand. That president, as far as I know, is still in power.
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