Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed that he does not know his exact age, explaining that he estimates it by comparing himself with his surviving secondary school classmates who are now all in their 90s.
Obasanjo made the disclosure during “The Toyin Falola Interviews: A Conversation with His Excellency, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo” on Sunday.
“I don’t know my exact age, but I could judge from those who were in school with me. So I leave it to you to guess what my age could be,” he said.
Reflecting on his Presidential Library initiative, the former president said the project was conceived to safeguard Nigeria’s historical records and strengthen institutional memory. He revealed that more than three million documents have already been digitised, with an additional three million awaiting digital conversion.
“The idea is that when these materials are digitalised, people can have access to them,” he said. “As document preservation, we preserve the past, take note of the present, and we want all these to inspire the future.”
Obasanjo noted that the library holds a wide range of personal and national historical materials, including his primary and secondary school records, private letters, such as those written from prison, including one to the late General Sani Abacha after his son’s death, manuscripts of his books, and even detailed records of crops he cultivated while incarcerated.
He stressed that the motivation behind the Presidential Library was his concern that Nigeria lacks a culture of proper documentation.
“I believe one of the things we don’t do too well in our society is that we don’t keep records too well; institutional memory is not what we do very well,” he said.
Despite admitting uncertainty about his true age, Obasanjo publicly celebrated his 88th birthday in March
