By Biodun Busari

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said Nigeria’s West African neighbouring countries have keen interests in the 2023 general elections slated for February 25 and March 11. 

The ex-president also expressed concern that nothing interferes with the forthcoming elections, which probably have been the most anticipated since the return of democracy in 1999. 

Obasanjo’s remarks were hinged on the ongoing scarcity of new naira notes and fuel plaguing the country which have thrown Nigerians into turmoil. 

The former President made these statements Wednesday when he received the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) at his Penthouse residence located within the premises of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The ADC national leaders were led by their Chairman, Dr. Mani Ibrahim Ahmed; the National Chairman of the party, Prof. Ralph Nwosu and a former presidential aspirant of the ADC, Chukwuka Monye.

According to Obasanjo, Nigeria is in an exhilarating moments, thus urging Nigerian people not to take the elections with levity. 

He said taking the elections with all seriousness by Nigerians is necessary as the global community is focused on the polls which mark a defining for most populous African nation. 

“We are in an interesting period in Nigeria. In less than three weeks, we will be going to the polls; well, I hope nothing will intervene against that,” Obasanjo said. 

“In less than three weeks, we will be electing a leader that will pilot the affairs of Nigeria for the next four years from May.” 

“I have been in Togo, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire from the beginning of the week; and they are as concerned about what happens in Nigeria as every Nigerian should be,” he added.