‘I Said I Wasn’t Going’ – Oby Ezekwesili Reveals What Obasanjo Did After She Rejected His Presidential Order

Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has recounted how former President Olusegun Obasanjo insisted that she travel to Norway to represent him at a major international event despite her objections.

Naija News reports that Ezekwesili disclosed this during an interview with Founders Connect.

According to the former minister, Obasanjo had initially been scheduled to deliver a keynote address at a global meeting of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Norway but could no longer attend.

She explained that the former president contacted her on the night before his scheduled journey and informed her that she would have to travel in his place.

Ezekwesili said she immediately objected to the request because she was already occupied with several responsibilities in the government, particularly the reforms she was working to complete before the administration’s tenure ended.

She recalled that Obasanjo frequently moved her from one assignment to another because of her efficiency, a situation she said often left her with little time to concentrate on her existing responsibilities.

She said: “When I was doing reforms, I was so busy. I have my, you know, the way I do reforms, very, very structured, and so I calculated the amount of time, the days that it would take me, and you want to take me out for two, three days of that time.

“I wasn’t hiding it, funny. I protested those things so much. I said I wasn’t going. It forced him to have to call my husband and say, ‘Beg me, beg her for me. She has to go to Norway.’

“So here I was, my boss saying I must go. I came back home furious, saying to my husband, ‘Can you imagine? He sent me to Education. We don’t have much time, and, you know, these reforms have to, you know, we have to conclude our reforms as much as possible.’

“The government was going to end in a few months, and now I need to travel at that time. In Education, I didn’t do any travels. I told my minister of state, every travel that required me going, you will go.

“So here was my boss coming to spoil my plan, and I didn’t find it funny. So I was home thinking my husband was going to be supportive and say, ‘Yes, tell him you’re not going anywhere.’ And he says to me, he says, ‘But baby, you’re going.’ I’m like, ‘I’m going? What do you mean I’m going?’ He says, ‘You’re going. You have to go.’

“He said, ‘Even when the president said, you better help me tell your wife that she must go to Norway.’ The way he said that, you know, in his own case, that he was saying, ‘I think she needs to just get away from the room of, of, you know, because my doing this thing for the president as keynote speaker in Norway, unless you get some fresh air.’

“You know, that’s why I said to him, I agreed with him. You will go. When I spoke at that event, it turned out that the next person that was the keynote speaker at the event was the then president of the World Bank. ”