Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said again that he does not know his exact age. He told an interviewer that he judges his age by the people who went to primary school with him. He said six of those classmates are still alive and none is under 90 years.
Mr Obasanjo also spoke about the presidential library he helped set up. He said the goal is to keep records so people can learn from the past, see the present, and plan for the future. He added the library holds many of his personal papers and old documents.
He noted the work done on digitising materials and gave this summary: “We have digitalised over 3m materials. We still have about the same number, 3m to digitalise.
“The idea is when these materials are digitalised, people can have access to them. That is number one. As document preservation, we preserve the past, take note of the present and we want all these to inspire the future.”
On his age he said more detail in his own words: “I don’t know my exact age but I could judge from those who were in school with me, I have given you an example of Olubara (Oba Jacob Olufemi Omolade, the Olubara of Ibara) who is still alive.
“I believe there are six of my classmates in secondary school that I know are still alive and none of them is less than 90 years of age. So I leave it to you to guess what my age could be.
“My school record card in primary school, I have been able to keep them and when I became President and I wanted to establish the library, they were available to be exhibited. My records in primary and secondary school and even the manuscripts of books that I have written, those that I wrote in prison and so on, even crops of maize that I planted when I was in prison, they are there and somehow I was able to keep them.
“Why the Presidential Library? 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 the library aims to store documents and make them easy to access. He explained that many items from his life and work are now preserved there, including school records and writings from different times in his life.
Mr Obasanjo used the library to highlight a wider problem. He said society often loses track of records and that keeping a clear record helps leaders and citizens know what happened before and what lessons to draw for the future.
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