We saved Obasanjo from being removed as president – Gowon

A former Head of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon, said on Saturday he and another  ex-Head of State, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, were among key figures who stopped former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s impeachment by the National Assembly in 2007.

Gowon  said  Obasanjo was able to complete his tenure because  he and other prominent Nigerians  convinced  then-Speaker, House of Representatives, Ghali Na’Abba, and  then-Senate President, Pius Anyim, to let peace reign.

Gowon said these at the Maj Gen Emmanuel Abisoye Foundation lecture at the University of Abuja tagged, ‘Nation Building or Nation Fragmentation: Reflections on 20 Years of Post-Military Rule in Nigeria’.

He is the   foundation’s  Chairman, Board of Trustees.

Gowon  said his action was informed by the need to save Obasanjo’s successors from  embarrassments by the legislature.

He said  if the  legislature  had succeeded   in  impeaching  Obasanjo, other presidents would have suffered  a similar fate.

– Punch