Anybody Who Does Not Want To See My Red Eyes Should Stop Calling Me Matthew - Obasanjo Warns

Anybody Who Does Not Want To See My Red Eyes Should Stop Calling Me Matthew - Obasanjo Warns

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has officially denounced his Christian name, Matthew, Leadership reports.

Obasanjo said he should no more be called by
it because he is not a tax collector like his biblical namesake.

Accordingly, he adopted only Olusegun Okikiola Aremu as his names, stressing that names have lots of connotations in African setting.

The former president went on to say anybody
who does not want to see his (Obasanjo's) eyes red should stop calling him Matthew.

He stated this in Abuja on Friday, July 14 at
an event organised by the Nigerian Society of
Engineers (NSE) in commemoration of his 80th birthday. Obasanjo clocked 80 years in March.

His words: "When I was born in my part of Nigeria, the system was that after eight days, you must be given a name and for people to know that you were born into a Christian family, you will be given one Hebrew name.

"My mother and father decided to name me
Matthew but when I grew up, I started asking
myself the meaning of Matthew.

"Not only does it not have meaning as long as
I am concerned, the biblical Matthew is a
stupid tax collector. Anybody who does not
want to see my eyes red should stop calling
me Matthew."

He commended the NSE presidential system
of election and governance, wishing that it
could be introduced into Nigerian politics.

Also speaking, the president of NSE, Engineer
Oliver Tagbo Anyaeji noted that Obasanjo
successfully initiated and pioneered the
establishment of an engineering and technology university (Bells) as well as the state-of-art presidential library in Ota, Ogun state, which considered as first of its kind in Africa.

"While it will be pretty difficult to bring to the fore all the achievements of this world acclaimed achiever, I wish to mention that President Obasanjo initiated the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP)in 2005 and directed by policy that Nigerian engineering firms must get at least 25 percent of exhausted project scope," he stated.

Abubakar made the comment in her address
in Kano on Friday, July 14, at a stakeholders
meeting on "Buy Made-in- Nigeria Products"
organised by her ministry in collaboration with
the federal ministry of information and
culture.

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