African leaders should treat their former presidents with more dignity because currently “we are being seen as animals”, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo has said.

Obasanjo told a Narrative of Zambia's independence leader and first President Kenneth Kaunda, who's now 93 and has been hospitalised on Wednesday, was treated by his successors within a seemingly trivial matter involving books.
Wednesday night in the launch of the French translation of a publication he Co-authored with others, including author and consultant Greg Mills, known as "Making Africa Work".

“I came to Zambia when president Kaunda was being harassed, and I thought in Zambia, or any other country in Africa, we should treat our past presidents with a little bit more dignity,” he said.

Dr Kaunda’s successor, Frederick Chiluba, was unhappy with Kaunda during the handover of power after Kaunda’s party lost in a snap election, and Obasanjo asked him what the matter was.

“If president Kaunda had done anything that is wrong, deal with it humanely, but let me know what exactly he has done so I can go to him as my elder brother. And what he said to me, is president Kaunda removes all the books from the shelf in the State House, and I said: ‘Is that all?’”

Obasanjo said he went to Dr Kaunda and asked him what was the matter. Dr Kaunda said there was "not one books" when he moved in, and all the books from the shelves were his.

Obasanjo said he went to Chiluba and provided to "move around the World and gather more books" from the publishers and printers he knew to fill his shelves up.

Obasanjo said he advised Chiluba to treat Dr Kaunda well, since he was The president to have the chance to take care of a past president well.

Obasanjo said he also spoke out when former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was “being treated like an animal in a cage” when he had to face various trials in Egyptian courts before being acquitted earlier this year.


Source: http://aderonkebamidele.com/ex-presidents-seen-treated-like-animals-obasanjo-laments/