Address Me As Chief, Ex President Olusegun Obasanjo

Nigerian Former  President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has been awarded a doctorate in Christian Theology by the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).

The former president is among 14,771 persons receiving the honours at the university’s seventh convocation ceremony holding in Abuja. The retired general becomes NOUN’s first Ph. D graduate.
However, the former president has disclosed that he wouldn’t want to be referred to as Dr. Obasanjo following his academic achievement.

According to him, he prefer that people continue to address him as “Chief Obasanjo” a title he adopted after dropping the prefix “General” when he became Nigeria’s democratically elected president in 1999.

“I think I prefer to remain as ‘Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’ to avoid confusion. My first son, Olusegun Obasanjo, holds a Ph.D. in Architecture. So when you say Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo, you might be referring to me or to him.
“But that my son is not yet a chief, so I am higher than him in that. If you say ‘Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’ there is no question who you are referring to. That is me, and not my son.
“There are those saying I should now be called ‘Chief Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo’. Me, I don’t know about that o. As far as I am concerned, that is too complicated.”

The Vice Chancellor of the university said in spite of being a former president, Mr. Obasanjo conducted himself properly and deservedly bagged the Ph.D. degree and might be considered for a teaching appointment in the institution.
“There are lessons to be learnt from Obasanjo’s feat – one is never too old to learn; Obasanjo was about 80 years when he started the programme and has finished it at 82,” Mr. Adamu said.

“Again, one is never too powerful to learn; he was the president twice and yet subjected himself to learning; learning is a humbling process.
“We will consider him for the post of a facilitator or supervisor; maybe for our Abeokuta Study Centre; we will suggest it to him.’’
Mr. Adamu said because of Mr. Obasanjo’s achievement, NOUN has received enrolment requests from other older citizens.