He went as far as consulting an astrologer in India to ascertain the date, he told an audience yesterday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
The astrologer, failed to tell him the date, but told him he would become great and live long.
Obasanjo said when he met the astrologer, he stretched forth his palms towards the man and asked him to read and determine when exactly he was born.
Speaking at the “2017 International Youth Variety Day” and the public presentation of his books entitled: “The World of the Tortoise”, the two-time leader, who is the Balogun of Owu Kingdom, noted that consulting an astrologer in India was part of the measures he took in the past to unravel his birth date.
According to him, his largely illiterate parents kept no record of his birth in 1937.
The opening of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) on Siun-Sagamu Road, Abeokuta, to mark the ex-President’s 80th birthday was also part of the event.
It was organised by the Centre for Human Security (CHS), an arm of the OOPL.
Explaining further, Obasanjo said that the astrologer could not help the situation after reading his palms.
The ex-President, who will join the Octogenarian club on Sunday, reiterated his earlier stand that he does not know his birth date and would not want to leave anybody in confusion about it.
His words: “Let me say this, I do not know the date of my birth, when I started school, we were asked to give our date of birth. I used to ask my mother, she would say ‘You were born on Ifo Market Day.’
“She said ‘you were born on Ifo Market Day. Tell them you were born on Ifo Market Day. All the my mother, an illiterate woman, could remember was that it was an Ifo Market Day and before the people who went to the market returned, he had fallen into labour and I was delivered,” he said.
Obasanjo explained that since he did not know his true age, he elected to rely on the age bracket of his mates, whose birth dates are established to pick a date for himself.
Nation
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