Former President Olusegun Obasanjo humorously reflected on Nigeria’s abundant natural blessings, recounting a joke about God creating Africa and bestowing Nigeria with unique resources. He described how God, while creating different African countries, gave Nigeria two major rivers—Benue and Niger—along with fertile soil, oil, minerals, and a rich coastline filled with fish. When Archangel Michael questioned God for favoring Nigeria so much, God laughed and responded that despite these blessings, Nigerians would “mess it all up.”
Obasanjo used this story to emphasize that the country’s challenges are self-inflicted, not due to a lack of divine blessings. He concluded by stressing the importance of turning to God with humility, repentance, and prayer for the healing of the nation.
He said in a live coverage by Symfoni from 1:47, “I tell the joke about God creating Africa, and the leader of Nigeria and the different leaders in Africa were in the presence of God. And God created Egypt, put in, and He was going like that. And when He got to Nigeria, He created Nigeria, He put two rivers—Benue and Niger—and now, there are not too many countries in which God did that. Then He went on to the soil, He put oil, He put tin, He put other minerals. And then He went to the coast, put a beautiful coast, put plenty of fish.
And then Archangel Michael said to God, ‘Hey, you are doing too much here.’ And God laughed and said, ‘Well, don’t worry, you will see them, people of this country, they will mess it all up.’ So, what God has given to us, we have messed it up. It’s not the fault of God. But then, if we call the name of God and we go humbly before God, and we really show remorse and pray to God, God will heal our land.”