My Watch (Volumes 1–3)

Author: Olusegun Obasanjo

Top Idea: Governance in Nigeria is often treated as a mission of national salvation rather than a negotiated social compact. Power, when filtered through the lens of the soldier-statesman, prioritizes order and unity over institutional process, leading to a state that is held together by strong hands rather than bound together by shared rules.

The Big Idea

Across three expansive volumes, Olusegun Obasanjo performs a prolonged act of interpretation, asserting his role as the ultimate custodian of Nigeria’s political memory. The central thesis of My Watch is that Nigeria is a fragile project requiring firm, decisive leadership to survive its own centrifugal forces (ethnicity, corruption, and indiscipline). However, the work reveals an underlying tension: a leadership style that favours command over consent. By positioning himself as the indispensable arbiter of national purpose, Obasanjo illustrates the dilemma of the exceptional individual whose very strength may inadvertently weaken the development of impersonal, sustainable institutions.

Top Lessons

1. Proximity to power can harden the belief in one’s own indispensability. In this worldview, disagreement is often categorized as error or sabotage rather than a legitimate democratic resource.
2. Federalism and institutions are often viewed instrumentally as tools to be wielded by the executive to manage the country rather than as philosophical pillars of a shared social contract.
3. The transition to civilian rule in 1999 altered the procedures of governance but failed to immediately shift the instincts. The moral crusade approach to policy often bypasses the patience required for institutionalization.
4. Accountability in the Nigerian elite context is frequently directional (applied to others) rather than reciprocal (applied to oneself). This asymmetry prevents the growth of a true culture of justice.

My Notes

1. Power Remembering Itself

• Obasanjo is not just recounting history, he is competing for the narrative control of it. In a country with a fragmented archival culture, these volumes serve as a political instrument to fix historical interpretation.
• Obasanjo sees himself as the man tasked with holding Nigeria together. This missionary approach to power explains his impatience with legislative resistance and judicial delays.

2. The Project of Nigeria

• To Obasanjo, the National Project is paramount. If federalist principles or local autonomies interfere with his vision of national unity or progress, they are treated as obstacles to be managed or overcome.
• He identifies indiscipline as a root cause of Nigerian failure. His solution is a top-down enforcement of order, a soldierly response to a civilian complexity.

3. The Transition of Instincts

• His anti-corruption efforts (like the creation of the EFCC and ICPC) are narrated as battles between reform and sabotage. While effective in the short term, the personalization of these crusades made them vulnerable once the strong hand was removed.
• The volumes document a civilian presidency that relied heavily on military governance habits: hierarchy, discipline, and a suspicion of dissent.

4. The Burden of Exceptionalism

• Obasanjo’s unique journey from military head of state to prisoner to civilian president reinforces his sense of exceptionalism.
• My Watch inadvertently demonstrates that an over-reliance on great men to save the state reduces the incentive to build robust, impersonal systems that function regardless of who is in power.

Key Takeaways for the Nigerian Condition

• Nigeria remains stuck in the transition from a command culture to a consent culture. Obasanjo’s worldview exemplifies the belief that order must precede process.
• The country continues to look for saviours rather than systems. My Watch is the ultimate testament to this mindset.
• For the state to achieve true legitimacy, its most powerful actors must move from being arbiters of others’ behaviour to being participants in a shared legal framework.
• Until the state is governed as a negotiated compact where dissent is seen as a resource and mediation as a strength, stability will remain dependent on the strength of the person in the Watch.

Notable Quotes

• Authority without sufficient self-suspicion leads to the hardening of belief in one’s own indispensability.
• Nigeria’s problem is not excessive central power, but insufficiently firm leadership. 
• Until Nigeria fully shifts from leaders who hold the country together to institutions that bind it together, the patterns of the past will repeat.