Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed why he once slapped his teacher.
Obasanjo disclosed that the respect he had for his father made him slap his teacher on his first day in school, after his teacher had asked him the name of his father.
He made the disclosure while speaking on the topic, “God in my Life” at the Diocese of Lagos West, Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral in Lagos.
Obasanjo stressed that his educational career was God’s destiny.
He said, “I do follow my father to farm but one day, he asked me what I wished to do and I told him I would prefer to be a mechanic. But he suggested education and I bought into it.
“We both went to Abeokuta and visited five different schools of which they rejected me because the school season was already in the middle.
“Later, I was taken to another school in the beginning of a new season. But, on my first day in school, they asked of my name and I gave them but when they asked of my father’s name, I found it irritating.
“By my own training in the village, to mention your father’s name is an insult and for him to ask for my father’s name is an insult. So, I slapped him and I was punished for that.
“He said that would have been the end of his educational career but God’s plan made him rise to his present level.”
