Former President Goodluck Jonathan has revealed how the late Kenneth Kaunda, the first President of Zambia, predicted that he would be elected as President.
Jonathan who revealed this while giving a speech at the second Kenneth Kaunda Memorial public lecture in Pretoria, South Africa, said the late Kaunda gave the prophecy when he visited Bayelsa in 2006.
The former Governor said though he was a Governor of Bayelsa state at the time, he never harbored the dream of becoming Nigeria’s president.
He said;
“My political journey was not the one which attracted much attention from spiritual leaders and seers because many then could not see me playing notable roles in the national affairs of my country, since I was not active in partisan politics back then.
“However, I must say it now that Kaunda in the early days of my political career, captured my political trajectory to the presidency in an accurate prophetic revelation that has continued to amaze me till this day.
“In 2006 when Kaunda had ended his visit to us in Yenagoa and was returning to Zambia, I remember seeing him off to the Port Harcourt airport in neighboring Rivers state.
“As he stood up and was about to board a vehicle that would convey him to the aircraft, he turned back and said to me, ‘Young man, you will be the president of this country one day’.
“Myself and my secretary to the state government (SSG), Amb. Boladei Igali who was with me, simply looked at each other in amazement, because the presidency was never in our dreams, at that time.
“Farfetched as these words seemed to me then, I later saw his prophecy fulfilled in my life within a decade.
“So I can say that KK was the man who saw tomorrow as it related then to my political future and fortune, as I eventually became the president of my country.”
Also explaining how his political career mirrored that of Kaunda, Jonathan added;
“I am glad I made that happen without any contestation in the interest of peace and sustainable democracy.
“Let me end by saying that Dr. Kaunda’s political profile as a leader and pan-Africanist experienced varied fortunes, but in the end, he refused to be defeated and lived his life to show others that politics is about the people and that there is life after office.
“He was a man of the people right to the end of his ripe old age of 97 years when he passed on.
“This is what I am learning from him as I continue to devote my time to the pursuit of peace, good governance, and sustainable democracy in Africa.”
