OBASANJO AND
THE LEADERSHIP QUAGMIRE IN NIGERIA- PART ONE
The art of leadership must be learned and the hurdles facing effective leadership can easily
controlled by understanding
challenges that leadership face and the wealth of history has so much to rely
upon been streamlined with available facts and resources to make it work for students of history .Depending
on the political , economic and social strategies deployed ,like organic human
cells that follow biological processes during metabolism ,this art can be
channeled to the attainment of its objectives by mere understanding of this
history ,equitable value system and the needs of the society at a particular period.The
Nigerian societies cannot be immune from these challenges and the wherewithal
to surmount them .
Leadership like every field of human endeavors and professionalism is a thing of choice .Its
capability speaks volume base on the level of visions ,focus ,faith and
commitment above all passion or passion
thrust and the level of preparedness and
competences of those who desire with
their intellectual aptitude to take to the contours and business of leadership
.They must understand its art and science .Indeed it is a business of direction
composed by vision ,strategy ,values ,integrity and a high sense of ideological
freedom .These we know are catalyst for mastery of the art of leadership and
the moment a leader looses this trait he ceases to be a leader .We know that
societies where these items of moral
leverage are critically observed has
resolved leadership quagmire –a corrupt free institution not only cultivated but that leadership is a thing of
service and the first service of the nation .
LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES
,LANDMARK PROFILES AND NATION BUILDING
Nigeria like every nation of the world is no exception to
this challenge and this piece is specifically interested in ranking leadership
profiles of our successive regimes since independence with prejudice to rate
most glorious years of nation building in general while schematically perusing
the twist and turns of the nation’s history and giant strides and low strides
in sustainable economic development as a whole .
The two eras simply comes to mind –the Gowon regime and the
Murtala-Obasanjo regime with Specific bias for former President Olusegun
Obasanjo –the Baba Iyabo himself .What makes the point of our discussion ? Even
though he is an elder statesman ,everybody loves to hate and personifies the
face of leadership quagmire and epicenter of landmark profiles all rolled into
one colossal behemoth , the history of this country cannot be complete by his giant contribution
to nation building and sustainable economic development in the country in
general .
No size fits all.This is because the business of leadership
has become a thorn in the flesh of not growth and development and leadership
but much more on the part of the followership suffering where the two elephants
met and fought .Take it or leave it Obj is about the most successful leader the
nation ever had not based on the longevity of years of service but much more
determined the sprawling expanse of capital projects undertaken during his
tenure .In fact in the whole of Africa ,he ranked ahead of every one excluding
Mandela and to some extent Gadhafi and can be ranked only second to Mandela if
we rate and include the checkered antecedence of the nation’s foreign policy
during his military regime.With the benefit of antecedence we shall explore the
artesian wells of this indisputable axioms including the strategic figures to
back up this claim,that many media critics and pundits loved to dispute ;for
they are as holy as the righteousness of nature or mothernature.Irrespective of
the bellyaching of critics ,the wealth of history cannot be disputed and human
fallibility itself cannot question its domains of pristine values as the final arbiter of
mankind . Disputation aside let us turn to the relics of history to provide
this strategic evidences begin to be explored.
It is on record that the most successful development plans in the nation’s history till
date still unprecedented happened under his watchdog. The 60s and 70s national
development plans ,the NEEDS policy document,the FSS2020 excluding the short-lived
Yaradua 7 point agenda and untested transformation agenda that still requires
the furnace of history to be tested after the exit of the regime .Majority of
these landmark policies happened under Baba Iyabo’s regimes.With the evidence
of history we shall rate SAP and why it
can be regarded as the downturn worst epoch though debatable and the
downside of the nation ‘s history .Excluding
this landmark profiles ,development layout plans are mere vain embellishment and entangles of these glorious
eras of our nation’s history .having become a legal framework for successive
regimes to build upon .
To argue this claim
,we shall x-ray the Nigerian economy and
history into 4-four divisions-the pre-independence era ;post independence era ;post civil war
era and the return of democracy .We treat the exposition and the report below at they matter.
THE
PRE-INDEPENDENCE ERA
The socioeconomic development that became a matter of priority in the country in the pre-independence era was
facilitated and accelerated by regional leadership .Agriculture was dominant
foreign exchange earner toppling development items .Government interventionist
development policies saved the day and made possible an agrarian economy like
elsewhere across Africa .Cash crops such as Cocoa In the West , Groundnut pyramids,
rubber and palm oil in the North and
cotton among other became the mainstay of the Nigerian economy .
Infact this
competitive basis at the regions
was instrumental to the
infrastructural development of the immediate post independence era .Consequently
,the Eastern Region was reported to be
the world fastest growing economy in the 1940s precisely in 1946 growing at
alarming rate of over 70 percent per annum –a feat that was not equaled 50
years after until equatorial Guinea discovered oil in 2001 and achieved the
same feat becoming the world fastest growing .
The economic priorities of this scale was responsible for
the development of education, health among other infrastructural development projects as
political class desired and determined to exit their people out of poverty .According
to Ogunjinmi,1997:97] the process of social and political development of any
country can be facilitated by
deliberative efforts and theoretical
development plans of the sitting government of the day .Socialist ideologies
and development plans were adopted in the old Soviet Union and recorded a lasting impact on the citizens through
beneficial policy interventionism of the period .Policy interventionism also
require broad based mechanism and
general framework incorporated as mass development plans to operate or cover every sector of the economy.
On the hand political planning also gives direction to government direction
including the rate of growth .With this conscious policy mass infrastructural
development as the most logical interpretation are likely to be prioritized and implemented.-Ayinla-1998:21].
The successive and progressive implementation of diverse
projects in the pre and post
independence era was facilitated by national development plans of the eras .When
the British Colonial Office mandated colonies to prepare development plans for Colonial and Welfare Funds disbursement in 1940 ,the basis of development plans was
fairly laid .National Economic Council came up in 1955 and following
recommendation by World Bank was specifically established for development coordination and growth supervision.
Consequently national development plan of 1959 set up for the country was
inspired by the institution . Raising the standard of living to the highest level possible and
the creation of a legal framework to achieve this goal became its principal objectives .With the emergence
of the new nation nation-Nigeria in 1960 at independence the successive
generation of post independence
development plans were rolled out in earnest. Making it possible for
government to articulate programmes and
launch prioritized policies in efficient
allocation of waste management resources
, income growth, better public amenities .Ayinla,1988].
The ten year development plans launched in 1946 can be
traced as the source or origin of conscious development planning
in Nigeria.The total expenditure of the historic Colonial Development welfare funds stood at
110 million naira to be executed between April 1,1946 to March
31,1956.Ogunjimi,1997:97]. The development plans by objectives were meant to serve the
interest of the colonial masters .The
development plan did not run its full course having being truncated by
1950 due to inadequacies of the system
and the terrain wherein it was been implemented as subject of rapid structural
changes and the evidence of its volatility.
Thereafter it was broken into two five yearly programs with new plan formulated
to cover the 1950-56 period. When federal system of government was introduced
this revision was affected as regional governments exploited their autonomy to
adopt diverse economic policies .
The federal structure was predicated on 3 tier
administrative state structure-western,Northern and Eastern regions in 1954 and
by 1964 the Midwestern region came into being. True federalism during the
period also contributed immensely to the development of infrastructure and
economic growth in the country. We could
remember the healthy rivalry between the Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the
great Zik Of Africa as both premier of Western and Eastern regions .Immediately
Awolowo introduced free education in the
West ,Zik emulated with similar gesture in East and Ahmadu Bello did the same
in North .The moment the great Awolowo introduced western T.V, station-WNTV and western radio
–WNBS THE East and the North introduced and also adopted Radio and TV in their regions.
With the establishment of Liberty Stadium ,in the west Ahmadu Bello Stadium and
Enugu Stadium were also introduced in the East and North to rival west.That is
the beauty of competition in a federal state . So fiscal federalism was crucial
to development based on the competitive
autonomy of the regions during the era .
The plans of 1955-60 was to be implemented by federal
government itself and they serve as reviewd above as the basis of development
planning practice .It cannot be disputed
however that fiscal federalism and the
competitive autonomy of the regions was a critical development factor of the
pre-independence era . Irrespective of
the weakness as can be noted from the
work of Olaniyi,1998:106],Ayo,1988:1],and Ogunjimi :1997] contributed a great
deal to flag of the practice of
development planning in Nigeria .
THE POST-INDEPENCE ERA
At independence in 1960 , indigenous development plans took
off in earnest launching the era of the
generation of the most comprehensive
development plans ever contrived in the nation’s history or for the newly independent nation.They were plotted within
the framework of revamped national
account system ,covering both public and private sector related projects with
well articulated overall economic targets .
From the 1960 to 1985 Nigeria implemented four national
development plans –This includes the First,Second,Third and Fourth national
development plans with each development plan having its own well articulated
focus and goals with far reaching implications ushering unprecedented
development history .In April 1962 federal government launched First national
development plans to cover the period of
6 years -1962-68 .About 2.132billion
naira as proposed investment expenditure
was earmarked for the plan and about 1,352 billion naira was envisaged
to be spent under this plan and
the 780 million naira remainder was to be undertaken by private sector . Unfortunately
the two major political events such as
the military intervention of 1966 and the 1967-70 Civil War truncated this
beautiful plan with the period of the plan extended to march 1931 ,1970.
However a number of landmark achievements were recorded at
both regional and federal level during
the period .This includes –Oil refinery in Port Harcourt ,the Sugar Mill and
the Niger Dam in Jebba and Bacita ,the Niger Bridge ,ports extension and the
Paper mill and a handful number of trunk
A roads .The construction of first generation Universities such as the Ahmadu
Bello University by the Northern Nigerian Governmennt ,the University of
Nigeria Nsukka –UNN,by the Eastern Government of Nigeria and the University of
Ife now known as the Obafemi Awolowo University
by the Western Nigerian Government .
The capital budgets operated within the framework of
development planning providing the vigour to federal and State govts to be able to
achieve this landmark inspite of the economic crisis during the period .These budgets and plans were deployed as the
main instrument of control and for
resources allocation;as they provided
also guidelines for meaningful development coordination inspite of two political crisis during plan
period Ogunjimi,1997:98].In 1970 the Gowon regime launched the second national
development plan.Being a post war development its purpose was on rehabilitation
,recon reconstruction and reconciliation
of a war shattered economy and
bridging social and economic development gap across the country .
Like the first national development plan it also a couple of
landmark achievements at both the
federal and state level .This includes federal roads ,the national youth
service corps-NYSC scheme; federal scholarship introduction; and Nigerian
students loan schemes .The third national development plan was also launched by
the Gowon regime and it covered a five year plan period – April,1975-1980 March
– a water shed in economic development
planning in the country .The initial
investment of 30 billion naira was raised to 43.3 billion naira with extensive
consultations from the private sector . The growth of percapital income ,the
equal distribution of income ,reduction
of unemployment ,economic diversification,development balancing and indigenization of economic
activities constitute the cardinal
objectives of the plan period .Unfortunately the change of government in
july,1975 altered the implementation of the plan barely three months after the
plan was launched by the faded regime. This change and policy succession
crisis hence altered some of the cardinal objectives of the plan
though more relevant projects were focused upon that have direct bearing on the
standard of living of the people .This
basically included agriculture , water ,health and Agriculture including
housing .We shall soon did more circumspection on this third national
development plan-the most successful of the development Nigeria ever had .
Nevertheless in the immediate post independence era ,Nigeria
has had a truncated industry as
evidenced in the GDP growth rate of the period .This recorded a paltry 3.1 percent
per annum between 1960s-70s
compared to the oil boom era of 1970-78
which recorded 6.2 percent –a far cry from the negative growth rates of the
80s.Besides the period 1980 and 1988 which recorded dismal growth rate of 3.2
percent and 2.9 percent respectively ,the industrial sector grew exponentially
and benefited immensely from the
development plans ,oil boom of the 70s and the import substitution industrialization
policies or prebisch thesis of the era .With the quadrupling of the oil boom
revenues during the period ballooned from $3 to $12,Nigeria recorded monumental
economic development .This growth was catalyzed by the first boom -1973-75and
second boom -1978-79 totally the Nigerian economy and launched unprecedented
infrastructural development in her history.
With the oil boom of the 70s the neglect of agriculture was
more than by the advent of political rent seeking landlords which deliberately neglected the erstwhile cash cow sector .Consequently it
fell from 63 percent at its peak in 1960
to 34 percent in 1988 and so Nigeria became a net importer of the basic food
staples it once produced .Generally speaking the 1960-70 was a bad decade for
the sector and totally unsatisfactory
with poor and depressed commodity market
prices including the negative impact of the oil boom of the period .Hence
labour migrated from the rural areas to the cities and metropolitans in search of greener pastures .
The positive gross domestic investment of 16.3 and 22.8
percent recorded between 1965-73 and 1973-80 respectively was not sustained
.This declined to 14 per cent 1980-88 ………contd.
The Success Of The Third National Development Plan
These are the fundamentals of the nation but how did Obj come into the picture. And
then indeed history and verity cannot be disputed from their glory as the undisputed
final arbiter of mankind. Let me flash
back your memory to the third national development of
the late 70s .Generally speaking the second national development plan started
with little or no capital and relied too much
heavily on foreign capital and for this reason was
criticized for being over ambitious for some of its major programmes under
control of the political class.In the studies by Tella:2013 this rapid scourge
of ambition by resultant effect led to the rigging of the first general
elections and the attendant coup d’etats that followed thereafter with its extension of counter coup,
the democratic and development processes were halted .The prolonged disruption that followed the civil
war truncated the consumption and
production of the economy .
When military took over Government in 1966 the Nigerian
economy was run on command control and central planning bases especially after
the civil war was successful as a result of the cooperation between the
bureaucrats , the politicians and the military .The landmark civil service
purging of 1975 by Murtala Muhamed/Obasanjo regime did a lot both positively
and negatively to the vibrancy of the Nigerian civil service especially its
robust culture ,reliability ,transparency and commitment to good service as an
arm of good governance was eroded by the
then administration .This purging had been massively criticized by diverse
scholars including the importation culture saga that destroyed confidence in
domestic goods
With the exit of the Gowon regime and the short lived regime of Murtala Muhammed third national development plan took off with
new and unusual radicallity. Shortly
before his death on Feb 13,1976 Murtala Muhammed spoke with candour
and dreamt of “a united ,strong and self
reliant nation a great and dynamic economy ,a just and egalitarian society ,a
land of opportunities for all citizens and a free and a democratic society . “
With the emergence of
Obasanjo as the Nigerian heads of State third national resumed its momentum and created a record in infrastructural
development that is still yet to be broken today. They were astounding and
without parallel in our history .Now
consider here a record sampling of this golden age era of Nigerian economy :Cement plants at Calabar ,UKpilla,Sagamu , Yandev and
Ashaka ;Vehicle Assembly plants like leyland ,Volkswagen etc ;new refineries ;petrochemical plants
,Aluminum Smelting plants ;Oil pipelines networks ;paper and pulp projects at
Jebba ,Calabar and Iwopin ;Thermal and hydro electric power stations ;new
Airports and acquisition of new aircrafts ;Water Supply ;Some 150 farm service
centres nationwide to empower productive small scale farmers under guise of
operation feed the nation policy;new steel rolling mills;new seaports ; the
river basin authorities for irrigation and water supply ;new healthcare
delivery centres and public hospitals ;about 10,000km of roads were constructed
;local and international exchanges constructed in 45 locations nationwide ; The
enrolment at the public primary schools
ballooned from 4.997million naira in 1975 to 10.2 in 1979 under the then universal basic
education-UBE scheme;Similarly the secondary school enrolment also rose from
507,290 to 1,650,300 in addition to the population of varsities that increased
to 13 from 6 ;fresh undergraduate enrolment also grew from 32, 286 to 83,000;corresponding growth was recorded
in both polytechnics and monotechnics nationwide .The development economics of
O.Aboyade and the import substitution
strategy –the so called prebitsch thesis that China later used to develop was widely adopted .
This regime left 26 ships with the defunct Nigerian national
shipping line-NNSL and about 36 planes with the now defunct Nigerian airways in
1979 –a period in which the per capital income in the country stood at $1,000
as the highest in the country .In a face off with Obasanjo IBB relegated to the
background of OBJ regime as too wasteful not prudent in resources management
.This caused the old man to reply IBB as a fool at 70 as noted below .
The Nigerian foreign policy recorded its neplus ulstra
during the period and the best for the whole of Africa till date as Nigeria
made continental voyage and bankrolled liberation movement of several
African countries during the period including Apartheid in South Africa in which
the country played a key in addition to the Sullivan principles in America .The
introduction of presidential system of government came during the period as the nation changed
its political system from the British parliamentary system.Equally interesting and not the least included the
introduction and adoption of
federal constitution of i979 .In 1976
,Nigeria also became a 19 State federal
structure
From a federation of 3 regions and 4 regions in 1954 and
1964 and later 12 state structure in 1967
respectively .In 1981 it became a federation of 21 states and later a 31
State federation and 36 State structure
in 1991 and 1996 respectively .The 19
state structure period was unique because during the same period in 1976 ,the
local government system was introduced for the first time at the centre after it was initiated by the colonial
regimes and the old western region of the great Obafemi Awolowo first adopted it.By 1976 we already had 301 local governments in the country compared to officially recognized 774 today .
As if that is not enough the largest expansion in the
Nigerian Judicial happened under the watchdog of the Murtala/Obasanjo
regime.Prior to the period the Nigerian Supreme court replaced in 1980 upon
independence the judicial committee of the privy council as the highest or apex
court in the land . With the exception of the Supreme Court all other courts of
the superior courts of records including the court of appeal ,the high courts
and the inferior courts of records like the Sharia courts.Area courts
,Magistrate courts.Customary courts were established during the period.
The indigenization policy that began during the Gowon regime
took a scintillating dimension with the incursion of 3rd national
plans in which Nigerians for the first time were empowered to take over the
commanding heights of the economy for the first time in the nation”s
history.About 900,000 shares of the public sector companies were sold to the
Nigerians during the period .
Although some media pundits like the Tella:2013 among others
have contended that the mass purging of civil service in 1975 by the Murtala/
Obasanjo regime had been blamed to have
massively contributed to the erosion of public service or the bureaucracy at
large as an important arm of good governance.The service consequently lost its
vibrancy ,dedication ,transparency and commitment to public service in addition
to the incapacitation of the civil
service by the fear of the military , and the degeneration of the service value
system .That we import 95 percent of what we consumed till date obtained its blundering impulse from the era.
Surely these are drawbacks but one thing cannot be taken
away from this regime , that the largest
expansion in the nation’s history and the most successful socialist antecedence
e happened under its watchdog .In the golden words of Yemi Ogunbiyi
as noted in the piece “Why OBJ
Deserves A Second Term –Part 1” published in the defunct Comet –April
8,2003 .He noted besides being
“one of the most purposefuland resolute in the history of
Nigeria “ also concluded “none achieved so much in so liitle a time “.That is
to say if had had 9 years and 8 years that Gowon and Babangida squandered
literally speaking the whole of Nigeria that chief Obafemi Awolowo regarded as
mere geographical expression by now would
have been a paradise of some sorts .Taka
OR IT LEAVE IT that is the truth .He further noted “none perhaps none did more
to set Nigeria on a path of self reliance and sustainable growth “.By 1979 it
was clear not only had we recorded the
highest percapital income ever but also that the 10 percent growth rate had not
been exceeded ever since .The UNDP
regarded Nigeria as a middle class
economy during the period when the external debt was below 500 million
naira .Today the then
rising middle class meant to defend democracy were by all
ramification no more and lulled into the
obscurity of the nation’s antecedence .
All the successive regimes beginning from 1979 loved to be
associated with this regime.On October 1st
,1979 the outgoing President Obasanjo expressed so much optimism for a country
destined for great things .The new President
Shehu Shagari enthralled with the foundation laid by third national development
plans also admitted this feat at the
joint session of National Assembly on 12th
January 1981 while launching the fourth
national development plan.He noted “.the plan has undoubtedly succeeded in
laying a good foundation for further
development of our national economy
towards self sustained growth and
self reliant “posterity so to say .Upon assumption of power the Buhari/Idiagbon
regime in 1983 also declared their strategic intention of being an extension of
third national development plan in attempt to gain to gain moral acceptability
.Ultimately none of the successive regimes
even before it were close to this magical feat supposedly and
unarguably the golden age of economic
development in Nigeria.They failed woefully
so that 1983 the government that took over by 1979 was in trouble before the end of its
first term in office .Its good beginning was not sustained .
The fourth national development plan-1981-85 launched by new
regime and the governments of 19 States
was the first by a democratically elected government under the first federal constitution. Unlike
other previous plans this was the first the local government s were to
participate by both preparedness and then autonomous to execute their separate
development programmes .Capital investment target 82.2 billion naira jointly shared by both
private and public sector with the
former taking a larger chunk of 70.5 billion naira and the rest by the private
sector .Apart from the two quick succession crisis in 1983 and 1985 ,the
performance of the fourth national development plan was generally poor.
Ogunbiyi further noted “Although it claimed at the outset to
have been an offshoot of the Murtala
/Obasanjo ,the Buhari regime soon proved
itself to be bereft of the ideas and convictions that set Murtala/Obasanjo
regime apart .Instead of articulated political and economic programmes ,it
offered draconian laws and adhoc
policies .As our foreign debt mounted ,the Buhari regime refused to borrow any
more and turned its back on debt repayment .The administration out countraer
trade policy but that too failed .Then
it returned to the era of rationing
essential commodities again with little
success .Not even the government rigid import licensing policy provided the
desired result of economic stability .As government ran out of ideas on what to
do with the economy ,Nigerians watched helplessly even as our standard of
living slid.Nigerians were so sick and tired of the regime ,that when General
Babangida overthrown the government in AUGUST 1985 ,there were widespread
jubilations in the country “
It is clear with the above that successive regimes though
motivated by the Obasanjo regime could not reenact this feat even with
higher investment capital at their disposal let alone exceeded this feat . Ogunbiyi better captured the mood of the era and
unworkability of governance during the period under survey .Tella-2013 also
corroborate this claim .That “the return of democractic regime in 1979 under the leadership of Alhaji Shehu Shagari
did not help matters .The “huge” external reserves that was handed over by Obasanjo
military government to the Shagari regime was mismanaged as corruption and
unbridled importation of all sorts of items became the hallmark of the
regime.The rapid depletion of the reserve ,the glut in the oil market -1980/81
and the world economic recession that
started in 1983 combined to expose the weakness in the economy and by
implication exposed the people to
avoidable hardship.”
This precarious situation was responsible for the truncation
of democracy once again on January , 1984 by then Buhari/Idiagbon regime
.Tella-2013 also noted not only was fifth national development distress
implementation truncated but the palace coup that came in 1985 with its new regime “were
in many respects momentous years” and
the objective assesments of his achievement and their impact onour national
life will remain the subject of fierce disputation by political historians for
many years to come “.Ogunbiyi concluded.But Tella-2013 in the piece “The Trends In The Economy ‘
published in Oct .1,2013,Punch] was factual ……..”under the second coming of the military beginning with Babangida
the standard of living “ plummeted ,infrastructural development nosedived and corruption institutionalized as judiciary and rule of law entangled.”Political
expediency continued to override economic expediency“The regime lost touch with
the outcome of its flagship programme-structural development programmes-SAP and
there was sharp contrast ,deviation and
a lost focus between the conception and programmatic execution.contd……..
BABANGIDA VS OBASANJO REGIMES
–WHICH ONE IS BETTER ?
Often times these ignoble leaders and their cohorts forgetting thei r evil past are not ashamed to argue in the public, proven
legacies that they never bequeathed to the people. Sometimes they were
so sure unborn generation would live to praise the inglorious past especially when juxtaposed against regimes before and after them .
A year or two ago there was a clash a well publicized media clash between
these two former ex presidents who were
at loggerheads with their place of superiority in history and how they are
judged by history .Infact they soiled their royal robes in the public linen.
How time flies .A clueless and rudderless leader fired the first salvo until it
caught the attention of the great Obj hell was not loosed and heypresto across
the nation became an epochal media frenzy .
On his 70th birthday IBB stirred the honest
nest of vitriolic vituperation and
vagabond invectives .That is not to say none of these leaders recorded no
lowest ebbs and not mired by evil past but which one did more to impact on the
Nigerian economy and the Nigerian people ?IBB lampooned and dismissed OBJ
achievement as too low perhaps connected with his democractic profiles .In a
front editorial of The Nation ,he
concluded OBJ failed to improve power sector inspite of huge cash
available to government”When Obj attention was called to order in view of the
stinging diatribes by fellow hegemonious aficionado,Obj fired similar salvo
against the evil genius,who boasted of having a better place in History .That
General Babangida “be pitied “and not condemned “.The then chairman of the
largest party in Africa also noted it was unfortunate IBB
could embark on an unwise journey of condemning him for not doing enough in the power sector
“.To nail the poser ,he concluded “between 1985 and 1993 when he ruled Nigeria
,he build no power plant”. That was the height of public ignominy and ridicule
between the top two most powerful men in the Nation “s .history .As published
in THE NATION newspapers ,the general Ibrahim Babangida took a swipe against
his military godfather through his spokesman –kasim Afegbua in Abuja and after
controversial Obj remarks ,he raved with a backlash that history will be fair to him than
Obasanjo from all perspectives and asked
OBJ to account for his eight years of misrule instead of engaging in brickbats
.By the time the enfanterible OBJ replied he berated his godfather that his
comments was unworthy of dignified response .He noted and I quote ‘’In my eight
years in office ‘’…..hear him in that rascality of the highest order –‘’I
manage poverty and achieved success while somebody for 8 years managed
affluence and achieved failure’’
Does that a sense ?Like Obj rightly said that he build no
power plant –a foundation that epileptic power outages of today .Hear OBJ ‘’Some
of the things he said unfortunately were
not well thought out .For instance he talked about energy .When I was military
head of state ,I built Jebba dam;built Shiroro dam .I prepared the foundation
of Egbin plant which President Shagari completed and
commissioned.That time the money we were making was not up to the money Babangida was
making annually for his eight years and yet we built two dams .Because it was
important you know that power is the driving force force for economic development
and for any developing country .But since the building of Egbin power plant
until I came back in 1999 ,there was no generating plant for almost 20 years
and Babangida spent eight years out of
that .’’Now,he has the audacity to talk about anybody ;I think that is
unfortunate .I also read where he said in his time he gave dividends of
democracy and at the same time he regretted .When I read that
,well ,I said Babangida should be pitied and shown sympathy ,rather than
anger or comdemnation because the old
saying says a fool at 40 is a fool
forever and I would say a regret at 70
is a regret to the grave’’.
In the interview the reporter also a few shocking questions
as reviewd below-
Reporter :On El Rufai ‘s allegation against him on
privitisation
Obasanjo:’’I don’t know what he said .You gentlemen of the press ,you have a way
of putting slant into what people say .I need to know exactly
what he said .
Reporter:El Rufai said you almost or attempted to block the
sale of Nigeria Airways .
Obasanjo:’’I blocked the sale of Nigeria Airways ,not that I attempted to block the sale of
Nigeria Airways .When I was military head of State ,Nigeria Airways had 32
Aircrafts.By the time ,I came back as elected President of Nigeria Nigeria
Airways had only one Aircraft .One of the 32 was a wide body .They had all gone
and the report on which we worked is
here .The amount of money we will have to pay if Nigeria Airways was sold ,what
we would get out of it is less than 10
percent of the debt we had to pay .That
would be the debt Nigerian taxpayers
would have to pay ;that was not the way to run the affairs of this country .I
won’t run my own affairs that way .So, I opted for liquidation.So, it was bankrupted;it
was liquidated;in which case whatever you gained from liquidation ,which is
also a form of sale ,it means the burden will be shared by all the creditors
and everybody .So ,if I owe you 10 dollars and what I sell when I am liquidated
is two.That’s what you get .So I did not allow normal privitisation or sale
because that it would have put very heavy on Nigeria .So ,Nigerians should know
that and, infact ,my administration
should be commended for that .It’s not that I did not allow that sale because
by the law establishing it ,liquidation is also a form of sale.’’
As the exciting rupture unfolds , he spoke to
journalists at the site of
presidential library launched in
Abeokuta ,Lagos state where he met a group of angel foreign investors He also
says”a fool at 40 is a fool forever and
a regret at 70 is a regret to the grave.He replied : calling “ IBB a fool at
70s especially by a man reportedly and allegedly accused by his own son of
incest is at best a compliment .Nigerians surely know who is truly the greatest
fool of the century”Obj in turn decided
to reply “lest he thought he was wise “which
led to the above reply a fool at 40 .Well we are beginning to know better the fool of the century especially from the angle of the most
historically awared Nigerians and not the barbarian angle who hardly know a thing about the antecedence
of their nation and the villains of those who ruled them .Posterity will judge.Inspite
of his personal foibles and moral scars ,his
legacies at the centre is still unrivalled certainly in the nation”history .Not as one that do have a soft spot for Obj
but frankly speaking that his records at the center is unrivalled
,unprecedented and unmatched in black Africa as a whole .After Mandela the next
honour goes to him .With all due sense of regard though we may not like his
guts a bit and as a man Nigerians loved to hate Obj is obviously exemplary .
It would be impossible to attempt to dispute the fact there
are three major factors that contributed immensely and responsible for chronic
underdevelopment of the Nigerian nation
–namely the discovery of blackgold;the outbreak of the civil war and the truncation
of fiscal federalism ;and the post - 1985 era .During this latter era
corruption was institutionalized and the nation’s value system was debased to the lowest ebb and way back
since then our image had been badly battered .
A cursory review of the structural adjustment programme –SAP
provides empirical evidences of the watershed ensemble of the nation”s
checkered antecedence .
STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMME-SAP
I want to believe that Nigeria s greatest puzzle still remains the adoption of
SAP .When SAP was adopted ,previous national development plans were scuttled
and truncated especially the glorious years of the 3rd national
developments and replaced with two year
rolling plans and later three year rolling plans .Whereas China in 1979
began its 12 five yearly rolling plans
at the time that Nigeria was growing at maximum 10 percent circa.Now in its 11th
five yearly rolling plan-2011-2015] –a persistence that has contributed to its remarkable success and
today has moved from the second most powerful
nation in the world with over 16 trillion dollar GDP to take over power from America as the world
largest economy by purchasing power
parity in 2014 moving faster and can be
quicker than the 2020 as previously
projected by Goldman Sachs .
With that plan it has created 15 million jobs annually
growing unofficially above 10 percent but unfortunately the adoption of SAP in
1986 was more or less a diversionary ploy ,political economi c miscarriage and
excess luggage in the hands of a kleptocratic regime.Policy inconsistency was a
major bane and SAP could nt have been a
lasting relief for the volatile fiscal austerity of the early 80s-a period in which national treasury was emptied and importation of food or rice and even sand
constitutes national malaise .Had China
reneged like we did in 1986 after a previous glorious campaign of the Murtala
/Obasanjo era wouldn’t have created today one of the most prosperous nation in
living history .Some sources put it succinctly that poverty rate is less than
10 percent with 150 to 200 million jobs
and over 40 million housing units created annually .From one tall skyscraper in
Beijing in 1986 to over 300towering complexes two or three years ago covering
Shanghai ,China has come of age as the
engine of the world economy giving the Americans a run for their money . ………more
data about China contd.
Though China also opened
up like the rest of the world in
the 80s but that did not stop her continuity and the perpetual application of
her own indigenous five yearly plan now in its 11th rolling plan
cycle as she successfully integrated it with partly neoliberal but laden with full
neoconfucianism .Between 1990-98 and then 1990-2006 grew by an average 10 percent .GDP
skyrocketed from $3.8 trillion as the 3rd largest economy in the
world in 2007 for the 1st time ahead of Germany to 10 trillion
dollars and later ahead of Japan in 2013
. By 2015 was expected
to overtake the U.S. in terms of purchasing power parity and then
later as the biggest economy of the
world .But today it had beaten forecast
at least three times to show her unpredictable strength in beating western
forecast
The indigenous plans of the Chinese peoples were never
truncated ,the way IBB regime did –flagging the rave of policy inconsistencies
nightmare of the nation and truncating the golden destiny of the world populous
black nation on earth and monumental disgrace to Africa and blacks in diaspora
. Imagine if 10 percent growth had been maintained since 1979 ,couple with the succcesive oil
booms of the Gowon regime-1970-74],2003-2009, and the 2010-14 period,Nigeria
ought to have been a paradise by now
especially with appropriate value system properly articulated with grass root
oriented development agenda .The GDP also ought to have been close two trillion dollars by now excluding
impact of oil crisis of the early 80s.Certainly it could have been a lot better with the immense contribution of
the real sector considering the monu
mental
gains of 3rd national development plans .
We now know better that China”s and India “s indigenous
plans were responsible for the so called
Asia economic miracle in a region that is world largest consumer breaking loose
the imperial policy prescriptions and
stranglehold of the Breton Woods.Now let
me say it again- what had been impact of market neoliberalism , mass
liberalization and deregulation of the
last 3 decades ?
Evidences of history are clear as crystal .From trade unions
to farmers ,local artisans ,urban wage
workers ,Women’s organizations ,non-governmental organizations, African
governments, and informal sector in general ,almost every Nigerians were acrimoniously opposed to
SAP.In 1979 ,per capital income stood at 1,000 dollars with 100billion dollars
GDP in 1980 and am not quite so sure things were so rosy way back in China
because statistics put per capital at
strictly above 3,000 dollars now .Imagine what it would have been by now and
GDP ABOVE 1.5 TRILLION .Even with oil price shocks of 1973,79 and early 80s
depending on the robustness of the
homegrown macroecononmic policies ,certainly ,should we use the
monocultural indices , it would not be less than 5,000 dollars today .How much
more with a vibrant industrial sector!
Economy went into a tailspin in 1980s and with the adoption
of SAP economic conditions were aggravated .We agree that the plummeting oil
prices of the period of the first half of 1980s was responsible for the decline
of more than 50 percent of the nation’s GDP with similar drop experienced in per capital income.There was brief rebound
in 1990s at the time China began to experience 10 percent annual growth
.Similar countries like China , South East Asian and Latin American experienced similar
hardship given the fact oil price shock was a global contagion.
In the second half of the 80s ,inflation rose
exponentially and the cost of food a major benchmark skyrocketed 
