Nigeria economic development had been held back by years of lurching from one military rule to another. Respite came in 1999 when Nigeria had its elected government. However, the potential for Nigeria breaking apart along ethnic and religious lines still remains the biggest challenge.

The return to civilian rule, which increases political liberalisation, has allowed different religious and ethnic groups to express their frustrations openly and violently through organised militant units. Those who have embezzled public funds and are seeking to hide from justice have infiltrated many of these groups.

In the past few years thousands of Nigerians have died in various factional rivalries ranging from separatists to Islamic organisations. Nearly all of these can be attributed to the consequences of years of economic mismanagement, lack of due regard for the rule of law and lack of transparency and accountability of government. The later has encouraged ruthless and lawless application of executive power.

In order to accelerate progress on economic development, the message has been that Nigeria must first overcome corruption and mismanagement. In addition, Nigeria needs to overcome the trade in stolen oil, which has contributed immensely to the increase in violence and corruption in the Niger delta.

The Obasanjo government was keen to attract foreign investment and accelerate the economic development of Nigeria in an effort to overcome the myriads of infrastructural problems facing Nigeria. He therefore set up EFCC with a mandate to fight corruption. To many Nigerians that was the beginning of a new Nigeria.

In spite of all the odds, Nigeria today has a solid foundation. Obasanjo achieved a significant macro-economic success. The most important of these are the relatively stable inflation rate and foreign exchange rate, helped by a significant foreign reserve of $43 billion and 90% reduction in external debts. Yar’Adua should continue from where Obasanjo stopped and inject some investment in employment generating infrastructure programmes.

I believe Obasanjo would be the first to admit that he made some mistakes and a lot could have been achieved in the context of infrastructure development given the resources at Nigeria’s disposal. Only very few presidents the world over ever leave office without making some mistakes and wishing that they had done a lot more. That is life!

Obasanjo would obviously wish he had resolved the two issues dear to our heart. One is the Niger Delta problem, which revolves essentially around resource control, oil spillage and gas flaring. The other issue is the nature of our federation. In reality the two issues can be linked because the nature of the debate on Nigeria federation is all about the division of political, legal and economic responsibilities between the regional/state and the federal governments. Embedded in the economic responsibilities is resource control.

Obasanjo was ill advised not to have taken the eight years in office to publicly redefine the roles and responsibilities of the state governments in terms of providing infrastructure and imposing a statutory obligation on them to publish externally audited annual income and expenditure accounts within 6 months of the year-end. This would have allowed their citizens to focus their attention on the state government activities a lot more than the federal government.

Obasanjo’s war against corruption was one fight too many. It was akin to fighting the whole nation. Nearly all the state governors were corrupt and have the resources to fight back.

In fighting Obasanjo, the corrupt governors team up and employed the services of militant groups, touts, writers, civil servants, religious leaders and some law enforcement agents. They all have one common purpose, to derail the fight against corruption by focusing on Obasanjo and his allies.

Members of the militant groups used the marginalisation claim and independence from the Nigeria as a reason to make the country ungovernable. The reality was that while people were engaged in violent protest in the streets against the federal government the state governors were looting their treasuries.

Recently some militant groups accused Obasanjo of using EFCC to pursue a personal agenda of exterminating their political leaders. They point to various transactions, without documentary evidence, to support their claim that Obasanjo is the most corrupt leader Nigeria ever had. Therefore EFCC should prosecute Obasanjo before anyone else.

A careful examination of their unfounded claims and their tone show an orchestrated plan to discredit a man who has devoted his life to make Nigeria a better place for us all. Obasanjo’s offence is that he has stepped on corrupt politicians’ toes. The same people are questioning the delay in bringing the corrupt governors before the court of law and why other governors have not been arrested.

EFCC did not help matters. Ribadu should not have pre-warned the state governors of an impending arrest for corruption once they leave office. That was not a clever move. What Ribadu achieved by that warning is to allow them time to employ the services of professionals to perfect their crimes. The delay in arresting and charging the suspected corrupt state governors is a clear example of the difficulty in proving a corruption case.

Like I have said before in response to someone who is doing more damage to the Niger Delta course than his perceived enemies of the Niger Delta, the issue really is that it is unfair to accuse Obasanjo of corruption just because some people think that he is.

The difficulty for Obasanjo is that in African context, every leader is corrupt for two reasons:

1. Our traditional attitude to leadership, which the leaders consider as loyalty, breeds corruption.
2. Also because the meaning of corruption also includes an act or inaction that do not involve any personal financial gain.

For example, Obasanjo could easily obtain a huge sums in bank loans without any collateral simply because no bank manager would want to say no to the president. Does this make him corrupt? Probably no. Ethically? It is wrong mainly because you can’t obtain a huge loan in any Nigerian bank without a collateral. It is a CBN requirement.

When Obasanjo launched a fund raising programme for his library project, a busload of bootlicking Nigerians went there to display their “admiration” for the president hoping to get contracts and/or political appointments for their donations. Is he corrupt in this particular case? Probably no, as the matter relate more to ethics. No evidence has been produced to show that he coerced anyone to donate money to his pet project. But why did he allow public funds to be donated to a private project, most especially when some of these states could not pay their staff salaries?

However before you crucify Obasanjo for his mistakes, let us ask ourselves one question: which Nigerian leader (presidents/head of state, governors, traditional leaders, chief executives, etc) has not fallen into similar (but may not be identical) situations as the two examples above? The problem therefore is our outdated, not-fit-for-purpose and regressive culture that considers leaders as god anointed.

The examples above relate more to ethics than the corruption we are talking about that led to the setting up of EFCC. We are talking about state governors and council chairmen paying public funds into their private accounts and awarding contracts at 200% of the true value with the difference going into their accounts.

We must not be misled by any propaganda by these self-appointed, ill motivated individuals who are working overtime to rubbish the achievements of Obasanjo. With time, Nigerians will appreciate the good foundation he has laid for the next generation.

Nosa Olotu, England

Robot  Villager

# 1 In fighting Obasanjo, the corrupt governors team up and employed the services of militant g...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 22.07.2007 14:15

ebasain  Villager

# 2 Mr. Olotu Sir, get real! Which Nigeria are you talking about? Have you heard that the so-called Nigeria's foreign reserves is just a paltry sum of about N8billion and not N43b. Secondly, most Nigerians would rather want Obasanjo to be in an EEFC jail right now. The macro-economic magic of the Obasanjo leadership must be a figment of your imagination. For any leadership, the benchmark is the living standards of her citizens and the progress of other leading economic indicators. Even with the so-called macro- economic wizardry of Obasanjo, look at the country's infrastructure, rate of unemploy- ment, energy, the level of general insecurity, executive lawlessness, etc. When next you want to hold brief for Obasanjo, please ask him to come clean with Nigerians on his wealth rumored to be around N180b. Please, let's stop this charade about Obasanjo was the best thing that ever happened to Nigeria. What about Yar'Adua?! Posted by ebasain| 22.07.2007 16:00

pappilo  Villager

# 3 Ethically? It is wrong mainly because you can’t obtain a huge loan in any Nigerian bank without a collateral. It is a CBN requirement. Ethically wrong? What about illegal. If you obtain loans from banks without folowing CBN directives then the transaction is illegal. You article stinks and makes very little sense. Obasanjo's EFCC crusade is selective and selective justice is as good as no justice at all. In fighting Obasanjo, the corrupt governors team up and employed the services of militant groups, touts, writers, civil servants, religious leaders and some law enforcement agents. They all have one common purpose, to derail the fight against corruption by focusing on Obasanjo and his allies Can you substantiate this claim? I believe NVS recently put out a reminder that 'sub-par' articles without references will not be published. A careful examination of their unfounded claims and their tone show an orchestrated plan to discredit a man who has devoted his life to make Nigeria a better place for us all. You cannot be serious! Posted by pappilo| 22.07.2007 16:02

Sapele Man  Villager

# 4 =ebasain;193977>Mr. Olotu Sir, get real! Which Nigeria are you talking about? Have you heard that the so-called Nigeria's foreign reserves is just a paltry sum of about N8billion and not N43b. Secondly, most Nigerians would rather want Obasanjo to be in an EEFC jail right now. . When next you want to hold brief for Obasanjo, please ask him to come clean with Nigerians on his wealth rumored to be around N180b. Please, let's stop this charade about Obasanjo was the best thing that ever happened to Nigeria. What about Yar'Adua?! ebasain, You have just confirmed the views expressed in the article. No one has said that Nigerian foreign reserves is $8billion. The reserve is £43.6billion out of which $8billion belongs to the federation account...and not yet spent by the government. You claimed that OBJ is rumoured to be N180billion. Can you tell us why you allow yourself to be fed rumours? Who are spreading these rumours? Posted by Sapele Man| 22.07.2007 16:09

ikechiji  Villager

# 5 Here we go again, Another OBJ apologist trying to tell us: nearly all the Governors are crooks but OBJ is a saint. Wow! Tell us something new. 1) Pappilo has already addressed the issue of bank loans without collateral - It is ILLEGAL! 2) The funds raised by OBJ for his Presidential Library project from oil companies, business associates Dangote and Otedola whom he later sold the refineries to, etc directly contraves the fifth schedule of the constitution on the code of conduct for public officers. It is ILLEGAL! 3) We now know the $43 billion foreign reserve figure is Iwuruwuru. It has absolutely nothing to do with OBJ. It is simply the difference between the foreign exchange inflow/outflow at CBN. It grew larger during OBJ's tenure because of the HUGE OIL REVENUES! 4) Talking about oil revenues, what did OBJ do with the huge oil revenues? Do you know how many oil blocks OBJ awarded compared to all previous rulers? Do you know who owns the companies that were awarded oil blocks? 5) OBJ gave us the most corrupt "election" in our electoral history. 6) OBJ corrupted members of the National Assembly while seeking a third term. 7) Whose airplane is OBJ flying around in? Maybe it is on loan from Dangote! 8) Have you been to OBJ's "domestic assistant" Andy Uba's house in Anambra? Oh, the "servant" might be rich but the "master" is poor. ... Give me a BREAK! Posted by ikechiji| 22.07.2007 16:50

igwe  Villager

# 6 Dear mr. Olotu, This is absolute BS. Thank you. Posted by igwe| 22.07.2007 19:11

ebasain  Villager

# 7 Sapele Man, The title of the article 'If Nigerians Are Grateful People They Will Appreciate Obasanjo's Achievements' didn't unveil any new substance that hasn't been covered before here on this forum or somewhere else. But I ask the same question: What achievements? And I am not sure what in the article that I confirmed. Again, in case you missed it, recently the meda was agog with the news that OBJ is worth N180b. Call it sensational journalism or name of your fancy, Obasanjo himself has not come to refute this claim. If I am acused, indirectly of stealing ONE Naira, I will do whatever it takes to clear my HONORABLE name. Obasnjo's silence only makes the rumor to be a fact. Posted by ebasain| 22.07.2007 19:18

Zanderlex  Villager

# 8 Mr Oluto it is simple, Nigerians will become very grateful as soon as Obasanjo peacefully DONATES, FORFEITS, SURRENDERS, HANDSOVER, GIVES UP, SUBMITS, CHANNELS only a small part of the money and assets which he BRAZENLY, SYSTEMATICALLY, CUNNINGLY, SMARTLY, CRIMINALLY, GIFTLY, DIRECTLY, INDIRECTLY, BULLINGLY,PRAYERFULLY, FORCEFULLY, and 419LY stole from nigerians in his three terms as head of state and president. Posted by Zanderlex| 22.07.2007 22:36

Abraxas  Villager

# 9 Hi, 140 million Nigerians! If General Okikiolakan Aremu Segun Obasanjo is grateful , he will appreciate the peace-loving nature of Nigerians, given his pathetic failure to achieve any tangible or enduring legacy for the benefit of Nigeria, despite the very high foreign exchange earnings for eight uninterrupted years in the life of the country, under his ego-driven watch. Muchas gracias. Don Juan-Carlos ABRAXAS (III) Posted by Abraxas| 22.07.2007 23:39

Afeni  Villager

# 10 My stance on Obasonjo is that he is corrupt. But not in the typical Nigerian sense. I don't believe Obasonjo ever dipped his hands into the Federation's account. However, he allowed people that dipped their hands into the various State and Local Government accounts to work on his interests (The best way to ensure loyalty is to get people to invest in you). I believe Obasonjo is much wealthier now than he was prior to 1999 (He likely has between $ 10-30 million dollars in assests). He acquired that wealth by borrowing money from banks (benefiting from his post as President) and then using insider knowledge to invest it in ventures he knew would take-off. That being said, Obasonjo is no where as wealthy as the Abachas, Babangidas, or most of the 2 term Governors. But anyone that believes that Obasonjo has hundreds of millions of dollars or more is an id iot. (I mean it. A complete id iot that has been driven mad by personal bias) For anyone that doubts me, put your bias aside for a sec, and then ask yourself if you just finished dipping your hands into the Federation's account, why would you go after those that were in positions to know of you activities? Obasonjo is a sadist (takes pleasure in watching others suffer. However he is not a thief). That would explain how he can whine and dine with these ex-governors a few months ago, and now sit on the side-lines laughing as they get prepped for hanging. He exhibited the same behaviour with Balogun, Ehindero and co. So, in actuality, Obasonjo is not back-stabbing them, per se, but he definitely takes pleasure in watching the demise of others. In fact the only bigger sadist Nigeria has had for an head of State was Abacha. Who, unlike Obj, was hands-on in making sure that people suffered. Posted by Afeni| 22.07.2007 23:54

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