WHO CURSED NIGERIA WITH OBASANJO?
Yinka Leo Ogundiran

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   Yesterday morning, I woke up to one of the worst shocks of my life realizing that President Olusegun Obasanjo has, once again, moronically and sadistically decided to exacerbate the agony and pain of Nigerians by gratuitously increasing the pump price of Petroleum products from N65 to N75. As usual, the sophistry advanced by Obasanjo and his acolytes was that the step became necessary so as to allow and give free hand to private participation and partnership in the down-stream sector.

But however, men with eye behind their eyes have seen through such boorish simplicities for what they are. For the past EIGHT years of directionless and visionless interregnum of President Obasanjo, it defies logic that Nigeria, a country of 150million people, lacks the wherewithal and prowess to effectively and efficiently operate it's refineries.

 

Since Obasanjo's emergence, after squandering incalculable vast sums of money of Nigerian tax payers in repairing the refineries, Mr Obasanjo, in his usual vacuity, decided to deploy the evading mantra of "corruption" as the subterfuge of obfuscating the ineptitude and dereliction of his administration in the revitalization of Nigeria refineries. In the light of that,some years ago, he said he was removing the subsidy of Petroleum product and using this subsidy for the finance of Education,rehabilit ation of roads  and development of Health sector but after many months of removal of this subsidy, all these aforementioned remained as moribund as they have always been. The conundrum that persistently pervaded the cerebration, cognition and ratiocination of reasonable Nigerians was: "where did all this money of the subsidy go to"??? The answer is not far-fetched: "To private pockets"!!!

 

Consequently, after many months of running in circles, Obasanjo, after due consultations with his petrified henchmen and diabolical bedfellows, unscrupulously announced to Nigeria that all toll-gates in Nigeria would be scrapped and that in order for Nigerians to enjoy good roads, they were mandated to pay N2.50 on every litre of petrol they buy. Yes, Nigerians merely grumbled for a while; before anyone knew it, they were already paying this "development tax". Poor Nigerians were hoodwinked to embrace this "development tax" in order to preclude the possibility of giving unfettered imprimatur to PDP capitalists who were on the prowl of advancing their avarice under the parasitic euphemism known as "deregulation" .

Weeks climbed weeks and months passed months and what Nigerians got back from this fraudulent "development tax" was nothing. What happened was that the proceeds of this "development tax" were only traced to private pockets of PDP topshots.

 

Tony Anenih, the then Minister of Works and Housing, unconscionably claimed to have spent over N300billion on the reconstruction, rehabilitation and development of Nigeria roads but the corollary of this was none other than the increase of carnage and fatality on Nigeria roads. The roads went from bad to worse but  nothing whatsoever was done to reverse the situation. As if this was not enough, the despicably scrofulous rapscallion of a man known as Tony Anenih who was responsible for squadering Nigeria's money on imaginary roads not only walk a free man in Nigeria today, but he is the Chairman of PDP Board of Trustee - the fetid political party of the President that just recently embarrassed Nigeria on the world scene with their orchestrated charade vainly called "election".

 

Eventually, when Obasanjo and his cronies were not satisfied with the defalcation of proceeds of subsidy which they diverted to their private pockets, and the "development tax" which they forcefully siphoned from already-impoverished Nigerians, they selfishly decided to give unfettered freedom to their avarice and menacingly allow full-blowned Capitalism to thrive at the detriment of ever-suffering Nigerians. When the private development partners(another acronym of PDP) of this deregulation policy clambered into scheme of things, they didn't make any pretense that they were poised to milk Nigerians dry. The brazenness of their avarice was exemplified by their impudent demand that they should be allowed to fix the prices of Petroleum products at their own idiosyncratic behest and whimsical prerogative - BUT ALL AT THE DETRIMENT OF EVER-SUFFERING NIGERIANS. It took some time before Nigerians realized that the monkey marionette behind these Private Development Partners(PDP) is none other than the President himself and some top notch of PDP(people's democratic party) but they are helpless to take any action against him.

 

As Obasanjo's departure was becoming more and more inevitable and he felt jittery that his ignominous stint was coming to an inglorious end, instead for him to silently leave Nigerians alone to nurse the pain and agony that he and his thieving and wealth-amassing accomplices had sedulously inflicted on Nigerians, Obasanjo decided to sell Nigeria's refinery to the company that he has stakes in - TRANSCORP!!! !!!!!!! As if that was not galling enough, just less than 72hours to the termination of his tyranny, this barbaric bastard decided to increase his profitability in the oil business by increasing the price of Petroleum product, thereby, aggravating the suffering of Nigerians. Invariably, this would negatively redound on the prices of every commodity in the market and further make life more unbearable for Nigerians; the price of transportation will increase; the price of food items will increase; the price of labour will increase; the price of EVERYTHING will increase

 

Now, the question that beleaguers me is this: Who cursed Nigeria with this cursed man called Obasanjo