Tukur Usman Bakori
12 November 2008
opinion
While the railway transportation system is undergoing rapid modernisation in Europe and Asia, Nigerian leaders are taking many steps backward to kill the railway rehabilitation projects initiated by the late General Sani Abacha administration.
These evil and short-sighted efforts started with the former Obasanjo administration which was determined to destroy anything good initiated by the Abacha regime.
Blinded and consumed by the passion for vengeance against the late Abacha, former President Olusegun Obasanjo didn't mind throwing away the baby with the bath water. One of the major projects embarked upon by the Abacha regime was the rehabilitation of Nigeria's moribund and outmoded railway system. The late military ruler invited the Chinese Civil Engineering Company to undertake the projects because of its proven expertise in that field.
In a matter of months, the Nigerian railway system was coming back to life at a time almost all Nigerians had concluded that this mode of transportation was dead. The projects got off to a flying start until the election of Obasanjo in 1999 who decided to suspend the railway rehabilitation initiated by the late Abacha. His private grudges became the basis of official policy and that was how he halted the railway rehabilitation projects started by the Abacha regime.
Typical of Obasanjo, he saw nothing good in whatever the late Abacha ever did for Nigeria and did not disguise his intention to stop the railway projects out of irrational personal malice. It didn't matter to Obasanjo that Nigeria stood to lose by stopping the railway projects, a mode of transportation which is cheaper and affordable by most ordinary Nigerians. Former President Obasanjo was always convinced that corruption attended any contract initiated by the late Abacha. Using this pretext, therefore, he halted the projects at the expense of the nation.
With time, however, Obasanjo's hypocrisy and evil motives were revealed when he re-awarded the railway rehabilitation projects at a much higher staggering cost than commonsense can accept. The late General Sani Abacha regime awarded the railway contracts at less than $600 million. But towards the end of his tenure, in his desperation to leave a legacy behind, former President Obasanjo re-awarded the same contract at $8 billion (N960 billion).
Despite the breathtaking cost of the re-awarded contracts, the railway projects got nowhere under Obasanjo. President Umaru Musa Yar'adua inherited the projects but became suspicious about the new cost of the contract. He set up a committee to re-evaluate the project and its report indicted the former Obasanjo administration for inflating the contracts to outrageous levels. Consequently, the Yar'adua administration has finally suspended the N960 billion railway contracts.
No one should blame President Yar'adua for the fate that ultimately befell the railway contracts. Former President Obasanjo should be held solely responsible for the apparent death of the projects. He sacrificed the larger public interest to satisfy private motives. With General Abacha, Nigerians witnessed the promising progress that the railway projects were making until Obasanjo came and killed them for selfish reasons.
General Abacha awarded the projects at just $600 million and the railway system in Nigeria had started to take a new shape across the country. But even as he re-awarded the contracts at N960 billion, former President Obasanjo didn't show any progress in the execution of the projects. This figure is staggering by any stretch of the imagination and Nigerians cannot understand why despite this inflation of contract, the Obasanjo administration failed to carry the railway projects forward.
Does former President Obasanjo have any reason to accuse the late General Abacha administration of greed and corruption? Didn't his administration commit billions of public funds into projects that were never executed? The 16-billion-dollar power contracts scandal will remain a stubborn stigma on the Obasanjo administration and children yet unborn will never forgive such level of greed against the nation. How can any administration commit N960 billion in the name of railway rehabilitation and fail to produce results at the end of the day?
Former President Obasanjo had systematically killed many good projects started by the late General Abacha such as the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), the dredging of the River Niger and the railway rehabilitation projects. Ironically, while he was busy killing good projects initiated by Abacha out of malicious motives, Obasanjo had failed to deliver on many projects which he himself introduced.
Despite investing 16 billion dollars into improving electric power generation in the country, the expenditure went down the drain and eight years after he reluctantly left office, power supply got worse than it was in 1999 when he took over power. In fact, every evil that Obasanjo ever preached against became worse under his administration. Corruption grew like weed during his tenure and Nigeria won the unenviable distinction of ranking among the most corrupt nations of the world.
General Obasanjo is the most self-righteous dictator that Nigerians have ever known. But hypocrisy has shorts legs; it cannot ran fast and far without falling by the wayside. Despite the wicked attempts to vilify and demonise his memory, General Sani Abacha's record of performance was by far more credible and unassailable than Obasanjo's. Though he received the biggest oil revenue than any previous administrations, former President Obasanjo's performance was below average.
Bakori is of No. 27, Sir Usman Nagogo Road, Funtua, Katsina State.
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