Idang Alibi
8 January 2009
column
When I ask some people why the hate Obasanjo so much, some tell me that during his administration Nigeria earned so much revenue from crude oil but that he did not do anything with it. Really?
As far as I know the evidence on ground contradicts that assertion. We will look at my own evidence. I think it will be fairer to say that according to the way each of us sees things Obasanjo may not have done much as we wish he should have but to say that he did not do anything is an unfair lie. The following are some of the significant things I think that Obasanjo did with Nigeria's petro-dollars:
Freeing Nigeria from debt enslavement: For me the single most important thing Obasanjo did for Nigeria was to free her from debt peonage. And recently, the current Minister of Finance, Dr. Mansur Mukhtar, gave what to my mind is a well-deserved salute to Obasanjo by saying that if we had not negotiated an exit out of our then 33 billion dollars debt at the time we did, today we would not be talking about owing 33 billion dollars. What we will be talking about instead is about 50 billion dollars indebtedness to foreign creditors. This would have come about as a result of penalty payments for defaults and accumulated compound interests. See the great gain Nigeria has got from Obasanjo's sagacity and courage. When he took that step many condemned him savagely.
Some mocked at Obasanjo calling him a man of the old school who was a living example of the Biblical admonition that you should owe nothing to anyone. Some radicals even wondered how any sane man will want to pay such a huge debt. They cited the example of the USA as the most indebted nation on earth who was not even in a hurry to repay what she owed and wondered why Nigeria should seem in such a great hurry to pay her own. They sounded as if owing and refusing to pay was some kind of virtue and not a vice. Mercifully, Obasanjo disregarded them all. And today we have Obasanjo to thank for his patriotic stubbornness. At least Obasanjo is right on that score. Why do we not acknowledge and give him credit for it? Obasanjo used part of our oil revenue to free us from enslavement. That is no mean achievement.
The positive spill-over effect of our freedom from debt can not be quantified in material, monetary or even spiritual terms. Our quality of life today would have been considerably lower if we were still indebted. Some relief gained as a result of our exit from the debtors' club has done much to alleviate poverty in the land.
I said at that time and I will like to say it here now that if Zik, Awo, Ahmadu Bello and other nationalists can be credited for winning for us our first independence, Obasanjo can be said to be the man who won for us our second independence when we lost it through our foolishness and recklessness. From the confession of Dr. Mansur Mukhtar, Obasanjo has been vindicated.
Building of foreign reserves: What is the second important thing Obasanjo did with our oil money? He built foreign reserves of over 60 billion dollars for Nigeria. It was under Obasanjo's economic management that for the first time in the history of this nation where leaders squander money like drunken sailors that we managed to save that much for a rainy day. It takes prudence not to blow away a fortune. Let us give Obasanjo some credit for frugality.
The integrated power project: Obasanjo used part of our oil wealth to try to provide light for Nigeria. It is unfortunate that today the story of the Integrated Power Project undertaken by Obasanjo is so mired in the politics of intrigues, manipulation of information to achieve certain objectives and blackmail that no one knows the real truth about it. What is true is that Obasanjo did not deliver light to Nigerians with the IPP. But what is a greater truth is that the idea behind the building of six gas-powered power plants was not a foolish one. The low intensity insurgency in the Niger Delta region where gas was to be sourced for the plants may make the idea look foolish today but some of us are being wiser after the event. The tragedy of the highly politicized probe into Obasanjo power project is that we can not just be certain about how much was actually spent and whether or not the amount spent is commensurate with the results achieved.
I think that if we were not too much in a hurry to demonise Obasanjo but had taken the time to find out exactly what he did, where he stopped and what remains to be done and taken the steps to complete what was outstanding, the IPP would not be the disaster that it is held out to be.
I would have wished that Obasanjo had completed the power project and left a legacy of stable power supply but for what ever reasons he was unable to do so. But government is supposed to be a continuum. At any rate, it had not been decreed that it must be Obasanjo who should solve our power problem. He did his best to the best of his ability. Let us commend him for the little he did and urge the present administration to learn from his failure and give Nigeria steady power supply.
The unnecessary bad blood that has been generated over the power probe will not give us light. What will is for intelligent and patriotic persons to sit down and decide what to do and avoid distracting politicking and posturing. We spend too much time blaming the past in this country when what we need to do is to plan our future. If I were in the medical field, I won't want to be a post-mortem surgeon. I would prefer to be a reconstructive surgeon.
Dualisation of Nyanya-Keffi Road and building of the National Stadium, Abuja: still in answer to some of those who wonder what Obasanjo did with the oil money that accrued to him, I want to mention two projects that guzzled some of that money. For some of us who live in Abuja and who have been here before the second coming of Obasanjo in 1999, we must be aware of how the old Nyanya-Keffi Road which was then a one lane road used to consume human lives almost on daily basis. Almost on daily basis the stretch from the Sani Abacha Barracks to Nyanya used to witness horrible accidents. Trailers and other heavy duty vehicles used to be involved in multiple accidents, killing, maiming and destroying property.
Obasanjo dualised that road and today the demons that used to suck blood on that road has been contained. That road cost about 50 billion dollars. If some of us do not consider it remarkable, I do for the simple reason that people are no longer dying needless deaths on that road any more.
The Abuja National Stadium: as with many things associated with Obasanjo, when he muted the idea of building a national stadium in the federal capital, many Nigerians kicked against it, saying that the money should be put into other projects that will have greater relevance on the lives of the average people.
Some of us said then that if the money earmarked for the stadium was used for it or not poverty will not disappear in Nigeria. Obasanjo went ahead with the stadium project. Today, it is standing as a monument executed during the Obasanjo era. And it will continue to stand as a memorial to the stubborn nationalism of Obasanjo. I am pretty certain that when the Taj Mahal was built in India several centuries ago as a monument to love, some social critics of the era had mouthed some sentiments about the plight of the poor in India. Today India still has millions of poor people and the Taj Mahal is still standing strong, inviting millions of visitors to India year in year out.
Unfortunately, I can not conclude this week as promised because there are so many things to say in favour of Obasanjo. By the grace of God, we will conclude next week.
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