Obasanjo, Speaks Hard On Goodluck Jonathan Again As He Meets Women Leaders Led By Tinubu's Daughter
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the country is currently
facing economic problems due to the failure of the Goodluck Jonathan
administration to plan for a rainy day.
He
told Iyalodes and eminent women leaders from the
South-West, who visited him at his Hilltop residence in Abeokuta,
Ogun State, that the nation’s reserves which as of 2007 stood at $67bn had been
depleted by the Federal Government.
The
former President was responding to a call by the delegation led by the Iyalode
of Yorubaland, Chief Alaba Lawson, and the Iyaloja General of Nigeria, Chief
Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, to lend his voice to the
socio-economic crisis rocking the country.
Stressing
that the country did not deserve the situation it currently finds itself,
Obasanjo vowed that he would not keep quiet until the right things were done.
He
said, “When I was leaving office about eight years ago, I left a very huge
reserve after we had paid all our debts.
“Almost
$25bn we kept in what they called Excess Crude Account, it was the excess from
the budget we were saving as reserve for a rainy day.
“When
we left in May 2007, the reserve was said to have risen to $35bn. But today,
that reserve has been depleted.
“After
paying our debts which was about $40bn, including debt forgiveness,
the remaining (debt) was not more than $3bn.
“Our
reserves after we had paid off these debts amounted to about $45bn. As I said,
they continued to rise till the end of 2007. I heard that the reserves
increased to almost $67bn before the end of the year.
“Our
reserves now, I learnt, stand at only $30bn.”
Although
he noted that the slump in oil price would naturally have a negative impact on
a monolithic economy like Nigeria, Obasanjo said that “ anyone who is wise
enough should know that since we depend on just one mineral resource and since
we have no control over its pricing, we should be planning for this type of
situation we currently find ourselves and the way out of it.”
The
former President lamented that “our inability to have healthy reserves had
brought us to “this economic quagmire.”
He
added, “A leader must be forward-looking and plan ahead. At the beginning of
last year, the budget was based on $78 per barrel. That year, the Federal
Government spent more on recurrent expenditure and a little on capital
expenditure.”
Obasanjo
also pointed out that the devaluation of the naira had unleashed other
consequences on the economy.
He
said, “That (devaluation) is why the naira has been falling against the dollar.
What would now happen? I learnt if you want to buy a dollar now, it’s about
N192 or N195. What it means is this, what you had been buying for N150 to a
dollar, now you need N192 or N195 to buy it.
“That
is the real situation. Is there any remedy? There is but it does not come
overnight because it means we have to give up all the bad things we had been
doing.”
The
Ogun State-born former Head of State also
berated the leadership for robbing Nigeria of its God-ordained
greatness.
He
said,”God made Nigeria a great nation. Is it that those living here have no
brain? Is it that the leaders are not thinking? Or that we don’t have the
resources?
“When
I was in the army, our slogan was, ‘There are no bad soldiers but bad
officers.’ Wherever soldiers are not doing well, blame the officers. The same
thing obtains in the family, communities, towns and the nation.
The
former President, who also denied quarrelling with Jonathan, told the Iyalodes and
eminent women leaders that he was surprised to have read in a
newspaper on Monday that some people in government were jittery on learning of
their visit.
“Is
(it) that Jonathan and I are not in good terms?, he asked and immediately
provided an answer himself. He said, “There is nothing as such. I have no
grudges against Jonathan and I think Jonathan equally has no grudges against
me. I’m not quarrelling with Jonathan but all I know is that whatever is good
for Nigeria, that I’m ready to die for.
“I
emphasise that whatever is good for Nigeria, is what I’m ready to defend with
my life. Whoever, I emphasise, whoever says he would not do anything good for
Nigeria, even if he says he’s ready to go ‘koko bellow,’ I’m ready to square it
up with such a person.
“I say
again, whoever that person may be, I want you to get that correctly. If this
country is going to change for the better, it must start from the top and if
it’s going to be otherwise, it must start from the top too.
“I
have had some little experience about this country. I was a Head of State
and a President; so what is left? If I talk, I know what I’m
talking about. Whoever wants, should listen to me and whoever feels otherwise,
may turn a deaf ear. But when I’m talking, I’m talking with my understanding
and intellect.
“I’m
drawing from my experience and from what I’ve learnt with others and from other
countries and fellow eminent citizens of the world that I relate with.”
Obasanjo
frowned on the alleged impunity being perpetuated under the current
administration, warning leaders of the consequences of such
actions.
He
said, “God put you in a position for a purpose and if
you fail, you will give account to God. It was Prophet Samuel that God sent to
anoint Saul to be a king. When he misbehaved, it was the same God that sent
Prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse to anoint another king.
“But
when Samuel got to Jesse’s house, he was attracted by the physical and outward
appearance of Eliab. But God told him, he was looking at outward appearance
whereas He was looking at the heart. We must not keep quiet concerning this
nation.”
On the
general elections, Obasanjo said he had no apprehension, stressing that the
country would survive just as it did during crises such
as Operation wetie, the 1966 coup and the civil
war.
He
said, “The 1964 election led to Operation Wetie. I saw people
being slaughtered . There were also the 1966 coup, the 1966 progrom
and the civil war. We survived them. Then, there was (Sani) Abacha period. We
also we survived it.”
Operation
wetie was
the political crises that erupted in the defunct Western Region after the 1965
regional elections. It was characterised by the wetting of political opponents
and their followers with petrol and setting them ablaze.
Obasanjo
recalled that when he was about to contest the presidential election in 1999,
he was told that it would end up like the botched polls by the Ibrahim
Babangida and Abacha juntas.
“They
said that Abubakar Abdulsalami was also out to deceive us. Some people said after
me, there would be no Nigeria again; But, after me, there have been two
presidents .The God we serve is God of Nigeria.”
On the
solution to unemployment in the country, he advised the government
to turn to agriculture instead of laying emphasis on oil and gas.
He
advised, “If we are going to solve unemployment problem, it is through agric
business and not through oil and gas. We have no alternative.
“Agriculture
is renewable because the land can be used over and over again, but, once you
lift a barrel of oil, it is gone forever.’’
Obasanjo
also advised the women and other Nigerians to vote for candidates
with good track records and not those making empty promises.
“Good
governance starts with the selection and voting of good leaders. Don’t lose
your votes. Ask questions. What are their track records? Pay less attention to
what they are saying, look out for what they had done.”
On his
membership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, Obasanjo said, “I am still
in the PDP , though not active. With the kind of people and behaviours I see in
the party, I don’t think I can stand before God and defend them.”
Obasanjo
had in an 18-page open letter to Jonathan in December 2013, accused
Jonathan of promoting deceit, corruption and mutual distrust ahead of national
interest.
He
said in the letter titled “Before it is too late” that in spite of his previous
letters which were neither acknowledged nor responded to, he was again
constrained to warn the President that dangers were lurking in the corner
should he fail to heed his advice.
At the
public presentation of a book by a former Chairman of the Independent Corrupt
Practices and Other–Related Offences Commission, Justice Mustapha Akanbi(retd.)
in Novemeber 2014, Obasanjo again accused Jonathan and
the National Assembly of promoting corruption and poor governance in the
country.
He
also upbraided the President by describing him as an incompetent leader during
the public presentation of his three-part autobiography My Watch on December 9,
2014.
He
rated the Jonathan administration as colossal failure, grounded by ineptitude.
Via - Punch
Via - Punch
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