Lessons From Obasanjo's Administration
“Let me make a solemn pledge before all of you, before the whole world and before God, that I will devote all my energy and all I possess in my power to serve the people of Nigeria and humanity .”
“ Nigeria has no business with poverty. With our human and material resources, we shall strive to eradicate poverty from our country.”
- Olusegun Obasanjo.
The above quotes capture the strength of mind and zeal with which General Olusegun Obasanjo set to pilot the affairs of Nigeria. So much has been said about his personality, leadership style, successes and failures. As the only privileged Nigerian alive or dead to serve Nigeria for 11 years by May 29, some of the more discerning perceptions about him take polarized views of what seems to be their opinions on his divisive personality. There are those who believe that Obasanjo is the worst thing that has ever happened to this country. Those who hold that belief, and quite passionately at that, do so in spite of the cheering comments made elsewhere especially among the comity of nations as evident in the message of commendation and congratulations to Obasanjo ( for breaking transition jinx) and Yar’ Adua ( for emerging victorious in the April election). These letters came from no less a nation than the G8 countries.
When General Obasanjo emerged from solitude in 1998 and subsequently emerged a top contender in the Presidential race in 1999, as a fresher then in the University, I had argued with my senior colleagues that Obasanjo was the man to beat. As a reasonable student of African history, I had insisted that Obasanjo had enormous goodwill and charisma. He gained international respect through his efforts to end white minority rule in South Africa and Zimbabwe, supporting neighbouring states such as Angola and Mozambique. After that époque making interventions, the retired General became an intellectual of a sort through such platforms like the Eminent Persons Group, Transparency International and his African Leadership Forum with great, thematic, lucid and seminal publications to his credit – “My Command”, “Not My Will” and lately, “This Animal Called Man” among others. He also accepted places on numerous international commissions after which he retired to his second home at Otta where he enjoyed his image as a man of the people. I also went further to remind my listeners that he was the first Nigerian Military leader to hand over power willingly to civilians against all odds – a feat that was replicated by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar 20 years after. His ebullient personality and popularity cut across all continents traversing languages and cultures. For instance in Universite Nationale d’Abommey Calavi in Benin Republique, students of Government and Politics wrote long essays as finalist on the leadership ethos of Obasanjo as well his viewpoints as encapsulated in many of his celebrated books and essays – in one of these occasions, as a French Language student in Benin Republic, I was privileged to tell my Beninese Friends how Obasanjo abhorred dictatorship, snag in leadership, injustice and elitist regime. A Nigerian fellow also reasoned that Nigeria, especially the masses will have it so good in view of the fact that Obasanjo just emerged from the Nigerian dungeon of human depravity.
One thing we can not take away from Obasanjo’s 8 years rule is his administration’s genuine attempt at effecting serenity in the nation’ economic sector and the empowerment of the country’s business heavyweights. With the liberalization of the capital inflow in the economy, we can still go ahead to mention some decent attempts by the Obasanjo’s years to strengthen the private sector with confidence built among the business class. There was also spirited endeavour at curbing waste of resources. For instance, the fight against corruption has become one of his major strives as far as changing the status quo is concerned. The anti corruption czar has also become an epitome of generational - shift - miracle which has also confirmed my long standing belief that; only young men and women can redefine our collective destiny not gerontocrats
However, this singular but unpatriotic act of neglecting the poor has remained the albatross of Obasanlo’s 8 years rule despite what seemed like a good intention as captured in the above quotations. The administration has failed to effect a remarkable change in the areas of road construction, the condition of an average Nigerian has worsen with Mr. President’s inability to provide electricity and basic infrastructure despite the huge resources sank in these sectors. Also another area that affects common man that was utterly neglected was the area of security of lives and property. The situation is frighteningly disturbing. A friend recounted his grief-stricken story on how they were attacked along Benin – Ore road in quick succession with different gang operating freely within a ‘captured territory’. The same horrible experience repeated itself while they were going back.
Also Obasanjo’s days paid less attention to the rule of law. The inability of his administration to prosecute and detain the self-confessed electoral fraudster of Anambra state and the political juju man of Ibadan politics leave so much to be desired. Rather, these detestable characters and marauders were gratified by Obasanjo as the Uba dynasty can show off a Governor – elect and a PDP board of trustee member. Also Adedibu has been rewarded for capturing Oyo state in the midst of growing public disapproval of Alao Akala’s candidature. Today Akala Governor and Adedibu Jnr are Governor and Senator elect respectively.
Obasanjo’s penchant and brazen romance with detestable and amorphous characters has watered down his professed good intention to rebuild Nigeria of our dream. This is sad!
In Nigeria, the economic situation is so inclement, mixed up, and excruciatingly strangulating with so much confusion in the air. The people are hungry, wages are not being paid. One always wonders if the outgoing administration is aware of this. The masses are daily harassed by a combined forces led by landlords and school owners because no low-cost houses any more for retrenched civil servants and public schools have become a breeding ground for charlatans; in fact they are a complete right off. Unemployed youths in an effort to assuage their hopelessness take up arms to wreck havoc and destruction on the weather-beaten and terminally frustrated populace. While unemployment is not a yardstick to be a rascal, the situation calls for a state of emergency. Obviously these issues were constantly being addressed by newspaper editorials and columnists. If Obasanjo had paid attention to these words of wisdom, he would have been guided in adopting masses - oriented agenda.
Despite the huge resources embedded in the Niger Delta, the region has become a case of long disputes between the Nigerian state and the region which obviously means something is fundamentally wrong. With all the grandstanding about the regional master plan and the visionless NNDC, the incoming administration must accept wholesale the way Obasanjo accepted in the power sector, that all the while, wrong approaches have been adopted in solving the region’s problem. That tells any neutral observer that the retrogressive impulse in the region today is as a result of a bottled-up anger, boiling frustration, agonized powerlessness, misguided priorities as the case of NNDC and consequential irrelevance of the people which when put together brewed the present state of lawlessness, hostage taking, pipeline destruction and bombing of senior government officials’ properties.
To check the aforementioned, all efforts must be put in place to encourage the agricultural sector in the region. The people must go back to the farms and the rivers for their traditional trades. It is disheartening to note that despite the outgoing government huge investment in agriculture in other part of the country, Niger Delta is neglected. It is worthwhile to extend such integrated agricultural programmes particularly the cassava initiative to the Niger Delta with full intensity.
As Napoleon Bonaparte rightly said, ability is of a little account without opportunity. The next administration can create leadership opportunities for the young, strong and vibrant in Niger Delta and elsewhere as against the intergenerational perpetuation of gerontocracy and “babacracy” that characterized the outgoing administration. The little opportunity Obasanjo gave the vibrant youth class proved to be very effective.
As the duo of Yar’ Adua and Goodluck plan to stir the ship of Nigeria to the next level, Nigerians are eager to witness a government agenda that will have the masses as its driving force. If there is any area that Nigerians may not wish the incoming administration to consolidate on; is the area of National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP). That agency has failed woefully. Guaranteed electoral reform that secures complete independence of INEC is non-negotiable. That ultimately will guarantee free and fair election in the future. A radical approach to youths empowerment by creating an enabling environment for leadership generational change, generate 10’000 mega watts of electricity for industrial development to create employment opportunities and finally check the spate of armed robbery and assassinations via a holistic police reform. With the foregoing, I wonder what my response will look like when confronted with questions about the new Obasanjo. Happy retirement Sir!
Maxwell James
GRA Phase 11, Port Harcourt
Rivers State
