Abacha: A memory hard to erase
His immediate achievement was restoring stability to the country, which was on the verge of imminent disintegration as Nigerians desperately relocated to their states of origin from other parts of the country where they were working to earn a living; some had accidents on the way and died but some still managed to get home […]
His immediate achievement was restoring stability to the country, which was on the verge of imminent disintegration as Nigerians desperately relocated to their states of origin from other parts of the country where they were working to earn a living; some had accidents on the way and died but some still managed to get home to face uncertain future because of the fears of war. Seized by panic, many Nigerians succumbed to despair and awaited whatever uncomfortable fate that could face them. Even the U.S and other Western nations were worried that Africa’s most populous black nation was teetering on the brink of disintegration.
General Abacha, however, demonstrated remarkable leadership by holding back the country from the path of anarchy and possible war. He disappointed those who had predicted the collapse of Nigeria as a nation-state and its descent into a Somalia-like situation. His ability to hold Nigeria together, despite the prediction of doom, had wowed even the Western nations who had initially dismissed General Abacha as a “bumbling dictator” who had nothing to offer but just grabbed power for the sake of it. He opened the eyes of many critics that had underrated his capacity. Privately, they had to recognize his leadership qualities, while publicly attacking him to justify their prejudice.
Security was another area where the late General Abacha had made remarkable impact. In his time, Abuja was one of the safest cities of the world. Thirteen-years after his demise, insecurity has assumed a frightening scale. Nigerians are today captives of fear from armed robbers, kidnappers, indiscriminate bombers and assassination. Life has become valueless and so cheap to destroy. Parents and children live in constant fear because their kids and wards are vulnerable to falling victims to kidnappers for ransom. Everywhere you go, you have to look over your shoulders because you may become the next victim or your children.
Even General Abacha’s most hardened enemies must admit, though grudgingly, that he did remarkably well in restoring national infrastructure. Under his administration, through the defunct Petroleum Special Trust (PTF), our roads, hospitals, schools, water supply, health care and other critical areas of special services had witnessed remarkable improvements. For the first time, Nigerians had access to affordable and safer drugs in our hospitals. With only N30billion allocation throughout its entire life, the PTF had achieved remarkable results that justified the policy of subsidy withdrawal so that the proceeds could be funneled back into development activities and promoting social welfare. The highest petroleum price increase General Abacha ever made didn’t go beyond 25 naira per litre. One of his leading enemies that ruled Nigeria for eight years took fuel prices to 75 naira per litre. Yet the proceeds from the subsidy withdrawal were mismanaged and as a result, we witnessed the deterioration of national infrastructure.
Despite the 18-billion dollar debt relief granted Nigeria in 2003 and a foreign reserve level of 63 billion dollars, the performances of the social service sectors were unremarkable. Instead, Nigeria had witnessed the acceleration of poverty, hunger, unemployment, insecurity, declining health standard and other features of poor governance. During his official visit to Nigeria in 2000, former U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton, said his country would support a debt relief for Nigeria if the benefits would go to the ordinary people. And predictably, even the Western nations are disappointed that the debt relief didn’t significantly improve the quality of life of the ordinary people because of corruption and greed by bureaucrats and politicians.
The late General Abacha didn’t have that kind of extraordinary good luck of debt relief and rising foreign reserves. Yet he was able to make impact with the funds available to his administration. He didn’t collect foreign debt to entangle our country into a future burden; he sustained a favourable exchange rate for the naira and stabilized inflation. His vision 2010 project was discarded and its ideas stolen in disguise. Yet, the new version took Nigeria nowhere. It is more on paper than a reality, largely because there is no sincerity in killing the vision 2010 in the first place, put together by Nigeria’s best and brightest from all sectors of the economy.
Love him or loath him, you cannot deny General Abacha the credit for initiating Nigeria’s railway rehabilitation and modernization policy. The former Obasanjo administration deliberately attempted to kill it because it was not his brainchild. Shamelessly towards the end of his tenure, he brought back the railway projects and the dredging of the River Niger-a belated attempt to impress Nigerians. By frustrating the projects because Abacha initiated them, the former Obasanjo administration had allowed pettiness to ruin the larger interest of Nigeria. These projects could have covered a lot more grounds than they did if the former President Obasanjo administration didn’t let sentiments to influence public policy.
The construction of the National Hospital, which symbolizes excellence in medical standards and the Gwarimpa housing project, the largest single project in Africa, will remain among other numerous enduring legacies of the late General Sani Abacha. His performance had demonstrated that substance is more important than form. As Nigerians remember General Abacha 13 years after his demise, the people of Bayelsa need a special mention for their sense of history and gratitude. During the 10th anniversary of the creation of Bayelsa state, the people of the area posthumously honoured Abacha for making the dream for a Bayelsa State a reality. It is impossible to dismiss genuine achievements just as we cannot excuse failure by those who had good will and state resources to bring development but decided to under-perform or fail woefully altogether.
Fagge wrote from 102, Yahaya Road, Kaduna. [email protected]