Abacha in Aluko’s eyes
Professor Aluko recalled Abacha’s patriotic commitment to encourage the local production of bitumen on exportable scale and that he set Nigeria on the path of achieving the objective. According to him, Abacha never hesitated to release the funds for this purpose to avoid the needless costs of importing what Nigeria could abundantly produce locally. The […]
Professor Aluko recalled Abacha’s patriotic commitment to encourage the local production of bitumen on exportable scale and that he set Nigeria on the path of achieving the objective. According to him, Abacha never hesitated to release the funds for this purpose to avoid the needless costs of importing what Nigeria could abundantly produce locally.
The Professor of Economics also explained how the Abacha administration was able to stabilize the value of the naira and contain inflation. As far as most objective and fair-minded Nigerians are concerned, the Professor was preaching to the converted. It is on record that the Obasanjo administration raised fuel price per litre to 75 naira while, throughout his tenure, the late General Abacha maintained it at 25 naira per litre. In fact, General Obasanjo was so determined to kill Nigerians with “love” that he introduced excruciating economic reforms, including the decision to increase value added tax (VAT), which left ordinary Nigerians with the albatross of indirect taxes through hard-hitting inflationary spiral.
Ironically, while the former Obasanjo administration was busy increasing value added tax, it was at the same time granting reckless import waivers to his cronies in the private sector. Worse still, his so-called economic reforms strangulated small and medium scale businesses and industries. According to the Nigerian Manufacturing Association (MAN), about 430 industries had to fold up as a consequence of decaying national infrastructure and the hostile operating environment created by Obasanjo’s economic reforms. Nigerians cannot also forget in a hurry how NITEL was cruelly killed in the name of privatization, leaving Nigerians at the mercy of the new GSM telecom operators. The Obasanjo administration threw the ordinary Nigerians to the sharks while at the same time enriching his cronies under the cover of reforming the economy.
Despite these so-called reforms, which were insincerely implemented, are the majority of Nigerians better off or worse off as a result of Obasanjo’s economic “magic”? Obasanjo promised to increase power generation to 10,000 megawatts by 2007 and as from the time he left office and today, Nigeria is still hovering between 2,500 and 3,000 megawatts of electricity generation. While Obasanjo was frequently quoting the economic success story of the former Singaporean Prime Minister, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, his insincerity didn’t let him achieve the same results in Nigeria.
Despite the alleged corruption of the Abacha administration, Nigerians could still see the concrete evidence of where the proceeds of subsidy withdrawal were being beneficially invested. Who could deny that we had remarkable changes in the conditions of public roads, hospitals, water supply systems and other critical areas of social service? The scrapped Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) was able to achieve results within a relatively short space of time, thanks to the sincerity of the Abacha administration to apply subsidy withdrawal proceeds to the practical improvement of the quality of life of Nigerians.
Do we need a reminder from Professor Aluko to acknowledge that Abacha’s record was by far brighter than his enemies want the world to believe? The best public relations is good performance. Despite the 18-billion dollar debt relief granted Nigerian in 2003 and a foreign reserve level of 63 billion dollars, did Nigerians count their blessings as a result of this extraordinary good luck? In fact, despite the vilification of Abacha’s memory by Obasanjo’s fans, the facts of the military ruler’s achievements cannot be easily obliterated even with the dynamite of hate and prejudice!
When he criticized the performance of the Obasanjo administration, the former President openly described Professor Sam Aluko as “senile”. But then did Aluko’s alleged senility change the reality of Obasanjo’s record of unimpressive performance? At one point, the former President publicly admitted that he was ashamed of the conditions of federal roads, despite the billions allocated to that sector. Wasn’t Obasanjo’s mischief responsible for halting the progress of Nigeria’s railway rehabilitation and modernization projects, which were started by Abacha? He deliberately frustrated the projects to spite Abacha. He forgot, however, that you should not undermine the wider public interest for the sake of private vengeance against a leader because you don’t want to associates him with anything good.
Whether Professor Aluko said it or not, the memory of Abacha’s performance cannot be dismissed. Memories of good performance are stubborn and every leader will have to face the verdict of history.
Umar wrote from 69, Federal Housing Estate, Gwiwa, Sokoto