Obasanjo: A review of hypocrisy and failures

Rather than building on the positive legacies of leaders that came before him, especially the late General Sani Abacha, former President Obasanjo had turned personal malice into an official policy.  For example, he destroyed many good projects and initiatives mainly because they were introduced by the late General Sani Abacha administration. The defunct Petroleum Trust […]

Rather than building on the positive legacies of leaders that came before him, especially the late General Sani Abacha, former President Obasanjo had turned personal malice into an official policy.  For example, he destroyed many good projects and initiatives mainly because they were introduced by the late General Sani Abacha administration.

The defunct Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), which was introduced by General Abacha to manage the proceeds of Petroleum subsidy withdrawal, was one of the immediate victims of Obasanjo’s policies of gratifying private vengeance at the expense of the public interest.  Despite the widely acknowledged impact of the PTF, Obasanjo was not ready to see reason when he scrapped the intervention agency.

Proceeds of Petroleum subsidy withdrawal could not make positive impact on ordinary Nigerians because of the massive corruption in government ministries and departments.  It was not surprising why they were in the forefront of those opposing the PTF, saying it was like a government within a government.  With a hostile civil service bureaucracy and a President determined to destroy Abacha’s legacy, the ultimate fate of the PTF didn’t come as a surprise to many keen observers.

After he dissolved the PTF, former President Obasanjo returned the management of Petroleum subsidy proceeds to the same greedy and corrupt government bureaucracies.  Consequently, the gains of the PTF were going down in a matter of months as public infrastructure continued to collapse at incredible pace.  Throughout its entire life, the PTF was allocated only N30 billion naira but it was able to produce remarkable impact on the conditions of public roads, hospitals, schools and others.  However, despite the N350 billion naira allocated to the Federal Ministry of Works in 2001 under Obasanjo, the conditions of roads were deteriorating rapidly.  Former President Obasanjo himself was on record as saying that he was ashamed of the conditions of federal roads.

Since then, until he completed his eight-year tenure, the situation didn’t get any better.  Worse still, the Senate Committee on Federal Roads recently declared that more than 80 percent of federal roads are currently in bad shape.  Is this not a further indictment of former President Obasanjo, despite his malicious efforts to discredit every positive legacy of the late General Abacha administration?

The current rehabilitation and modernization of our railway system were started by General Abacha.  When Obasanjo came to power in 1999, he stopped these projects out of sheer personal malice against Abacha.  He forgot, however, that it was public interest which he undermined in the process.  If the former Obasanjo administration had continued with these projects, Nigeria could have avoided the current staggering cost at which these suspended contacts were re-awarded.  In fact, Nigeria could have achieve much progress in the implementation of these projects but for the malicious disruptions caused to them by the former Obasanjo administration.

Hypocrisy and insincerity were the hallmark of Obasanjo’s rule and he is now being exposed by ugly realities.  The failed bank crisis, which the late General Abacha was tackling decisively, is once again rearing its ugly head, despite the so-called economic miracle of consolidation.  Contrary to the dubious picture of strength, some of the banks depleted their capital base, which forced the current CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to use billions of public funds to save them from collapse.  

The Chief executives of these banks engaged in recklessness because they were protected by Obasanjo’s government, which was supposed to enforce the banking regulations.  Even as these distressed banks were evidently sick, sustained by CBN life support system, the former Governor of the apex bank insisted they were healthy.

In retrospect, one wonders whether former President Obasanjo had any moral justification to discredit the good policies of the Abacha administration.  With President Yar’adua battling to salvage what remains of Obasanjo’s  burden of failures, including the rot in the public infrastructure, it is high time we apologized to the late General Abacha.

Surely, the passage of time is the best gauge to tell the difference between one administration and another.  Despite all the evils former President Obasanjo attributed to Abacha, the late military head was able to get things working.  Under Obasanjo, the collapse of public infrastructure became worse and corruption attained a trillion naira scale under him.  Was it not under Obasanjo that Nigeria took the leading position as one of the most corrupt nations of the world?

 Majidadi wrote from Block 28, Lafia, Nassarawa State