Obasanjo as a virtuoso of deceit!

Speaking at a recent Inter-faith meeting on Malaria, organized by Initiative Action Association, which was attended by a former British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, former President Obasanjo claimed that the 18 billion dollar debt relief granted Nigeria by the Paris and London clubs of creditors was invested into fighting infant morbidity and mortality. He […]

Speaking at a recent Inter-faith meeting on Malaria, organized by Initiative Action Association, which was attended by a former British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, former President Obasanjo claimed that the 18 billion dollar debt relief granted Nigeria by the Paris and London clubs of creditors was invested into fighting infant morbidity and mortality.

He said since he left office, the issues of health and education, which are critical components of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), received a remarkable priority under his administration. It seems Obasanjo   takes the intelligence of Nigerians for granted or he has no sense of shame to twist reality to suit his self-serving objectives.

One of the excuses for seeking debt relief was that Nigeria was spending more than 45 percent of her annual national budget on debt servicing. This was largely the reason why the creditor nations sympathetically granted the debt relief in 2003. However, in all honesty, did the quality of life and service delivery improve so remarkably under Obasanjo despite the so-called debt relief of 18 billion dollars?

Ironically, while corruption was making great progress, health and education were in serious decline because of the notorious non-performance record of the former Obasanjo administration. The state of health and education got outstandingly worse and his daughter Senator Iyabo Obasanjo was even charged to court for collecting N10 million bribery from the Federal Ministry of Health, which became one of the major national scandals.

If, indeed, former President Obasanjo ever did anything in respect of these two critical areas of social services, it was the incredible level of lip service he paid to them. Nigeria trailed behind many African countries in the realization of the MDGs broad objectives, despite the unbelievable level of rising oil revenues coming to the former Obasanjo administration.

The National Hospital, which was established by the wife of the late Gen. Sani Abacha, Mrs. Maryam Abacha, was once the centre of excellence. However, since the former Obasanjo administration took over the hospital and renamed it to slight her, the medical institution has been in rapid decline in terms of its original objectives.

The fact that even government officials hardly patronize the hospital and seek medical treatment abroad instead, is an indictment of the failure of the Obasanjo administration to deliver the so-called democratic dividends. Did Obasanjo think that his audience at the Inter-faith Town Hall Meeting on malaria in Kuje (Abuja) are fools? Former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair who was a prominent figure in the audience, is no stranger either to the tricks of failed African dictators  like Obasanjo.

Education was not better either under the former Obasanjo administration. According to the Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu, 80 percent of Nigerian graduates are unemployable. Previously in 2004, the former Governor of the Central Bank (CBN), Professor Chukwuma Soludo, also declared at a conference on education organized by the National Universities Commission (NUC), that 50 percent of Nigerian graduates lack basic skills to fit into the challenges of knowledge-driven economies of the modern world. Professor Soludo is Obasanjo’s man but that didn’t stop him from making such honest admission about the declining quality of education. Crisis after crisis was the frequent problem confronting education. Well-to-do Nigerians are now forced to send their children abroad for better quality of education. African countries such as Ghana even have better rating in education than Nigeria. Universities of Ibadan, Zaria and Nsukka are now living on their past glories.

It is therefore, the height of deceit for Obasanjo to claim that the 18 billion dollar debt relief was channeled into the MDGs. These achievements exist only on paper or Obasanjo’s wild imagination.

Leadership is about vision, competence, focus and sincerity and in this regard, the late Gen. Sani Abacha administration performed much better with less resources.

The defunct Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), established by Gen. Abacha, achieved far better results within the shortest space of time than the eight years of Obasanjo. Nigeria’s foreign reserve rose to 68 billion dollars under Obasanjo but his performance record was disastrous. In contrast, however, Gen. Abacha remarkably improved the quality of our hospitals, schools, roads, water supply, electric power stability and other critical components of national infrastructure.

Obasanjo uttered a lot of rubbish against Gen. Abacha, but at the end of the day, Gen. Abacha’s performance record remains unbeatable. His achievements remain the envy of his enemies, including Gen. Obasanjo whose tenure was characterized by rhetoric rather than concrete performance. It is high time former President Obasanjo stopped insulting the sensibilities of Nigerians who are still suffering the effects of his failures.

Mohammed writes from No. 26, Blantyre Street, Wuse 2 Abuja.