Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the country is
currently facing economic problems due to the failure of the Goodluck Jonathan
administration to plan for a rainy day.
He told Iyalodes and eminent women leaders from the
South-West, who visited him at his Hilltop residence in Abeokuta,
Ogun State, that the nation’s reserves which as of 2007 stood at $67bn had been
depleted by the Federal Government.
The former President was responding to a call by the delegation led by
the Iyalode of Yorubaland, Chief Alaba Lawson, and the Iyaloja General of
Nigeria, Chief Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, to lend his voice
to the socio-economic crisis rocking the country.
Stressing that the country did not deserve the situation it currently
finds itself, Obasanjo vowed that he would not keep quiet until the right
things were done.
He said, “When I was leaving office about eight years ago, I left a very
huge reserve after we had paid all our debts.
“Almost $25bn we kept in what they called Excess Crude Account, it was
the excess from the budget we were saving as reserve for a rainy day.
“When we left in May 2007, the reserve was said to have risen to $35bn.
But today, that reserve has been depleted.
“After paying our debts which was about $40bn, including
debt forgiveness, the remaining (debt) was not more than $3bn.
“Our reserves after we had paid off these debts amounted to about $45bn.
As I said, they continued to rise till the end of 2007. I heard that the
reserves increased to almost $67bn before the end of the year.
“Our reserves now, I learnt, stand at only $30bn.”
Although he noted that the slump in oil price would naturally have a
negative impact on a monolithic economy like Nigeria, Obasanjo said that “
anyone who is wise enough should know that since we depend on just one mineral
resource and since we have no control over its pricing, we should be planning
for this type of situation we currently find ourselves and the way
out of it.”
The former President lamented that “our inability to have healthy
reserves had brought us to “this economic quagmire.”
He added, “A leader must be forward-looking and plan ahead. At the
beginning of last year, the budget was based on $78 per barrel. That year, the
Federal Government spent more on recurrent expenditure and a little on capital
expenditure.”
Obasanjo also pointed out that the devaluation of the naira
had unleashed other consequences on the economy.
He said, “That (devaluation) is why the naira has been falling against
the dollar. What would now happen? I learnt if you want to buy a dollar now,
it’s about N192 or N195. What it means is this, what you had been buying for
N150 to a dollar, now you need N192 or N195 to buy it.
“That is the real situation. Is there any remedy? There is but it does
not come overnight because it means we have to give up all the bad things we
had been doing.”
The Ogun State-born former Head of State also
berated the leadership for robbing Nigeria of its God-ordained
greatness.
He said,”God made Nigeria a great nation. Is it that those living here
have no brain? Is it that the leaders are not thinking? Or that we don’t have
the resources?
“When I was in the army, our slogan was, ‘There are no bad soldiers but
bad officers.’ Wherever soldiers are not doing well, blame the officers. The
same thing obtains in the family, communities, towns and the nation.
The former President, who also denied quarrelling with Jonathan, told the
Iyalodes and eminent women leaders that he was surprised to
have read in a newspaper on Monday that some people in government were jittery
on learning of their visit.
“Is (it) that Jonathan and I are not in good terms?, he asked and
immediately provided an answer himself. He said, “There is nothing as such. I
have no grudges against Jonathan and I think Jonathan equally has no grudges
against me. I’m not quarrelling with Jonathan but all I know is that whatever
is good for Nigeria, that I’m ready to die for.
“I emphasise that whatever is good for Nigeria, is what I’m ready to
defend with my life. Whoever, I emphasise, whoever says he would not do
anything good for Nigeria, even if he says he’s ready to go ‘koko bellow,’ I’m
ready to square it up with such a person.
“I say again, whoever that person may be, I want you to get that
correctly. If this country is going to change for the better, it must start
from the top and if it’s going to be otherwise, it must start from the top too.
“I have had some little experience about this country. I was a Head of
State and a President; so what is left? If I talk, I know what I’m
talking about. Whoever wants, should listen to me and whoever feels otherwise,
may turn a deaf ear. But when I’m talking, I’m talking with my understanding
and intellect.
“I’m drawing from my experience and from what I’ve learnt with others
and from other countries and fellow eminent citizens of the world that I relate
with.”
Obasanjo frowned on the alleged impunity being perpetuated
under the current administration, warning leaders of the
consequences of such actions.
He said, “God put you in a position for a
purpose and if you fail, you will give account to God. It was Prophet Samuel
that God sent to anoint Saul to be a king. When he misbehaved, it was the same
God that sent Prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse to anoint another king.
“But when Samuel got to Jesse’s house, he was attracted by the physical
and outward appearance of Eliab. But God told him, he was looking at outward appearance
whereas He was looking at the heart. We must not keep quiet concerning this
nation.”
On the general elections, Obasanjo said he had no apprehension,
stressing that the country would survive just as it did during
crises such as Operation wetie, the 1966 coup and the civil
war.
He said, “The 1964 election led to Operation Wetie. I saw people
being slaughtered . There were also the 1966 coup, the 1966 progrom
and the civil war. We survived them. Then, there was (Sani) Abacha period. We
also we survived it.”
Operation wetie was the political crises that erupted in the defunct Western Region
after the 1965 regional elections. It was characterised by the wetting of
political opponents and their followers with petrol and setting them ablaze.
Obasanjo recalled that when he was about to contest the presidential
election in 1999, he was told that it would end up like the botched polls by
the Ibrahim Babangida and Abacha juntas.
“They said that Abubakar Abdulsalami was also out to deceive us. Some
people said after me, there would be no Nigeria again; But, after me, there
have been two presidents .The God we serve is God of Nigeria.”
On the solution to unemployment in the country, he advised
the government to turn to agriculture instead of laying emphasis on oil and
gas.
He advised, “If we are going to solve unemployment problem, it is
through agric business and not through oil and gas. We have no alternative.
“Agriculture is renewable because the land can be used over and over
again, but, once you lift a barrel of oil, it is gone forever.’’
Obasanjo also advised the women and other Nigerians to vote
for candidates with good track records and not those making empty
promises.
“Good governance starts with the selection and voting of good leaders.
Don’t lose your votes. Ask questions. What are their track records? Pay less
attention to what they are saying, look out for what they had done.”
On his membership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, Obasanjo said,
“I am still in the PDP , though not active. With the kind of people and
behaviours I see in the party, I don’t think I can stand before God and defend
them.”
Obasanjo had in an 18-page open letter to Jonathan in December 2013,
accused Jonathan of promoting deceit, corruption and mutual
distrust ahead of national interest.
He said in the letter titled “Before it is too late” that in spite of
his previous letters which were neither acknowledged nor responded to, he was
again constrained to warn the President that dangers were lurking in the corner
should he fail to heed his advice.
At the public presentation of a book by a former Chairman of the
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other–Related Offences Commission, Justice
Mustapha Akanbi(retd.) in Novemeber 2014, Obasanjo
again accused Jonathan and the National Assembly of promoting
corruption and poor governance in the country.
He also upbraided the President by describing him as an incompetent
leader during the public presentation of his three-part autobiography My Watch
on December 9, 2014.
He rated the Jonathan administration as colossal failure, grounded by
ineptitude.