Obasanjo could not stop with the open letter
last year, he comes back again on Goodluck Jonathan that he (Jonathan)
squandered $25 billion USD left by his administration.
The former Nigerian president made the
allegation while hosting the South-West women leaders at his residence in
Abeokuta, describing the administration of President Jonathan as full of
impunity. He attributed Jonathan’s squandermania as against saving for the
rainy day as what landed Nigeria into this economic quagmire where $1 is
exchanged for N195.
Obasanjo claimed
that the more than $25billion inherited by his successor, Musa Yar’Adua, was
raised to $35 billion but the Jonathan administration squandered all, including
also the $40billion in Nigeria’s foreign reserve account after paying the
outstanding debt at the time.
According to him, former President Yar’adua
also raised the reserves to $60billion, but under President Jonathan, the
reserves plummeted.
He maintained that he was not against the
incumbent president but that he said everything he said in the interest of the
country.
“I have no grudges against Jonathan and I
think Jonathan equally has no grudges against me. I’m not quarrelling with
Jonathan. All I know is that whatever is good for Nigeria, that I’m ready to
die for.
“I emphasize that whatever is good for Nigeria
is what I’m ready to defend with my life. Whoever I emphasize, whoever says he
would not do anything good to Nigeria, even if he says he’s ready to go ‘konko
below’, 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 would start from the top and if it’s going to be
otherwise, it would start from the top, too,” the former president stressed.
Concerning the country’s economy, he said:
“Our economy should not have been this bad.
When I was leaving office about eight years ago, I left a very huge reserve
after we had paid all our debts. Almost $25billion was kept in what they called
excess crude, including the excess from the budget we were saving as reserve
for the rainy days. When we left in May, 2007, the reserve was said to have
been raised to $35billion.
“But today, that reserve has been depleted!
The reserve we left when we finished paying all our debts, our debts that was
about $40billion, that is including debt forgiveness, the remaining debt was
not more than $3billion. Our reserve after we had paid off this debt was about
$45billion. As at the end of 2007, I heard that the reserve increased to almost
$67billion before the end of that year. But our reserve now, I learnt is left
with around only $30billion.
“That 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 have been buying
at 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 have been doing,”
Obasanjo said.
He continued: “I know that God did not create
Nigeria not to be rich or great. Is it that the people he created in Nigeria
are not knowledgeable enough or not intelligent enough? Or is it that they
don’t know their rights? Our problems in Nigeria lie with the leadership. Let’s
look at the foundation of our leadership. In the profession I know very well,
the military, what we normally say is that there are no bad soldiers but bad
officers. If you see a situation where the soldiers are not doing well, we need
to examine the officers in charge. So it is in the family, the community, the
town and the country.
“Truly, the price of crude has fallen, but
anyone who is wise enough should know that since we depend on just one resource
and since we have no control over its pricing, we should be planning for this
type of situation and the way out of it. Our inability to have a reserve has
brought us into this economic quagmire.
“If we are going to solve unemployment
problem, it is through agriculture and not through oil and gas. Now, we have no
alternative. Agriculture is renewable because the land can be used over and
over again, but, once a barrel of oil is gone, it’s gone forever, “he said.
He also did not hide his feelings on the fears tailing the
forthcoming elections:
“I have had some little experience about this
country. I was a military head of state and I was also a civilian president, so
what is left? So, if I talk, I know what I’m saying. 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. I have no apprehension
over this coming elections. I have no fears over the forthcoming elections.
“Good governance comes from voting, from
selection of leaders. It is now left to you to decide who you cast your vote
for because if you throw away your votes and tomorrow you are saying good
governance, once you throw away your votes you have lost out. That is one. Find
out the track records of achievements of those you want to vote for. What have
they achieved in the past and not what they have said.”
He revealed his stand in PDP
Concerning his membership of the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, Obasanjo said: “I am still in the Peoples Democratic
Party, 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.
“Nigeria does not deserve the position it
finds itself today. Our nation is plagued with insecurity, corruption, economic
downturn, and impunity in doing thing. If man cannot arrest you, God will
arrest you. The position you are now, God puts you there. If you think lies can
keep you there, continue. If you think bad people can keep you there, continue.
If you think it’s money, continue. But remember God does not sleep nor slumber.
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 government spent more on recurrent
expenditure and a little on capital expenditure”.
Obasanjo also sounded optimistic about the continued unity of
the country. The former President,
however, ruled out the possibility of Nigeria disintegrating after the
election, saying, he had been told that he would be the last President when he
was contesting the election in 2003.
He recalled that, “1964 election led to
‘Wetie’. I saw people being slaughtered; there was 1966 coup, the 1966 pogrom and
the civil war. We survived it. Then, Abacha came, we survived it. When I was
about to contest in 1999, I was told that it was a deceit like IBB and Abacha
did. 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 had
been two presidents. This God is God of Nigeria”.
You are the repository of nationhood
—Lawson
The women who were led to the former
president’s house by the Iyalode of Yorubaland, Chief Alaba Lawson included the
Iyaloja-General, Mrs, Folashade Tinubu-Ojo and Iyalode Ibadan, Alhaja Aminat Abiodun represented by Eketa Iyalode, Mrs. Adedeji among others.
Earlier in her speech, Chief Lawson noted that
President Obasanjo has become a good repository of everything that makes
nationhood.
“You are the hand and eye in all the nooks and
crannies of Nigeria. You are the voice everybody is waiting to hear on any topical
issue in the public domain. We believe we are in the right place to discuss
with you some knotty issues bleeding our hearts as we have seen you as a beacon
of hope and light for the nation”, Lawson told Obasanjo.
On state of the nation, the women said they
were concerned about current happenings in the country, going by the current
atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.
She said the nation is plagued by insecurity,
economic downturn, poverty, corruption, among other challenges.
“The unabated nefarious activities of the
insurgents which have placed us as a people on the throes of war is worrisome
to us, because womenfolk is the most affected. Countless Nigerian women have
lost their lives, husbands, children, relatives and sources of livelihood as a
result of the despicable acts of killing and wanton destruction by the Boko
Haram insurgents,” she said.
Obasanjo’s response
Reacting to the speech, Obasanjo said the
meeting had been politicised on the pages of newspapers, declaring that, he had
no problem with President Jonathan, but, insisted that he would never associate
with anyone that does not have either interest of the country at heart.
According to him, “God had 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 king but 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
(Samuel) was looking at outward appearance whereas he was looking at the heart.
We must not keep quiet concerning this nation.”
Comments
Post a Comment