So Obasanjo Did Not Do A Single Good Thing? (2)

...Read the full article.

[Tunde meee]

This is exactly an example of the problem we have in our dear great Nation. The worst among us aspire to leadership position with the backing of the so called god father. How can I imagine that a governorship aspirant wrote this piece with no regard to the damage it could do to his aspiration. This is an example of a governor that commissioned borehole all over their area with a rented crowd singing their praises around.

How could anyone in his right senses pay off a debt when his children are at home hungry,suffering hypothermia and living in darkness because there was no money to pay utility bills. Would it not have been a wiser decision to invest such amount he paid out in good business that could probably yield many folds of the debt settlement.

How could anyone in his right senses keep money somewhere when his children are at home suffering as mentioned above all in the name of wanting to save for future eventualities.

Only a fool would claim success after plunging so much money in a project with nothing to show for it other than failure. It was very surprising that you mentioned the integrated whatever you call it. I am sure you are sure that all that resulted from that was darkness upon darkness for the masses.

Kaura namuda road and all roads in Abuja may be dualised for all I care but what happened to Lagos Ibadan express road, Benin to Onitsha to Owerri to portharcourt road. These roads have been death traps long before OBJ came to power.

I can't imagine what else you were going to menton in your 3rd part if you have started mentioning something as trivial as building a stadium as part of an achievement of a federal government of a rich Nation Nigeria. Whatever facility we have in Abuja stadium will never compare with what a single club like Manchester United have in Old Trafford or Arsenal (Up gunners!!!!) have in Emirates. It is an unimaginable shame!!!!!!!
We expect you to start talking of GSM, bore hole, new presidential jet in your next part which definitely is not worth the wait.

[Olu Affairs]

Mr Idang Alibi, i dare say you must be living on another planet for the sake of decorum. How can anyone see anything good come out of an eight year administration that could not implement something as simple as a steady supply of power/electricity after all the monies expended?

[Mark Lar]

Mr Alibi, I earnestly hope and pray that you never get in the position of managing anything of significance in Nigeria. If what I heard about your aspiration for the governership of Cross River is true, I can bet my bottom dollar that the grand and only project you have for the state is to hang a colourful balloon on every street corner.

[i-go-better]

This clown is simply a sick attention seeker, he should be ignored!

Wole Soyinka said Prof. Iwu's mouth should be "symbolically slapped", this man's brain should be "electrically drained" to spare the already hyper-mesmerised citizens of this unfortunate Nation any further toxic waste from him!

[giant steps]

YOU TOO MUCH .YOU JUST REMINEDED ME OF THAT MADONNA S SONG Frozen ..'you only see what your life wants to see....how can life be what you want it to be .........." FROM AN ETHICAL AND SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE , MOST PEOPLE WILL NEVER GET TO THE NEXT LEVEL (be you xtain, muslim,pagan or whatever)UNTILL THEY LEARN TO BE GREATFUL AND LOOK AT THINGS FORM A POSITIVE and True PERSPECTIVE........
remember you can see a glass of water mid way as half full or half empty .so what is the glass of water half full or half empty

[Ofunwa Villager]

I would rather go to prison than respond to this foolishness you call an article. You must be one of the bogus contractors hired by the Ota gigolo to loot the nation blind.

[What?]

Very sadly when compared to previous towering achievements like importing and distributing subsidized rice, the building of Third Mainland Bridge, and the current achievement of dissecting and critiquing the previous regime's achievements, real and imagined; Obasanjo is startlingly beginning to appear like maybe he is is truly the smartest, most knowledgeable man alive, in addition to being the world's greatest General(as attested to in his books).

I will be very humiliated if in two years it turns out a very flawed old man outdid two Nigerian University graduates.

[Free Publius]

Mr. Alibi,

You have dispositively demonstrated that the likes of you have no business running even a household, not to talk of any organization or a state. I sincerely hope that those who would be in a position to cast votes in the area you wish to run for office have the opportunity to read your utterly foolish writings.

The absence of any scintilla of morality is what is so painfully manifest in your writing. So nauseating!

Free Publius

[iamgod]

This is a senseless article.

Imagine sending a child to Harvard or MIT, some of the best schools in the world. With all possible expenses paid, excess pocket money, excellent accomodation, feeding and everything else this student would need to complete his course with distinction.

And he finishes with a pass.

Would you say at least he did something?

Nations like India, Indonesia, China, boast of over a trillion dollars in reserves.
What is our paltry 53 billion dollars compared to this, especially when we have no other source of federal revenue than unstable crude?

I believe the oil windfall of the past 9 years was so great, OBJ and his thieving clique simply could not exhaust it before the end of the last tenure.

The USA has the highest debt in the world. They also have 'one' of the strongest economies.

Much was given to OBJ and much was expected. Needless to say, he failed as a president and that is the verdict of history.

Anything else you say is just seeking attention.

[Norris]

Mr Idang, if indeed you wholeheartedly believe and subscribe to all you have written down in the previous and current sham, I can confidently wave you away as a psychiatric patient who needs a mental evaluation. Your piece requires no meaningful rejoinder because its all built on framed lies, falsehood and deceit. Even the scoundrel you defend so much knows he has failed,so what are you blabbing about?

[Olu Affairs]

Well done my Brothers, i refrained from using some very strong terms to describe Mr idangi (sounds like a camel or donkey of some sorts) or what i think of him in my earlier post. It's quite obvious this chap is off his rockers and has his mouth, nose or whatever stuck so deep up OBJ stinking backside he doesn't know what time it is.

[Alabi Olaniyi]

People have responded and they have responded very well, I cannot imagine someone that passed through school justifying Obasanjo wasted eight years administration with these kind of achievements. I think the man lacks basic economic principle of debt management. Did the debt relief transform to food on the tables of masses?

I don't know why some people are just too myopic in their reasonings, it is left for the people of Cross River to allow him to become their governor, that is just the end.

May God save Nigeria form all these sycophants.

[maxsiollun]

But these were problems inherited by OBJ, not caused by him. Nigeria had not had constant electricity for 20 years before 1999! You make it sound as if poverty, corruption and erratic electricity were started by OBJ.

We have short memories in Nigeria. The fact that OBJ is being so demonised every day by every day folk is actually testament to the tolerance in Nigeria post 1999. How many of you would have been brave enough to criticise OBJ and Abacha in such lacerating terms in the 1980s or 1990s? I am sure many people would have been cowed by the prospect of receiving a letter boms (Dele Giwa) or an unscheduled visit from the SSS and indefinite detention under Decree 2.

Originally Posted by Olu Affairs

Mr Idang Alibi, i dare say you must be living on another planet for the sake of decorum. How can anyone see anything good come out of an eight year administration that could not implement something as simple as a steady supply of power/electricity after all the monies expended?

[overdryv]

Your next article will be how Nigerians dont look at things critically and see the bigger picture. Your submissions so far, are a perfect example that there are humans without a soul.
In reply to maksiollun post, I could smell something here. This individual has been at the forefront of eulogizing Obj may be for a fee. It has not been difficult to see through his deceit. So if Obj inherited 20-year old problems, it has to take another 20 years to solve them. He cleverly left out the resources available to Obj to fight poverty. When the wind blows, it exposes foul's yansh. These paid writers who masquerade themselves as intellectuals, are gradually being exposed.

[maxsiollun]

Despite what many people think, Nigeria is not a rich country. Yes our GNP is miles ahead of most African countries, but we have more mouths to feed so our GNP per capita is pitiful.

To understand what "resources" Nigeria has to fight poverty: the FG's annual budget is about the same budget as the New York city fire brigade. So a nation of 140m has to survive on the same budget that the fire dept of one city in one state, of America's 50 states.

If it rains tomorrow, I'm sure someone will say it is OBJ's fault. If someone's wife fails to conceive, someone else will blame OBJ for that too. Rather than blame OBJ for everything, people should start asking questions like:

-What tdo the Govs of oil producing states do with all the billions in oil derivation revenue given to them?
-Why is it that Bauchi and Rivers states have made so much progress even though they don't have nearly the budget of Delta or Bayelsa states?
-Why was Ribadu forced out of office?
-Why has there been no military coup in Nigeria for over a decade? (the longest period without a coup in Nigerian history)
-Which African country was the first to pay off its national Paris Club debt?
-What happened to the prosecutions of corrupt Govs like Ibori, Kalu and Dariye?

[overdryv]

Originally Posted by maxsiollun

Despite what many people think, Nigeria is not a rich country. Yes our GNP is miles ahead of most African countries, but we have more mouths to feed so our GNP per capita is pitiful.

To understand what "resources" Nigeria has to fight poverty: the FG's annual budget is about the same budget as the New York city fire brigade. So a nation of 140m has to survive on the same budget that the fire dept of one city in one state, of America's 50 states.

If it rains tomorrow, I'm sure someone will say it is OBJ's fault. If someone's wife fails to conceive, someone else will blame OBJ for that too. Rather than blame OBJ for everything, people should start asking questions like:

-What tdo the Govs of oil producing states do with all the billions in oil derivation revenue given to them?
-Why is it that Bauchi and Rivers states have made so much progress even though they don't have nearly the budget of Delta or Bayelsa states?
-Why was Ribadu forced out of office?
-Why has there been no military coup in Nigeria for over a decade? (the longest period without a coup in Nigerian history)
-Which African country was the first to pay off its national Paris Club debt?
-What happened to the prosecutions of corrupt Govs like Ibori, Kalu and Dariye?

It is intellectually dishonest to compare Nigeria's budget with that of NYC fire department. The crux of this matter is not about how much Nigeria has but about what available resources are put use to. There are probably people who earn $500,000 a month in US. Back on the home front, there are African countries whose annual budget is not up to that of Delta state.

This topic is not about how governors and states manage their funds but how Obj fared in 8 years. All the states get only a third of total revenue. May be if you factor in corruption the picture would become clearer to you. The case of paying off Nigeria debts is not a credit that should be entered into Obj's ledger book. Why pay off debts when you could use the money to create employment, update infrastructure, build and equip schools and hospitals. What is the hurry of debt payment when a giant like the US is owing trillions of dollars and has no plans to pay back? The GSM success which is often credited to Obj was something which came at its time.

For those who think Obj made any achievements, its high time he should be made to disclose the problems he encountered in repairing roads, generating electricity and fighting corruption. Dont know what you are exactly getting at with the lack of coup for 10 years. Obj has nothing to do with lack of coups. The truth is that northern officers who organize them have run out of ideas as an excuse to occupy radio stations. People have seen how their compatriots come to "fight" corruption but end up filling their swiss accounts. They know that any attempt to thread that path might mean the end of Nigeria as we know it. Who says coup plotters dont weigh risks?

[Kay Soyemi (Esq.)]

Originally Posted by overdryv

Dont know what you are exactly getting at with the lack of coup for 10 years. Obj has nothing to do with lack of coups. The truth is that northern officers who organize them have run out of ideas as an excuse to occupy radio stations. People have seen how their compatriots come to "fight" corruption but end up filling their swiss accounts. They know that any attempt to thread that path might mean the end of Nigeria as we know it. Who says coup plotters dont weigh risks?

overdry,

But if not OBJ's first move in power, there would have been a coup in Nigeria today. The Buhari personae some Nigerians today would eulogise did not wait for things to get this bad before he struck. Coupists, from history, have never needed a sanguine motive for seizing power, but for the lust and love of power and perfidy.

Give the devil his due. OBJ is not as bad as Nigerians would like to think he was. I personally think he could have done far better than he did, but the fact is he DID do something.

What OBJ did, I do not feel is up to me to adumbrate, it is up to you guys to look yourselves in the mirror and say the second coming of OBJ was a pure waste, sincerely. In that case you would be looking squarely into the eyes of the biggest fraud and liar.

Idangi is entitled to his opinion as a Nigerian and author and I respect this and also agree with many of what he wrote (I see the OBJ-bashers cringe, but do I care?)

All you OBJ-bashers are nothing short of hypocrites for denying the goodness in the man. You are the same set of people who would be shouting the same about UMYA later.

Hypocrites and sycophants, all.

[eleniyan]

Most of these you tout as achievements, if indeed so, were incidental…and in a country where people are longing (overdue) for achievements that affect or will affect and positively effect their day-to-day lives in the nearest future, these fall totally short.

The debt payment, your argument for this betrays your ignorance of how financial market works. To put it elementarily; the money and efforts that went into the payment could have been channelled into urban developments and as result would generate a greater returns that could have been be used for the debt payment later. What does this commonsensical suggestion serve? It kills two birds with one stone by urban development you are creating jobs (helping the economy, people will feel this in their lives) while at the same time generating returns. Paying the debt the way he did was myopic and basically shortchanged the economy by taking money out of it. True achievement would have been to negotiate down the interest!

On the Integrated POWER PROJECT, you will get one retort encapsulated in one word from me, NONSENSE…ok perhaps I should add more, I need you to read your own argument again…and see if you can really call this a true achievement. You stated and I quote “it had not been decreed that it must be Obasanjo who should solve our power problem.”…With this level of reasoning, I pray and I will work against you from becoming Governor of whatever state you pray to govern. I should stop reading your article right now, but lemme see how much insult my intelligence could take…

On the dualisation of roads, you MUST be kidding me right…$50 billion dollars (not NAIRA) was poured on a road in a single city….this is a country where over 100 millions are in extreme privation. Even education sector (the only part to a brighter future of Nigerians) did not get that much in budget allocation. ARE YOU SURE YOU ARE NOT DRUNK.

The intensity of your insensitivity to common Nigerians as betrayed by this your article is appalling. The same indifference and insensitivity are common in all our “rulers”.

[maxsiollun]

Overdryv, you are being too biased against and harsh on OBJ. When bad things happened during his tenure, you rightly blame him for them. Yet when good things happened during his tenure (GSM, debt relief) you dismiss them as incidental. You fail to take into account that it was his policies that achieved these things. They did not happen by themselves. Yet strangely there was no universal GSM (despite the millions pumped into the communications ministry under the watch of David Mark, Murtala Muhammed, and with MKO ABiola etc) or debt relief.

The bulk of that debt was also incurred between 1979 and 1999 (i.e. the exact period of time between when OBJ left power and when he returned).

Nigerians have failed to credit OBJ for one thing that I hope will be one of his enduring legacies: ridding the army of its politicised coup plotting cadre and (hopefully) ridding Nigeria of military coups.

Decades of military coups and misrule turned the Nigerian army into the most thoroughly politicised army in the world (as at 1998). Some elements of the army were viewed as little more than armed political parties that could threaten the existence of any civilian government. When Nigeria returned to civilian democratic rule in 1999, there was genuine few of another coup.

One of the aides of Obasanjo’s predecessor as Head of State General Abdulsalam Abubakar was quoted by the Guardian of London in 1998 as follows:

“Cadet officers now talk openly not of having the ambition to become a battalion commander but of what they would like to do when they become governors of a state. The politicisation of the military has gone too far.”

Within one month of OBJ coming to power in 1999, the government drew up a list of all armed forces officers that had served in military governments for 6 months or more. OBJ retired all such officers (numbering over 100) compulsorily. The retirements swept out a number of immensely powerful and wealthy officers who could have been sources of future political discontent and coup plots:

• Major-General Patrick Aziza (who chaired the ‘coup’ tribunal that convicted Obasanjo and Shehu Musa Yar’Adua in 1995)
• Air Vice Marshal Idi Musa (former head of the Defence Intelligence Agency who was accused by some of being one of those that framed Diya, Adisa and Olanrewaju in the 1997 coup plot against Abacha)
• Colonel Dauda Musa Komo (the former Military Governor of Rivers State who was instrumental in events leading up to the arrest and detention of Ken Saro-Wiwa)
• Brigadier Mohammed Marwa (the popular and powerful former Military Governor of Lagos)
• former Abacha regime members Major-Generals Bashir Magashi, Abdullahi Mukhtar and Chris Garuba (former Commandant of the National War College)
• Major General John Mark Inienger (former ECOMOG commander)
• Brigadier Yakubu Muazu (the former commander of the Brigade of Guards)

The almost 10 year period from May 1999 till the present is the longest period of time in Nigeria’s history without a military coup. It is no coincidence that a coup failed to occur in the absence of the retired political officers.

Obasanjo also broke the northern stranglehold on leadership of the army. Since the overthrow of General Gowon in 1975, there have been 16 Chiefs of Army Staff. All but 3 of these 16 have been northerners. The three southerners to hold the post (Lt-General Alani Akinrinade, General Alexander Ogomudia and General Andrew Owoye Azazi) were all appointed by Obasanjo.

Originally Posted by overdryv

It is intellectually dishonest to compare Nigeria's budget with that of NYC fire department. The crux of this matter is not about how much Nigeria has but about what available resources are put use to. There are probably people who earn $500,000 a month in US. Back on the home front, there are African countries whose annual budget is not up to that of Delta state.

This topic is not about how governors and states manage their funds but how Obj fared in 8 years. All the states get only a third of total revenue. May be if you factor in corruption the picture would become clearer to you. The case of paying off Nigeria debts is not a credit that should be entered into Obj's ledger book. Why pay off debts when you could use the money to create employment, update infrastructure, build and equip schools and hospitals. What is the hurry of debt payment when a giant like the US is owing trillions of dollars and has no plans to pay back? The GSM success which is often credited to Obj was something which came at its time.

For those who think Obj made any achievements, its high time he should be made to disclose the problems he encountered in repairing roads, generating electricity and fighting corruption. Dont know what you are exactly getting at with the lack of coup for 10 years. Obj has nothing to do with lack of coups. The truth is that northern officers who organize them have run out of ideas as an excuse to occupy radio stations. People have seen how their compatriots come to "fight" corruption but end up filling their swiss accounts. They know that any attempt to thread that path might mean the end of Nigeria as we know it. Who says coup plotters dont weigh risks?