Opinion: How Obasanjo underdeveloped Nigeria

By Muhammad Sageer

Whatever catastrophe we are going through in this country is the brainchild of ex-president, Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo is the genesis of almost Nigerian problem. When Obasanjo first came to power in 1999, many Nigerians had high hopes but unfortunately we never knew he came to destroy us. We had a tyrant in democracy toga.

Obasanjo opened the insecurity of this country in November 1999 when he gave others to shoot on sight in Odi, Bayelsa state. And more than 2500 Nigerians were slaughtered. Because unfortunately 13 policemen were missing as a result of the protest of the Odi people of Bayelsa state.

There were killings in Zaki Biam of Benue state; he also gave orders in Lagos state to shoot the OPC on sight. He gave birth to extra-judicial killings of people, he gave the signal that human life counted for nothing and it became the agenda of the PDP government.

All through his first tenure in office, he logged more air mileage than GEJ, visiting world capitals in the guise of scouting for foreign investors.

Back at home he was busy committing rape on our constitution, to the extent that the guys at the House of Representatives wanted to cast him in the dustbin of history. He begged them, recruited kinsmen from Egba and other places that were supporting him, and they came up with the story that his impeachment was part of an ethnic conspiracy of the Hausa-Fulani against the Yoruba. He was able to survive the scare by the guys at House of Representatives.

In terms of welfare, Nigerians have never had it so bad. Security of employment became nil in his government. He sold the heritage of Nigeria to his boys (Dangote, Otedola , Jimoh ibrahim, Mike Adenuga  e.t.c). He placed the major sectors of our economies in the hands of his friends in government using proxies to purchase government properties via BPE.

He sold National Oil to Mike Adenuga, AP to Femi Otedola, NICON to Jimoh Ibrahim.  Who knew Femi Otedola 13 years ago? Today he is the bastion of our economy and one of the biggest sponsors of PDP. Who knew Dangote 15 years ago? Today he is practically the cornerstone of our economy. 13 years ago who knew Mike Adenuga?

Obasanjo and Atiku messed up with the PTDF. PTDF was established in 1973, meant for the improvement of our petroleum technology, a Fund meant to ensure that the you and i( the children of the poor) who have the intellect can engage in research work. But PTDF money was used to enrich themselves, their children, wives, and associates. Atiku dipped his hand, Fasawe dipped his hand, OBJ dipped his hand.

NNPC, a big company that makes so much money but was still emptied by OBJ, Atiku and co, is nothing to write home about. They were busy dipping their hands into the account of NNPC at the expense of the progress, welfare and security of the Nigerian people.

Obasanjo came to fritter the resources of Nigeria. He squandered our wealth with the likes of Atiku. He empowered his friends, captains of industries whom he promoted to appropriate the collective wealth of the people in the name of commercialization, privatization and all the other crooked ways he used.

He killed our universities and made it lucrative for private universities which are milking families for all they are worth. He killed public interest, today we have close to 50 if not more than private universities in Nigeria. Two of them owned by OBJ, Atiku has one. Their children either go to London school of economics, ABTI, covenant or Igbinedion. While you and I hardly gain admission to ABU Zaria, OAU Ile-Ife, University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria, Nsukka which are all dilapidated. Even secondary schools were not left out, they destroyed them and send their children to British-American international school, Lekki international schools and others. If your child can’t go to school he becomes a manual labourer or an apprentice and becomes like a slave to their children who are able to go to school. Hence their children continue to dominate the children of the poor who can’t go to school.

Finally, let me talk about electricity. The Late General Sani Abacha was generating 4000 megawatts during his days in office. But when OBJ came on board, it got to a stage where we couldn’t produce 500 megawatts. With this, I rest my case.

 

To be continued in my next write up (DERIVATION AND DEPRIVATION 2: THE AMAZING WEALTH OF OBJ)

Follow @MuhammadSageer

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

Comments (2)

  1. The baboon tripled as The President, Minister of Petroleum, Minister of Defense and presided over the largest revenue accumulation in the history of Nigeria. But after 8yrs in office, five Senate presidents, four speakers of the House of Assembly and billions of dollars in oil revenue, all we got was a collapse infrastructure, a devalued currency, dysfunctional health and educational systems, lawlessness and an unprecedented level of corruption. Nigerians were better of in 1999 when Obasanjo came in than in 2007 when he left office. Those touting his presidency as a success are those who directly or indirectly benefited from his administration. In order to sustain and protect all his illicit and corrupt deals, he single-handedly picked an incapacitated Yar'ardua and a moronic vp to succeed him. Today, Obasanjo is calling the legislators who were groomed by him thieves while he is the bigger thief.It is true that some people are as bad, ugly and wicked both in heart and appearance. Obasanjo has proven it.

  2. Interesting and of course partly through but I think it is unfair to heap all our problems on the shoulders of one man. Obj definitely contributed immensely to the current state of affairs however I am of the opinion that each and every Nigerian from the creation of this country until now shares the burden of blame be it through our mentality of siddon look that allowed things to deteriorate to the level they are right now. We were all alive when they were stealing and looting us blind and we did nothing to stop them.

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