Jesusegun Alagbe
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says
President Muhammadu Buhari may not do well in economy and foreign
affairs, except in military matters.
“Buhari is not a very hot person on the economy and foreign affairs,” Obasanjo said.
The former President stated this on
Monday at the third International Conference on African Development
Issues — themed, “Driving inclusive and sustainable development in
Africa: Models, methods and policies” — organised by Covenant
University, Ota, Ogun State.
While reacting to a question posed to
him by a member of the audience: “Is there any hope for Nigeria under
the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari?”, Obasanjo replied,
“Is there any hope for Nigeria under this administration? I came back
from Geneva, Switzerland a few days ago to attend a conference titled,
‘Are elections giving democracy a bad name?’ We had an election, we
elected a leader and the good thing about democracy is that the power
you have to elect a leader is also the power you have to remove him. I
am saying this because I said earlier that if you don’t see any leader
that has done well in the 56 years of Nigeria’s independence, then let
us forget about Nigeria.
“I will tell you what I know and I will
tell you what I don’t know. I know Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. He served
under me in the military. His characteristics that I know, his behaviour
that I know, he has not deviated from them. He was never a perfect man,
he is not a perfect man and no leader can ever be a perfect man because
they are human beings. But if you read my book, what I said about him
is correct. He is not a hot person when it comes to economy. He is not a
very hot person when it comes to foreign affairs. But he will do well
in matters of military and he will do well in fighting Boko Haram.”
The former president also said he tried
his best in fighting corruption, especially in the recovery of funds
looted by the late Gen. Sani Abacha and that as of the time he left the
government, about $1bn was still to be recovered.
Obasanjo said, “For me, we have no hope
if we have no future. I am an optimist as far as Nigeria is concerned.
If somebody doesn’t get it all right for now, we will get somebody who
will come up and fix whatever is missing. The administration before this
had no clue on how to deal with Boko Haram, there is no doubt about
that.
“You may not like the way he (Buhari) is
fighting corruption. I fought corruption. We recovered over $1.25bn
from Abacha and his men. We didn’t make noise. Also, we recovered £100m
and about N30m and those who were helping us, the lawyers and the rest
said there was still at least $1bn to be recovered at that time. I put
it in my handover notes. But rather than encourage scrupulous persons,
we had another spate of corruption.”
Obasanjo added that fighting corruption would not be effective if it did not translate to better life for the citizens.
He said, “Fighting corruption is not a
one-day or a one-regime affair. If where we left it, they continued, we
would have gone far. For me, the questions are: Is corruption being
fought? And if it is being fought, is it being effectively fought? Are
we getting the desired results? And if we are getting the desired
results, what impact is it having on our society and on our nation?”
Other speakers at the event included
Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Prof. Joy
Ogwu, and the Associate Vice-President, Research, McMaster University,
Canada, Prof. Bonny Ibhawoh.
They both said if Africa was to experience any development, leaders must match their words or policies with action.
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