Obasanjo and Jonathan were complete failures in governance – Balarabe Musa
Governance in Nigeria has snaked through intriguing tunnels since her independence, and each administration indoctrinated her into a notoriety that stank to high heavens. Our features editor, had a rendezvous with some stakeholders and analysts to search out which administration sank Nigeria this low. The pendulum swung between Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s era. The responses below show that Nigeria has quality citizens who are not fooled by the satirical dance of shame of the political class.
Muslim socialist and former governor of Kaduna state, AlhajiAbdulkadir Balarabe Musa, was brief and blunt:
“Obasanjo and Jonathan’s administration are not different in any substantial way; only difference, perhaps, is that OBJ created Jonathan. Without OBJ, there wouldn’t have been Jonathan, but Jonathan is not as arrogant as OBJ. Having said that, both Obasanjo and Jonathan were complete failures in governance,” he said.
Political analyst and engineer, Charles Fingesi (Port Harcourt),entered into the analysis with a blow lamp. Hear him:
“The OBJ’s era had a great opportunity to have taken Nigeria to a different level, but failed to do so. That wa because his era was a very corrupt one in the history of Nigeria, and most other governments after OBJ had simply done the same: they were all lukewarm, not chasing, out of focus; not following exactly what nations should do to enhance, empower themselves. As a result, Nigeria has been sliding down slowly ever since; and now, Nigeria is at its worst ever in the history of her nationhood.”
What part did late Musa Yar’Adua play in between OBJ and Jonathan?
“The truth is that the era of Yar’Adua cannot really be analysed because he was sick throughout his tenure, which was fraught with absence in government, always flying out for medical attention; but Yar’Adua era too was a very corrupt one that had no bearing and no direction for the country. He was brought down with medical problems as an individual, first and foremost, and that didn’t help in the running of Nigeria.”
Jonathan’s era was the best
“Now, pushing it down to the era of Jonathan, in my opinion, that has been the best era this country had, and I will tell you why:
“Jonathan could not curb corruption because corruption was too deep in the country, so what he did was to use a little bit of technology and little bit of assistance from the rest of the world to try and solve the corruption problem. When I say technology, I mean that Jonathan tried to get a system to go into a cashless society, where monies no longer flow in form of cash but it became electronic.
“In doing that, you could trace money easily; they went further to do what today we know as BVN, capturing every individual who owned a bank account. In other words, the minute you move money, it would be known that money was moved to you and money was moved from you.
“Having also said that, the Jonathan’s era did everything to slow down corruption but there was one area that corruption could not be slowed; that is around the NNPC, around the importation of petroleum products, so when Jonathan raised the price of fuel internally, I remember in Lagos, the whole country went on a heated protest; they protested that the increase would kill Nigerians, that the increase was not good for workers, but today, government is doing the same thing and nobody is protesting, so Jonathan’s government had it right, but only the North decided that it was their turn to rule Nigeria. And since it is their turn, nobody else can and the North throughout that regime put a clog in the wheels of development in the country.”
The OBJ to Jonathan era: would you say Nigeria was the better, or the worst for it?
“Well, Nigeria is worst for it because OBJ had everything meaningful to have moved Nigeria forward but he did not. Now, those that came to do something meaningful, like the Okwonjo-Iwealas, the Adeshinas, the Agangas, all those renowned international names who had succeeded in their fields around the world could not make the desired change because of corruption.
“Then in the process of trying to move Nigeria forward, Nigerians decided that no, a new party should run the country. And so, a new party has taken over – and we can see where we are; we have been sliding downwards ever since. A lot of people would argue that price of crude oil is going down worldwide and so because of that all economies must crash.
Are you sorry Jonathan lost the election to Buhari?
“Well, I am not. Nigerians had their final say at the polls, and if Nigerians have voted for Buhari, so be it. I probably lost in the election because I voted for Jonathan as an individual.”
Barrister and political affairs analyst, Barr G.P. James (Lagos)
“The fact that we had so much money between Obasanjo and Jonathan era, their financial recklessness was not revealed because we had so much money that accommodated it.
“In terms of OBJ era, the structure of PDP was still evolving but by Jonathan’s era it had stabilised so much that they thought they will reign forever, that nobody can move them. Indeed, that illusion continued even in Jonathan’s era. If not for imposition of candidates they would have won again.
It is just the imposition of candidates that threw them out of gear. If they had allowed the primaries to continue the way it should, the result would have been different.
“In Akwa Ibom State for example, contestants did not even get to the senate to vote; and you have a contestant like Udom who connived with press people to announce 95 percent when the entire Oron had five candidates; so it was so spurious that Ita Ena who was a senator under PDP was not even allowed to enter the venue and didn’t have access to the list. So the crisis of exodus from PDP to APC was not there in the OBJ’s time; they were still able to put their house in order politically, that is.
“But by Jonathan’s time, the impunity of PDP had gone haywire and that was how the bubble busted. But economically, they had so much free money that they were just reckless; OBJ was reckless, Jonathan too was reckless. Maybe Buhari would have also been reckless if he had inherited the same amount of money.
You think he would have?
“I said may be; if he can make a summersault to give special concession to give dollars to people going to Hajj in the kind of situation we are now, it means if the man had money he would have fallen in the same idiosyncrasy. If not for the economic policy of the nation, nobody would have thought that under any circumstances would government give Hajj people special concession to get dollars when manufacturer’s association is not getting it.”
Considering the explosion of insecurity, insurgency political and moral decay we find ourselves in now, can all these be listed as offspring of that lofty OBJ-GEJ era..?
“Well, I think that people are still looking for a way to make money; if you cannot get money from the Presidency where they can carry #GhanaMustGo, they look for a way to generate money. These groups blowing up pipelines are being funded; if there’s no money in it they won’t do it. Even the Boko Haram, if you look at it closely, people are making money out of it. Some journalists have just been arrested for carrying video from the insurgents to the public and all that, so there must be money in this business.
“It’s being suggested that GEJ funded the groups before leaving office, but even if it so, he couldn’t have funded them to blow up gas pipelines, he must have done so for some political reasons, but when Jonathan was no longer there, they turn their weapons and energy to other things but I am sure people are benefitting from it.”
