Q: “Leaders who call for sacrifice from the citizenry cannot be living in obscene opulence. We must address these foundational issues to make the economy work, to strengthen our institutions, build public confidence in government and deal with our peace and security challenges.”
Forty years after General Ramat Murtala Mohammed was assassinated on Friday 13th February 1976, the anniversary has crept up on us with deadly stealth. Even if there was any chance that the horror, brutality and savagery which scarred our nation’s history would be quietly forgotten, a severe jolt was provided by the verdict delivered by his successor General Olusegun Obasanjo :
“Nigeria is a country where some governors have become sole administrators acting like emperors. These governors have rendered public institutions irrelevant and useless.”
We shall revert to the full text of the judgement delivered except that there was no “obiter dictum” (outside the word/said by the way) to the effect that General Murtala Mohammed must be turning in his grave.
Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, on Monday lambasted some state governors in Nigeria for living like emperors while demanding sacrifice from the citizens for Nigeria to survive the hard times.
Obasanjo chided the governors while speaking as the chairman at the inaugural conference of the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy, held at the University of Ibadan [ISGPP].
Obasanjo said when he became Nigerian president in 1999; he recognised corruption as a major impediment to the Nigerian state, setting up structures like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to fight the rot. However, he said that after he left, corruption returned to Nigeria with a vengeance, draining billions of dollars from the nation’s economy that could hardly afford to lose even a million dollars.
He said, “Leaders who call for sacrifice from the citizenry cannot be living in obscene opulence. We must address these foundational issues to make the economy work, to strengthen our institutions, build public confidence in government and deal with our peace and security challenges.
We must address the issue of employment for our teeming population particularly for our youths. Leadership must mentor the young, and provide them with hope about their future as part of a process of inter-generational conversation.
Nigeria is a country where some governors have become sole administrators, acting like emperors. These governors have rendered public institutions irrelevant and useless.
Is there development work going on in the 774 constitutionally recognised local government councils, which have been merely appropriated as private estates of some governors?
Some governors have hijacked the resources of the local governments and this has crippled the developments of the local government councils in the country. The National Assembly must also open its budgets to public scrutiny.”
The former president said the drastic fall in the price of oil in the international market had exposed the weakness of governance in Nigeria, while also saying that Nigeria was racing towards becoming a nation of debt with its attendant burden on the citizens.
“The drastic fall in the price of oil in the international market has unravelled the weakness of governance in Nigeria. The Minister of Finance has recently announced that the 2016 budget deficit may be increased from the current N2.2 trillion in the draft document before the National Assembly, to N3 trillion due to decline in the price of crude oil.
If the current fiscal challenge is not creatively addressed, Nigeria may be on its way to another episode of debt overhang which may not be good for the country,” Obasanjo said.
On the establishment of ISGPP in Ibadan, Obasanjo said there was clearly a need for schools of its kind that would focus research and teaching on implementing policy and making the government work well in Africa.
“I hope it will generate ideas that will lead us from thinking to doing. It must not only generate ideas, it must foster a willingness to use those ideas within government and non-government sectors,” he said.
At the two day-conference, themed, ‘Getting government to work for development and democracy in Nigeria: agenda for change’, Chairman, Board of Governors of the ISGPP, who is a former foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, and professor of international history and politics, John Evans, also delivered addresses among other speakers.
Perhaps we should remind ourselves that on 29th July, 1975 General Yakubu Gowon was toppled in a bloodless coup d’etat while he was away in Kampala, East Africa attending an OAU summit.
The coup leaders were a group of officers led by Colonel Joe Nanven Garba, but rather than grab power themselves, they ceded it to their superior officers. Brigadier Murtala Mohammed was installed as the new Head of State with Brigadier Olusegun Obasanjo as the Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters (Vice-President) and Brigadier Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma as the Chief of Army Staff.
Thankfully, Lt.General T.Y. Danjuma in his typically robust manner has delivered his own verdict on a section of our beloved nation. He was quoted as saying that that over N2 trillion will be required in the short-term to rebuild the zone ravaged by the Boko Haram terrorists. He said: “Conservative estimates put the cost of short-term intervention of the reconstruction of the region at over N2trillion. “Rebuilding the North-East is one of the biggest and most complex challenges that Nigeria is facing today. To hold government or any one agency alone responsible for this task is to underestimate the enormity of the problem. “The task would involve massive reconstruction of physical infrastructure, much of which have been totally destroyed and, of course, the more challenging one, which is the rebuilding of peace and social cohesion.” Lt-General T.Y. Danjuma did not add:
“Murtala Mohammed must be turning in his grave.”
J.K. Randle
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