Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday rued the non-sustainability of programmes and polices he formulated as president for the Nigeria’s socio-economic growth and development.
The country would have made remarkable progress if his successors had continued with the policies and programmes of his administration, Obasanjo.
Obasanjo, who spoke as the special guest of honour at an international conference held at the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, and attended by the university’s chancellor, Bishop David Oyedepo, Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Joy Ogwu, and executive vice chairman, Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy, Tunji Olaopa, among other dignitaries, said non-sustainability of government programmes and policies by subsequent heads retarded development.
The former president said that lack of commitment and continuity in governance in Nigeria and Africa were major political factors that hinder sustainable development on the African continent, explaining that the problems plaguing Nigeria were not caused by the constitution, but was rather caused by the operators of the constitution.
He specially argued that the country’s steady and on-course progress aimed at combating corruption and immorality was derailed when former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu, was removed from the office since he was perceived by corruptors to be too effective in fighting corruption and immorality.
He noted that, in spite of misgivings and criticisms against the government and performance of the Buhari-led administration, he still believed that the government was fighting corruption, but not at the expense of other sectors of the economy, and must therefore, be derailed by unfair criticisms from the public.
He said: ”I will tell you what I know and I will tell you what I don’t know. I know General Buhari, he served under me in the military and he served me in the administration. His characteristics that I know, his behaviour that I know, he hasn’t deviated from it.
“He was not a perfect man and he would never be a perfect man and no leader would be a perfect human being. But if you really read my book ‘My Watch,’ what I said about him is still 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 the matters of military, and he will do well in fighting Boko Haram.
“I’ve gone to Maiduguri, I have met the Theatre Commander, I’ve met the GOC, and he’s got that right. That yes, the final nail on the coffin of Boko Haram is not military, it will be socio-economic development and to be able to do that, the security of the area must be taken care of.
“So, for me, if we have no hope, we would have no future, we would have no life. I’m an incurable optimist as far as Nigeria is concerned. If somebody doesn’t get it all right, for now, we would get somebody who would come on and get it.
“Whatever the situation is, the administration before this had no clue on how to deal with Boko Haram. There is no doubt about that. This one is dealing with Boko Haram. The administration before it was deep in corruption. This one says it’s fighting corruption; you may not like the way is fighting it.
“I fought corruption. We recovered $1.25billion from Abacha and his henchmen. We didn’t make noise. £100 million and about N30 billion. That’s our way of doing it. And those who were helping us, the lawyers, said there was still at least $1billion to be recovered. I put it in my handover note. I don’t know how much of it was recovered. Rather than follow it scrupulously, I think we had another spate of corruption.
“Now I don’t agree with the argument that this administration is fighting corruption at the expense of other sectors. Fighting corruption is not a one-day affair; it’s not even a one-regime affair. If where we met it, they continued, then we wouldn’t have it like we have it right now.”
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