Obasanjo: Butcher or father of modern Nigeria?
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- Written by Kabir Mohammed Kafur
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Throughout his eight-year tenure in office, former President Obasanjo fancied himself as God’s gift to Nigerians while at the same time vilifying past leaders as corrupt, incompetent and unpatriotic. In fact, the late Gen. Sani Abacha received the roughest edge of Obasanjo’s poisonous tongue, painting the late military ruler in the darkest colours of evil. He condemned everything Gen. Abacha ever did for Nigeria, no matter how good they are. As far as Gen. Obasanjo was concerned, he was the messiah that Nigeria badly needed and therefore, Nigerians could ill afford to dispense with his services. In fact, the manner he was “persuaded” to come and serve reinforced such arrogant conviction.
However, pretence cannot travel far and fast without ultimately falling by the wayside and revealing the mask of such self-righteous leaders like Obasanjo. The current crisis in the banking sector is a clear evidence that all the policies of his former administration were a package of fraud and make-believe. Former President Obasanjo was proclaimed the father of modern Nigeria by the ousted Col. Ahmadu Ali- led National Executive Committee of the PDP because of the series of reforms the Otta General had embarked upon.
Unfortunately, these so-called reforms were designed to hoodwink Nigerians. The rapid collapse of public infrastructure under Obasanjo’s watch and the corruption as well as disregard for due process that trailed privatization and national power projects is now exposing the hypocrisy of the Obasanjo administration.
For example, it is an open secret that Transcorp is a consortium of Obasanjo’s sycophants who depleted depositors’ funds in the banks to set up the company. The way Transcorp quickly took over Nitel at throw-away price under the cover of creating a conglomerate to compete with the Asian tigers economies created deep suspicion that this fraudulent enterprise was headed for doom.
After collecting N30 billion naira from the so-called consolidated banks, Transcorp launched itself with so much razzmatazz as a promising conglomerate determined to transform Nigeria as an economic giant in Africa and Asia. In fact, Transcorp was such a favoured baby of Obasanjo that the Bureau of Public Enterprises gave it extra time to pay up for Nitel takeover, a privilege that was never extended to other bidders.
Sadly, the reality is that Nitel is worse off today after it went into the management of Transcorp, which abandoned its contractual commitment to transform it into profitability, functional status and settling pension and salary arrears of the poor workers it inherited. In his life time, the “father of modern Nigeria” (Obasanjo) is witnessing the collapse of his fraudulent edifice of economic reforms.
Until now, the Transcorp consortium of Obasanjo boys had paraded themselves as successful men and women capable of bringing economic miracle to Nigeria. Now we know better. With more than N774 billion non-performing loans, where is the so-called economic miracle that these Obasanjo boys claim to possess? It is a big shame that they were on the verge of bringing Nigeria’s banking system to its knees by taking huge depositors’ funds to build themselves with nothing for ordinary Nigerians in return.
It is now apparent that the late Gen. Sani Abacha was more sincere in dealing with the banking crisis than the pretentious former Obasanjo administration. Gen. Abacha’s government was able to recover billions of depositors’ funds from high profile debtors who never had the intention to pay back. Under the cover of banking consolidation, Nigerians banks were reduced from 89 to 25 with a new capital base of N25 billion each.
Besotted with their new financial success coming from depositors’ funds, the bank executives began a lending spree, running into billions of naira, to their well-connected friends. As this madness got out of hand, individuals were receiving amounts as high as N30 billion to N40 billion loans without collateral. Depositors’ funds were deliberately put at risk by bank CEOs that felt they were above the law because the then CBN Governor was always ready to support them in their impunity.
Obasanjo’s government was so reckless that it overlooked the dangerous path in which the banks were moving. Suddenly, the so-called consolidated banks started borrowing money from the CBN and other banks to meet their obligations to customers. Many innocent depositors didn’t know until recently that the five affected banks had depleted their capital base through reckless lending to high profile debtors who were not ready to service the loans. Their expectation was that the loans would be eventually written off as bad debts.
The patriotism and sincerity of the late Gen. Abacha in tackling the banking crisis from 1993 to 1995 are now becoming manifest. Who would dare collect N30 billion to N40 billion and refuse to pay under Abacha? But under Obasanjo’s nose, Nigerians have seen how consolidation was turned into a loans bazaar for a connected few, including Obasanjo’s boys that contributed to his presidential library and his infamous third term projects.
Kafur writes from Block 19, Gen. Hassan Usman Katsina Road, Funtua, Katsina State
Sunday Trust
Obasanjo: Butcher or father of modern Nigeria?
Category: Comments Written by Kabir Mohammed Kafur Hits: 748
Throughout his eight-year tenure in office, former President Obasanjo fancied himself as God’s gift to Nigerians while at the same time vilifying past leaders as corrupt, incompetent and unpatriotic. In fact, the late Gen. Sani Abacha received the roughest edge of Obasanjo’s poisonous tongue, painting the late military ruler in the darkest colours of evil. He condemned everything Gen. Abacha ever did for Nigeria, no matter how good they are. As far as Gen. Obasanjo was concerned, he was the messiah that Nigeria badly needed and therefore, Nigerians could ill afford to dispense with his services. In fact, the manner he was “persuaded” to come and serve reinforced such arrogant conviction.
However, pretence cannot travel far and fast without ultimately falling by the wayside and revealing the mask of such self-righteous leaders like Obasanjo. The current crisis in the banking sector is a clear evidence that all the policies of his former administration were a package of fraud and make-believe. Former President Obasanjo was proclaimed the father of modern Nigeria by the ousted Col. Ahmadu Ali- led National Executive Committee of the PDP because of the series of reforms the Otta General had embarked upon.
Unfortunately, these so-called reforms were designed to hoodwink Nigerians. The rapid collapse of public infrastructure under Obasanjo’s watch and the corruption as well as disregard for due process that trailed privatization and national power projects is now exposing the hypocrisy of the Obasanjo administration.
For example, it is an open secret that Transcorp is a consortium of Obasanjo’s sycophants who depleted depositors’ funds in the banks to set up the company. The way Transcorp quickly took over Nitel at throw-away price under the cover of creating a conglomerate to compete with the Asian tigers economies created deep suspicion that this fraudulent enterprise was headed for doom.
After collecting N30 billion naira from the so-called consolidated banks, Transcorp launched itself with so much razzmatazz as a promising conglomerate determined to transform Nigeria as an economic giant in Africa and Asia. In fact, Transcorp was such a favoured baby of Obasanjo that the Bureau of Public Enterprises gave it extra time to pay up for Nitel takeover, a privilege that was never extended to other bidders.
Sadly, the reality is that Nitel is worse off today after it went into the management of Transcorp, which abandoned its contractual commitment to transform it into profitability, functional status and settling pension and salary arrears of the poor workers it inherited. In his life time, the “father of modern Nigeria” (Obasanjo) is witnessing the collapse of his fraudulent edifice of economic reforms.
Until now, the Transcorp consortium of Obasanjo boys had paraded themselves as successful men and women capable of bringing economic miracle to Nigeria. Now we know better. With more than N774 billion non-performing loans, where is the so-called economic miracle that these Obasanjo boys claim to possess? It is a big shame that they were on the verge of bringing Nigeria’s banking system to its knees by taking huge depositors’ funds to build themselves with nothing for ordinary Nigerians in return.
It is now apparent that the late Gen. Sani Abacha was more sincere in dealing with the banking crisis than the pretentious former Obasanjo administration. Gen. Abacha’s government was able to recover billions of depositors’ funds from high profile debtors who never had the intention to pay back. Under the cover of banking consolidation, Nigerians banks were reduced from 89 to 25 with a new capital base of N25 billion each.
Besotted with their new financial success coming from depositors’ funds, the bank executives began a lending spree, running into billions of naira, to their well-connected friends. As this madness got out of hand, individuals were receiving amounts as high as N30 billion to N40 billion loans without collateral. Depositors’ funds were deliberately put at risk by bank CEOs that felt they were above the law because the then CBN Governor was always ready to support them in their impunity.
Obasanjo’s government was so reckless that it overlooked the dangerous path in which the banks were moving. Suddenly, the so-called consolidated banks started borrowing money from the CBN and other banks to meet their obligations to customers. Many innocent depositors didn’t know until recently that the five affected banks had depleted their capital base through reckless lending to high profile debtors who were not ready to service the loans. Their expectation was that the loans would be eventually written off as bad debts.
The patriotism and sincerity of the late Gen. Abacha in tackling the banking crisis from 1993 to 1995 are now becoming manifest. Who would dare collect N30 billion to N40 billion and refuse to pay under Abacha? But under Obasanjo’s nose, Nigerians have seen how consolidation was turned into a loans bazaar for a connected few, including Obasanjo’s boys that contributed to his presidential library and his infamous third term projects.
Kafur writes from Block 19, Gen. Hassan Usman Katsina Road, Funtua, Katsina State