Nigeria did not see beyond oil – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo became Nigeria’s head of state for the first time in February 1976 following the assassination of late General Murtala Muhammed. Keeping the chain of command established by Muhammed in place, Obasanjo pledged to continue the programme for the restoration of civilian government and to carry forward the reform programme to improve the quality of public service. In October 1977, a Constituent Assembly was convened in order to draw a new Carta Magna, which was later approved in September 1978. This led to the abolition of the military government, the end of the state of siege which had come about with the arrival of the military regime in 1966, and the legalisation of political parties. Obasanjo served until October 1, 1979, when he handed power to former President Shehu Shagari, making him the first leader in Nigerian history to surrender power willingly. In late 1983, however, the military seized power again. Obasanjo, being in retirement, did not participate in that coup, nor did he support it.
But during the dictatorship of late General Sani Abacha (1993–1998), Obasanjo spoke against the human rights abuses of the regime, and was imprisoned with the claim of planning a coup. He was released only after Abacha’s sudden death on June 8, 1998. In the 1999 elections – the first democratic elections in 16 years – Obasanjo was drafted into the race for the presidency as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Obasanjo won the elections and was later re-elected in 2003 for another four-year term of office. While leading a public campaign against corruption and implementing economic reforms in Nigeria, Obasanjo was widely seen abroad as an African statesman championing debt relief and democratic institutions. The former Nigerian president vacated office after the April 2007 elections won by late President Umaru Yar’ Adua. The former Nigerian president has recently been appointed Special Envoy by United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. Obasanjo at a panel of discussants moderated by Mme Ritula Shah, a journalist from BBC radio, to address the need for a new era of social justice and sustainable societies in the wake of the global financial and jobs crisis at the 100th International Labour Conference (ILC) held in Geneva, Switzerland, called on world leaders to give African countries new sets of definitions of how to measure and assess their economic indicators in our growth and development. Obasanjo, a member of The Club de Madrid, an independent non-profit organisation that is composed of 80 democratic former presidents and prime ministers from different countries, in response to a growing demand for reinvigorated action on countering the lingering effects of the global crises, growing demand for support among leaders in democratic leadership and governance, insisted that the call for World Financial Organisation (WFO) to regulate the trillions of dollars that move around the world in one day, almost absolutely unregulated must be enforced. Senior Correspondent, Sylvester Enoghase, was there. Excerpts:

What is your reaction to job creation through Tripartism in the world?
Nobody will be against Tripartism because it does work and it must be intact, be continued to be made to work and I believe that Tripartism is the position of the Director General, International Labour Organisation (ILO), Juan Samova, that we should have a sustained development with, of course, social justice as the outcome. And social justice in this case as has been pointed out so far today by ILO. It is ILO that has the unique or that is in the unique position of bringing and ensuring that a comprehensive development that would lead to social justice and decent work are brought together by the government, the private sector and the unions of the workers.
And that’s really what I believe that creating jobs is about. That must be made to happen, otherwise, nothing will happen about creating jobs for the unemployed youths.
How can traditional vision through state building be able to go into the development of Africa?
I think state-building is intimately connected with politics and without executive decisiveness and legislative action, state-building cannot proceed.
And so, in Africa, considerable burden of governance rests on the shoulders of the political leaders, who need to rise to the challenge of overcoming a history of fractiousness, patronage, and indecision for Africa to develop.
And to achieve development in the continent, governments and many highly respected and effective organisations, both within and outside of governments must work to strengthen democracies and democratic institutions.
What is your reaction on the criticism of Nigeria in the question of high corruption in the public sector and the unfair distribution of wealth by its leaders?
Thank you. Let me first correct my brother from Mozambique on why we in Nigeria did not try to fight liberation war. We had to fight the civil war, which was in fact, not devastating than the liberation war and I think that it is only Ghana that has so far avoided fighting whether it is liberation war or a civil war. Now that they have got oil, they may have a civil war to fight (laughs…).
You are absolutely right at that accusation of corruption as a cankerworm that has dilapidated Nigeria’s development. Or that has not allowed Nigeria to develop as fast as to get to where we should get to; when and how we should get there. But I will come to that.
But the point that was made earlier, by both President John Kufuor of Ghana and myself, that at independence, we had inadequacy of both human and financial capital.
But is that the case in Nigeria now?
It is no longer the case right now, but then, it was something that was a problem at the beginning. Now, when we were trying to get out of the problem, we ran into the civil war. We came out of the civil war and then, the oil became a doom, rather than a boom for us because, nobody wanted to do anything than stay in oil business. And we were now torn in every other thing like agriculture, industry and oil. Nobody wanted to do anything except oil. We were thinking oil, we were sleeping on oil and we were almost drinking oil. And that was as bad as it was. And then, we developed this oil mentality which was not in the best interest of Nigeria.
In a nutshell, while Ghana was torn between industry and agriculture, in the case of Nigeria, we were turn between industry, agriculture; and oil and it is even much worse for us than that of Ghana.
Do you mean, Nigeria did not see beyond oil?
Yes. We did not see beyond oil. That was one of the misfortunes of Nigeria, or regrets of Nigeria.
But more importantly, corruption came in. And corruption that came in, came in initially with politics at independence when our politicians gave out a contract, 10 per cent was taken, as a way to develop their parties as party fund. Then, of course, it went beyond 10 per cent to 20 per cent, 25 per cent and at times, it grew so large that in fact, when you were given a job, you did not care to do it, rather, you shared the money.
Now, that is very bad. And when I became the president of Nigeria, the first thing that I did, even after my election, was to establish an independent body to fight corruption. Now that body was so effective, in fact, two bodies, one a commission against financial crimes. And they were both so effective that ministers of government and a head of the police, the head of parastatals were put in jail.
Now, if you are going to fight corruption, it is not a one- night, or a one-day wonder. You have to be consistent and persistent with it.
Do you feel that there is a will for Nigeria to be persistent?
Well, I haven’t seen that will of persistency and consistency in Nigeria because the people that are involved in corruption are strongly entrenched and unless you are ready to confront them at the point of even sacrificing your life for it, then you will give in and when you give in, that is the end of it.
Is Nigeria ready for that economic growth and social dimension on building the concept of development?
Yes, I believe that economic growth cannot be ignored because you have to grow and it is only when you grow that you have something to share. If you are going to talk of social justice, if you are going to talk of shared society, you must have something to share.
The world leaders need to redefine new ways to defining and measuring the economies in African continent, to achieving desirable economic growth, and development to address the need for a new era of social justice and sustainable economic growth in African societies in the wake of the global financial and jobs crisis.
I think it is only when the leaders of developed world offer Africa a new basis of judging economic growth and sustainable development that countries in Africa can expand their domestic demands to achieving real economic growth and development as well as social justice.
In fact, African countries should have new sets of definitions of how to measure and access their economic indicators in our growth and development, outside the yardstick for the developed nations of the world for us to achieve sustainable economic growth and development
This is because economic growth in itself is not enough to measure development since as long as economic growth or indicator has been used to describe development or how much progress a particular nation is making, now you can have growth without having even development, you can have growth without having social justice.
We in Nigeria for instance, because they say we are an oil economy, you will hear that we have the GDP of seven per cent and you say well, where is it reflected? And they would say yes, oil is 14 per cent, Information Technology or ICT is 15 per cent, but what about agriculture, what about manufacturing, what about these services that people feel that they want to enjoy? I believe that we need to have a new definition or a new set of indicators to show what progress a particular country is making and it should be inclusive of economic growth as social indicators.
For instance in Nigeria, if you say we are growing, how much has this translated into job opportunities, how much employment has been created? If you say we are growing, how much has this affected infant mortality, if you say we are growing, how much has it affected maternal mortality, if you say we are growing, how many more children have gone into school? How many people have access to medical care?
It is only when you bring these together... But to me, I will say yes, a country is growing, growing in economic terms and in terms of social justice.
To what extent has the aftermath of the global financial crisis affected Nigerian economy?
I believe this is why some people are now talking about World Financial Organisation (WFO) as opposed to World Bank and International Monetary Fund to regulate the trillions of dollars that moves around the world in one day, almost absolutely unregulated.
I believe that there is need for regulations of financial transactions globally.
Let me just add one point and come back to corruption.
Whatever we do in our countries must be backed up by rules, by those countries with corrupt citizens. This is because corruption is a two-ways affair - the giver and the taker.
And most of the givers are in developed countries and they are protected. And so, in most cases, there are countries in Europe that give tax relief for corruption that has been given in Africa countries and in Latin American countries.
Then, how can we, no matter what we do, achieve success in fighting corruption. We imprison our people found to be corrupt, but when we say to them, these are your people that have given our people bribe, they do not do what America has done.
And I believe that the United Nations (UN) anti-corruption Convention should be signed by all countries in the world so that the laws should bring all involved in corrupt practices to book without exemption.
Will that change the attitude of the leaders?
Well, yes. I remember what President Kufuor has said because I think it is a matter of leadership. And that is why we called on all peoples, leaders and organisations in the world to use their spheres of influence to work together to promote and ensure social inclusion and cohesion.
Now, a leader who is only thinking about the next election, there is limit to what the citizens can expect of him. Our leaders must leave beyond the next election. This is why we call on them to recognise that achieving social cohesion and creating a world saved from difference is essential for the well-being of individuals, states and the world as a whole.
Our leaders must think beyond the next generation, in fact, the next generation after that. That is the only way Africa can get good leaders.
Do you have any leader as an example that can think beyond the next election and next generation now?
(E-e-e-e) I have met quite a number of leaders in the world and in my short period of life, and I believe that they are few. We have about two in Africa, without any reason to embarrass anybody, I will say two or three in America. In Europe, maybe I see one or two and in Asia, maybe I see two or three. But I will not name anyone so that I will not cause diplomatic row.


By Daily Independence