Obasanjo Condemns Imbalance in Nigeria’s Governance Structure

•Says Buhari driving the country towards disaster, instability

Ejiofor Alike with agency reports

With yesterday’s election of the Senate President, Senator Ahmed Lawan, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has decried the imbalance in the governance structure of the country, saying President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was driving the country towards “disaster and instability”.

Obasanjo who spoke with Premium Times, raised the alarm that the Senate president, Lawan, the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Tanko Muhammad and President Muhammadu Buhari from what he called the core north.

He said giving the key positions in the country to a particular region did not reflect geographical diversity.

“The Senate president is from North-east; the acting chief justice of Nigeria (CJN) is from the North-east; the president of the country is from the North-west. They are all from what we call the core north. How can you have that kind of arrangement and then be absolutely insensitive to it (lack of geographical diversity)?” he queried.

According to him, President Buhari-led government is driving Nigeria towards “disaster and instability”.

The former president noted that although the country has made considerable progress since the new dispensation began in 1999, the pace at which it is currently moving shows the country may be inching towards disaster and instability. “I think we have no choice but to be on the path for sustainable development.

“The progress we are making may be questionable—-Is it fast enough? Is it steady enough? Is it stable enough? Are we taking two steps forward and one step back or one step side-way?

“You can question that, but we have no choice but to be on (the) path for sustainable development. Any other thing will be a disaster. In fact, the pace at which we are going now is tending more and more toward disaster and instability and unsustainability.

“The problem is that we are just not doing what we should be doing Nobody has that confidence, and we cannot develop Nigeria without that confidence in our economy – both for domestic investors and foreign investors,” he explained.

Speaking further on the state of the nation, Obasanjo said: “I set up two (anti-corruption) institutions; I came with two laws that were not there before, to fight corruption. And those who claim they are fighting corruption today have not brought in anything different. If anything, they have corrupted those two institutions.

“And the institutions were open and independent. I never, never, as president had to say to either the head of ICPC or EFCC: ‘Oh, chase this person’.

“Nigeria was a pariah state. Within the first four years (1999-2003)… we actually hosted the commonwealth. And Nigeria which was kicked out of the Commonwealth became the host of a Commonwealth Head of Governments Meeting (CHOGOM). We became the darling of almost all nations. The economy started doing well.

“I remember on one occasion one day or one week, Chukwuma Soludo (then governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria) phoned me and said: ‘Sir, in one day, we had an inflow of $80 million’ – from foreign direct flow; not money from our oil export or cocoa export. Just direct! And he (Soludo) said to me: ‘Sir, this is almost unbelievable.’

“I said we were not where I want us to be yet. I want us to be $100 million per day. That means in five working days, that will be half a billion dollars. If we are making half a billion dollars a week of five working days; in 52 weeks, it will be $26 billion. It is possible. I got debt relief.

“I think there is a presum-ption in our constitution that our system will bring out competent leaders devoid of extremism, religious or tribal bigotry – leaders who understand what it takes to hold the country together and put it in high gear for development, unity and an inclusive and shared society.

“These are assumptions. And if these assumptions come true, what is meant to be achieved in our country will be achieved. But the kind of situation you have now cannot allow those assumptions to become reality. Now you have a situation where three top officials of government will be from only two northern zones. Ahmed Lawan (who has been pencilled down as Senate President) is from the North-east; the acting chief justice of Nigeria is from the North-east; the president of the country is from the North-west. They are all from what we call the core north. How can you have that kind of arrangement and then be absolutely insensitive to it (lack of geographical diversity)?

“So, the prescription that our constitution makes of the kind of leadership that should emerge, we have failed to achieve that with the present leadership we have in place. The constitution expects the executive to care for the welfare and security of every Nigerian. But in the present situation, they don’t seem to care.”