For the umpteenth time, former President Olusegun Obasanjo rattled nerves in Aso Rock after he attributed the rampant corruption and mounting insecurity bedeviling the country to the failure or inability of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to address the twin challenges, insisting that enough was not being done on the scourges by those currently in charge of running the affairs of the state.
“How many times are you going to flog this horse, I have flogged the horse of corruption, I have flogged it internally, externally, I flogged it every day, some people go along with me, they agree that it is a problem that we have to face it squarely, some people abused me, some people did all sorts of things but the point is that when you have a problem and you attempt to cover it, you are not solving the problem, if anything you are complicating the problem,” Obasanjo lamented.
On the issue of security, he said: “Even security, I have talked about it, I have been called names I have gone out on fact-finding moves, I have found out what is there and what is not there, I have talked, I have reported, I have nothing more to hide.”
Obasanjo made the acerbic comments in the Government House, shortly after a courtesy call on Governor Adams Oshiomhole in Benin-City. Baba was in Benin City to deliver the first memorial lecture in honor of the late chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Dr. Abel Guobadia, organized by the Women’s Health and Action Research Centre (WHARC).
Obasanjo also revealed that the indigenization policy under the military administration did not work and that informed his decision to change course and push forward an ambitious drive for privatization and market driven economy when he became President again in 1999.
Obasanjo, who is known for his frank talk commended Governor Oshiomhole on his efforts to develop the state. He described Oshiomhole as one who had made a transition from radicalism to realism, adding: “I now see a governor who once lived a life of radicalism but he is now living a life of realism but we all do that. I was Head of State and I believed that there was no way to manage the Nigerian economy except by indigenization and we went out for indigenization but the truth is that indigenization did not succeed the way I wanted it to succeed so when I had the second opportunity, when God gave me the second chance, I learnt from my past and I became an apostle of genuine private sector, direct foreign investment, free market economy.”
The stinking rebuke took Aso Rock by surprise as it was generally understood that as part of the reconciliation with President Goodluck Jonathan, Baba had agreed to refrain from any further public criticism of the Jonathan administration, but it appears Obasanjo is incorrigible.
