Historically rulers come and rulers go, but their legacy always remains a part of history.

We have Alexander the great as a great conqueror, Abraham Lincoln as a visionary, Josef Stalin as a brutal dictator, Winston Churchill as a great administrator, Murtala Mohammed for his pragmatism, etc.

What do you think will be Obasanjo's legacy?

Otta farm and it's chickens!

You really think so?

Oh please! We have discussed this to eternity! What else do we have to say? Y'ardua I guess! Happy now?

Please show me the thread of previous discussion on this topic

OBJ's got to be remembered for something after ruling naija for 8 years, question is what?

No assumption about Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa in this case, even foreigners are interested in this topic.

just look at any topic where OBJ's name appears. If you cannot find any it means there is no answer to ya question--- NO LEGACY!

I did just that, and couldn't really put my finger on anything substantial, hence this thread.

Even Babangida has a legacy of cancelling naija's election on June 12th.

Abacha became known as the naija strong man who survived many coups only to die on top of 2 Indian teenage prostitutes while under the influence of viagra.

OBJ---, not quite sure, that's why I asked.

@all
lest we forget: desparate attempt to manipulate the judicial process and eliminate all opposing views.

Are you people forgetting the much publicized solar eclipse? NTA advertised it so much, I began to believe it was a government project.

Well, I think he'll be remembered for GSM and the boom of "yahoo yahoo" and the stock market, entrenchment of alcoholism by the establishment of a massive beer factory and a gargantuan cigarette factory (cancer for all by the year 2010). He pumped life into NTA, and pumped it back out again, gave away a chunk of the country to Cameroun, oversaw several planecrashes, beefed with his VP, Sought 3rd term, brought in huge Chinese investments, went on a spree of fuel price increases, launched 2 satellites, brought up Ribadu, paid National debt, amalgamated banks, dissolved polytechnics, increased workers' salaries, oversaw the first Civilian-Civilian handover, lost a first lady.

The guy get plenty legacies abeg. I haven't even counted half.

Sounds great already!

Never knew so much has happened in naija since-----.

Looking from outside naija, the GSM seems to be one of the few positives for him.
He did it by doing nothing, I mean he simply let market forces take care of things, and voila our phone problems solved. Another pointer remains that people postulate the same approach is naija's only way of solving the current power problems.

On the not so positive side, many people I know think he is either retarded or a brutal monster in the likes of Idi Amin.

Just like you said, it's market forces.

In reality, the government is not supposed to go out working. The government is only meant to use their mental capacity to place policies and regulations that will make things happen.

Just another point

All the achievements listed sounds good, but how many would you remember in 4, 8, 20, 50, and possibly 100years?

If OBJ had completed the second Niger bridge, or build a circular interstate highway ringing through Lagos-Illorin-Sokoto-Katsina-Maiduguri-Makurdi-Calabar-PH-Onitsha-Benin-Lagos(which could have been called Obasanjo interstate system), or if had found an ingenious way to eliminate tribalism and corruption from naija, then you could certainly give him 50 year positive legacy.

I'm still looking and thinking of something.

While it's important to be objective with our assessment, we don't need a Frank Nweke Jr. to rattle off on his master's achievements on this thread.

@denex

Thanks for your evaluation.

Market forces are the greatest unused and under-appreciated factor in naija. It's the rossetta stone where all the formula for solving naija's ills are written.

Large amount of money used for National I.D cards that most citizens are still waiting for
Large sums of money used for Turnaround Maintenance of rifeneries yet they never worked
Executive gangsterism overtly perpetrating and encouraging Adedibu, Chris Uba, Tony Anenih e.t.c
Worst Election in the history of Nigeria.
Worst energy crises in the history of Nigeria No electricity.
Minister of Justice murdered.
A lot of Political killings
Destroying Odi community, Zakin Biam and Choba.
Increase Niger-Delta unrest/ kidnapping
Witholding LG funds in Lagos State.
Disobeying the judiciary and legislative arm
Poverty and hopelessness at its peak
Several pump price increase.
Attempted an infamous third term bid
I am still thinking of more

he will be remembered as a necessary evil to take us from darkness to the shade. perhaps yar adua will take us to the light. he was a brute and lacked sophisticated thinking, but he was able to get a few things done like allowing gsm to grow and paying off our debt (which im still not sure is as great as its made out to be)

ultimately he played the role i expected of him, which is a bridge from the ugly past of generals running the country (he is an ex general turned civilian) to a pure civilian running the country. the next step is for another civilian to take over. he will be remember as our rawlins, without the bloodshed

@obong

I say amen to that.

Just thinking-- 4, or 8 years in nothing but a drop in the ocean of history.

OBJ lacked the foresight of Lincoln, the ingenuity of Churchill, the honesty/humility of Mahatma Ghandi.

So what can Yar'dua learn from all this before his own time is over?
That's another reason for this discussion.

The most famous World leaders woke up seeing the big pictures, the dream, and future better than their average country men.

In case of OBJ, and after ruling in the 70s, mingling with World leaders and spending time in Abacha's jail, he never seemed to have learned anything, seen anything, or even dreamt a big dream for this country.

Succeeded in increasing the suffering of nigerians by increasing fuel by 250% since he came into power in 1999.
Succeeded in selling NITEL to transcorp of which he is a Director.
Almost succeeded in selling Nigeria to his cohorts messers Dangote,Otedola etc

@Double N

selling off companies may be regarded as privitization, flawed as it might have been.

Personally, I think privitisation is a good thing, because it increases efficiency via competition.

Was it hopelessly flawed like the 2007 election? Many people would answer in the affirmative.

Role of government is not necessarily to provide us with rice, water, electricity, oil, etc.

The role of govt. is to regulate all these commerce as an arbiter.

So even if Dangote buys all the cement companies in this Universe, his company has to be justly regulated. From that regulation would come permissible competition, accountability, and progress.

Look what happened to J.P Morgan when he thought he was more important than President Theodore Roosevelt in the 1920s; the President simply used his power to bring him back to the level of his competitors in the banking industry.

Once again, Roosevelt's legacy 100 years after his death remains balancing the role of the private and governmental sectors.

He was also credited with creating natures reserves of Yellowstone, etc, what did OBJ creat that our children will remember in the next 100 years?

Personally, I think privitisation is a good thing, because it increases efficiency via competition

to me i think its the responsibility of the government to provide basic need for her citizens, so if you think selling off all we had is a good thing,then think about losing all our national pride also, i think he should have been the best president we should had have coming as a soldier,farmer,civilian and preacher,but i think he took it over himself to drink off the power-bottle and obviously he got too drunk, so let all just see what else would come off his GOD SON

Obasanjo did loads of great things in Nigeria.Haba people!!There's no other Nigerian president that performed in both ancient and recent history.
People tend to forget the state of Nigeria pre 99.Nigeria was a huge mess.Huge huge mess!!
The positives are so many.
Truth is, his performance was outstanding economically.The only places he had problems was politically.
And really, as far as I can eat, I don't care about politics.
This is the first time since 1980 the Nigeria has moved in a positive direction and its funny because he left in 1979.
Haba people! Be objective please,Obj has done Nigeria great good.

There is a problem if all we can emphasis on is the shortcomings of the Obasanjo Administration.

We shud not 4get that since independent 2 when he took the power was a 39yrs or bad adminstration and we are all xpecting hm 2 fix within 8yrs.

Here ds illustration, to build ahouse takes several years but to pull down is within minutes.

So therefore i want 2 encourage you all to appreciate whoever God has given leadership status.

Obasanjo did loads of great things in Nigeria.Haba people!!There's no other Nigerian president that performed in both ancient and recent history.
People tend to forget the state of Nigeria pre 99.Nigeria was a huge mess.Huge huge mess!!
The positives are so many.
Truth is, his performance was outstanding economically.The only places he had problems was politically.
And really, as far as I can eat, I don't care about politics.
This is the first time since 1980 the Nigeria has moved in a positive direction and its funny because he left in 1979.
Haba people! Be objective please,Obj has done Nigeria great good.

This guy is so funny how did he meet electricity and how did he leave it? just one question.
OBJ's govt made the most money in the history of Nigeria and we did he do but to leave hopelessnees in the nation.
Increasing fuel prices 10 times too is that political? No refinery working despite the fortune from crude oil . Now what are the outstanding economic performance? and how did it affect the life of the common man sure we would be bored with the talk of GSM. So GSM in 8 years what an achiever

@ernal

With due respect, private oriented provision of some basic amenities is much better than government oriented ones.

The later resembles communism, and without changing this topic, I 'd like to say that countries that delved in communism basically wasted 30-40 years of their national development, and have suddenly started chasing after capitalistic oriented ones- I mean: Romania, Soviet Union, North Korea, Cezch. etc.

Last year during the power outage in NYC, many companies in Queens sued the power company because the electricity went out for 13-hr!

Can you do that in naija or in any place where you are lucky to get your ration of electricity from government?

I agree it might be more expansive from a private source, but there is no loss of national pride if the companies were run by nigerians.

Anyway, lets go back to OBJ legacy, o jare.

dayokanu:



This guy is so funny how did he meet electricity and how did he leave it? just one question.
OBJ's govt made the most money in the history of Nigeria and we did he do but to leave hopelessnees in the nation.
Increasing fuel prices 10 times too is that political? No refinery working despite the fortune from crude oil . Now what are the outstanding economic performance? and how did it affect the life of the common man sure we would be bored with the talk of GSM. So GSM in 8 years what an achiever

Q[b]This guy is so funny how did he meet electricity and how did he leave it? just one question.[/b]
Ans
He met electricity in a very bad state.Now, you must realise that Nigeria's demand for electricity has increased radically since 99 for various reasons, one of which is the growing economy.As people get more prosperous, demand for electricity increases.
But a simple answer to your question is that a dozen new power plants are been built around the country most of which are almost complete.This has never been done in Nigeria before.
Q[b]OBJ's govt made the most money in the history of Nigeria and we did he do but to leave hopelessnees in the nation.
Increasing fuel prices 10 times too is that political?[/b]
Ans:
If you do not deregulate the industry, private refineries cannot operate profitably.If fuel price is cheaper than production price, no investor will want to operate a refinery.And Nigeria needs private refineries.Hence, raising of fuel prices is a neccesary evil.
Q[b]No refinery working despite the fortune from crude oil . Now what are the outstanding economic performance?
[/b]
Ans:Who said no refinery is working?They are working to the best of their capacity.Although, I think OBJ should have done better in this regard
Q and how did it affect the life of the common man sure we would be bored with the talk of GSM. So GSM in 8 years what an achiever
Ans:
Economic achievements are enormous.
Do you know the effect of the banking consolidation?
Do you know the effect of the pension fund administration?
Do you know the effect of Local content?
Salaries have increased tremendously.Nigerians abroad are rushing home in droves.A large middle class is emerging fast.The list is endless.
Wake up man.The common man you are talking about now has the opportunity to start a calling center and make some cool profits!!
Nigeria is changing fast economically and the world has begun to take note.

@all

My friend from Angola has just reminded me that with 20-25% of all Africans living in naija, everything that happens in naija affects all Africans, and infact all black people globally.

This is another reason why the legacy of Nigerian leaders is too important not to be discussed, dissected, and analysed.

OBJ's good legacy include voluntarily handing over to a successor, though he wanted a 3rd term.
Unlike the Mugabes, the Mobutus, etc, OBJ does not wait to be pushed out of office- good for him.

However, lets not forget that OBJ remains the longest serving ruler naija has ever known. To him whom much has been given,  much ought to be expected.

It certainly makes sense to question his legacy vis a vis our development, not just the number of times he voluntarily handed over, but how much he developed the nation.

@papabrowne

Nobody questions the fact that OBJ ruled naija for 8+3 years, I think.

The question is, did he do enough to endear himself to history?

Was he below average, average, above average, or exceptional.

I don't pretend to have the answer, personally, but I do know that this topic deserves an intense discussion.

We must hold our leaders to the highest standard.

@papabrowne

Nobody questions the fact that OBJ ruled naija for 8+3 years, I think.

The question is, did he do enough to endear himself to history?

Was he below average, average, above average, or exceptional.

I don't pretend to have the answer, personally, but I do know that this topic deserves an intense discussion.

We must hold our leaders to the highest standard.

Lack of power is a major minus for OBJ, and he claimed ignorance till 5 days to the end of his term when he stated that all his efforts had been sabotaged. You believe that?

naijaking1:

Lack of power is a major minus for OBJ, and he claimed ignorance till 5 days to the end of his term when he stated that all his efforts had been sabotaged. You believe that?

He wasn't able to achieve the power thing b4 he left, but i think the foundation he laid with the 8 new power plants is encouraging and deserves some commendation.

@papabrowne

you are right, the foundation is important, the only point is that the plants will be completed and commissioned by Yar'dua, who will then get credit for them; if it solves naija power problems.

Power, means what it says "power" Unless a nation has power, you're going to develope backwards, if at all.

OBJ was blessed to rule naija, not once, but twice, and he still could not figure it out. Even a 3rd term could not have opened his eyes.

How many people did he fire for not working hard enough to bring constant power supply to naija??

history will be veryy kind to OBJ, especially 40-50 years from now. OBJ's generation and the previous one, will be remembered unkindly(euphemism), and OBJ will look lke an angel in comparison.