What do you think are the dividends of OBJ.Pls don't be sentimental or bias.

Why don't you kick start? You wanted an opinion on something you don't have one of your own to start with?

gsm

sleeping with his daughter inlaw.

Mai Suya:

gsm 

gms? Is that all you can come up with? So George W Bush's or Tony Balirs regacies in theU.S and U.K should include the ipod because it came out when they were in power? You are really one of those illiterate Nigerian graduates.
How can gms be called a govt achievement or legacy? Something that came from private enterprise/investment. Even Eritrea, Benin rep has gms before Nigeria.
Somalia even has gms, who on earth doesn't have gms. Dumb!

gms? Is that all you can come up with? So George W Bush's or Tony Balirs regacies in theU.S and U.K should include the ipod because it came out when they were in power? You are really one of those illiterate Nigerian graduates.
How can gms be called a govt achievement or legacy? Something that came from private enterprise/investment. Even Eritrea, Benin rep has gms before Nigeria.
Somalia even has gms, who on earth doesn't have gms. Dumb!

@Eziachi,
if u like speak english from now till tomorrow, obasanjo brought gsm for us. without his policies, nobody will give linsence to these enterprenures? do u know what we suffered in the hands of nitel and nipost before the gsm and internet came?
no matter how u look at it, obasanjo gave us gsm but why we have refused to celebrate him is because his sin became bigger than his goodness.

Quite a lot. The economy exploded growthwise under his tenure. Agriculture in particular got a lot stronger, as did communications.

Here is a plot of the national GDP over the years, for example:
http://i55.tinypic.com/2ywvez4.png

National wealth nearly tripled.

I don't like the man, but I cannot say he was ineffective.

1025:

@Eziachi,
if u like speak english from now till tomorrow, obasanjo brought gsm for us. without his policies, nobody will give linsence to these enterprenures? do u know what we suffered in the hands of nitel and nipost before the gsm and internet came?
no matter how u look at it, obasanjo gave us gsm but why we have refused to celebrate him is because his sin became bigger than his goodness.

No mind Eziachi. Hate the man all you can, there's no disputing the fact that it was [i]his [/i]policies that led to the welcomed collapse of the near-derelict Nitel monopoly and then the emergence of the GSM coys.

His style perhaps was what got him many enemies, but like Dapo said, the man certainly produced results.

Anybody in power during that period would have given license to gsm operators, did anybody hear about the x% of every recharge credited to obj's account? He didn't do it for Nigeria, he did it for his pocket.

Mai Suya:

No mind Eziachi. Hate the man all you can, there's no disputing the fact that it was [i]his [/i]policies that led to the welcomed collapse of the near-derelict Nitel monopoly and then the emergence of the GSM coys.

His style perhaps was what got him many enemies, but like Dapo said, the man certainly produced results.

How can he mind me, when some of you reasons like what I cannot described? So because Obasanjo ditch out and signed a license to someone to do business the outcome has become his achievement or legacies?
Assuming APPLE Inc’ wants to invest in Nigeria by building a new factory to manufacture their present ipad gadget, according to you that will be the legacy of Jonathan because his govt gave APPLE the license to operate in Nigeria? So whose legacies are the works of the likes of Halliburton, Shell, Chevron and other that works under license? Tell me!
So all the import licenses given to Igbo business people, for you, their shops/warehouses has become govt legacies? What does it take to give a license? Any goat can sign a license and it doesn’t take a genius to sign one. As far back at early 90s mobile phone had been around in Nigeria. Until about 1994 mobile phone is also a privilege even in affluent countries, then global satellite system emerged and private companies invested on it all over the world accompanied by cheap/low quality handsets from Asia and every person, no matter where you are in the world, now has access to gsm phone and you are calling it Obasanjos legacies.

Mobile phone as we know it today, is a world phenomena, and you know that if it’s based on govt effort, thinking or policies, Nigeria would not smell it like the rest of other things that depend on govt. NITEL or NIPOST was their property, how much legacies did they leave there, but turning around to claim credit about something private business put their money and idea to make it a success.

If some uneducated person in my village is to say this I will accept it because that is much he knew, but the from the young bunch that claim to be educated saying it, it makes you wonder.

Tingles:

Anybody in power during that period would have given license to gsm operators, did anybody hear about the x% of every recharge credited to obj's account? He didn't do it for Nigeria, he did it for his pocket.

So its not only me that heard about it?

Is it confirmed? This is no evil that Egbeman is not capable of doing sha!

1025:

@Eziachi,
if u like speak english from now till tomorrow, obasanjo brought gsm for us. without his policies, nobody will give linsence to these enterprenures? do u know what we suffered in the hands of nitel and nipost before the gsm and internet came?
no matter how u look at it, obasanjo gave us gsm but why we have refused to celebrate him is because his sin became bigger than his goodness.

What are those Obasanjo's policies that brought GSM? List them.
And why didn't the same policy work with NIPOST, NEPA, CUSTOMS, AIRPORTS, NIGERIAN AIRWAYS, FEDERAL ROADS, REFINERIES etc.
I don't know about his sins you're talking about as I don't know the fella and I am not interested in his sins, just that its dumb to say that OBJ is responsible for mobile phone and don't say it in company of enlightened people from other countries and you will become a joke to them instantly.

I said before that Somalia with no govt and run by religious zealots and criminal gangs has gsm as good as Nigeria, so whose policies made there own gsm possible? Their Sea Pirate gangs?

If GSM is one of the achievements of OBJ it confirms the fact that the oldman only wasted 8 yrs he ruled . . . . . , . . . . .

Why is anyone even bringing up GSM? Forget GSM. What about construction, massive gains in agricultural productivity? Almost every industry grew strongly under his regime.

As if GSM alone could power an economy! What fraction of the economy is GSM, sef? Obviously something that is a tiny party of your economy is not going to cause GDP per capita to nearly triple.

Look at the following table, compare GDP growth in each sector over the 3 different time periods:



(45th page of this PDF: http://web.ng.undp.org/documents/NHDR2009/NHDR_MAIN-REPORT_2008-2009.pdf)

Look, the GDP per capita nearly TRIPLED in his 8 years. Only a fool would pretend that the only thing he did was GSM. That is only a tiny fraction of it, as the above chart indicates.

DapoBear:

Why is anyone even bringing up GSM? Forget GSM. What about construction, massive gains in agricultural productivity? Almost every industry grew strongly under his regime.

As if GSM alone could power an economy! What fraction of the economy is GSM, sef? Obviously something that is a tiny party of your economy is not going to cause GDP per capita to nearly triple.

Look at the following table, compare GDP growth in each sector over the 3 different time periods:



(45th page of this PDF: http://web.ng.undp.org/documents/NHDR2009/NHDR_MAIN-REPORT_2008-2009.pdf)

Look, the GDP per capita nearly TRIPLED in his 8 years. Only a fool would pretend that the only thing he did was GSM. That is only a tiny fraction of it, as the above chart indicates.

what the heck are you talking about? Construction- construction of what exactly? Benin-Ore-Onitsha dead trap road or Lagos-Ibadan for example or the falling 50 years old River Niger?
Agriculture- He only improve in his Otta farm when he monopolised the license on importation of certain things and confisticating lands across Southern Nigeria even Outside Yorubaland and how many companies moved to Ghana under his watch?
I want you to name one or two of his policies that bring what you seems to be claiming as his achievement.

During his time, oil price rose to it highest price since that black liquid was discovered compared to the price of oil during the evil days of Abacha when oil was as low as $20 per barrel at one point, but still, Naira was stronger during Abacha's evil era.

Despite swimming in unexpected oil boom price, he could not fix even a single of the out of work refineries, talkless of bilding a new one, as he ditches out import license to his cronies to import petrol and even kerosine in a country tagged as the world's 5th oil producer.

I don't blame people like you, because, Jonathan/Yar Adua makes OBJ looks like Ronald Reagan/Bill Clinton in terms of achievement and that is one thing anyone will easily predict about the basket case (Nigeria), that every new leader makes the person he succeeded looks like the messiah.

Eziachi:

what the heck are you talking about? Construction- construction of what exactly? Benin-Ore-Onitsha dead trap road or Lagos-Ibadan for example or the falling 50 years old River Niger?

Agriculture- He only improve in his Otta farm when he monopolised the license on importation of certain things and confisticating lands across Southern Nigeria even Outside Yorubaland and how many companies moved to Ghana under his watch?
I want you to name one or two of his policies that bring what you seems to be claiming as his achievement.

During his time, oil price rose to it highest price since that black liquid was discovered compared to the price of oil during the evil days of Abacha when oil was as low as $20 per barrel at one point,  but still, Naira was stronger during Abacha's evil era.

Despite swimming in unexpected oil boom price, he could not fix even a single of the out of work refineries, talkless of bilding a new one, as he ditches out import license to his cronies to import petrol and even kerosine in a country tagged as the world's 5th oil producer.

I don't blame people like you, because, Jonathan/Yar Adua makes OBJ looks like Ronald Reagan/Bill Clinton in terms of achievement and that is one thing anyone will easily predict about the basket case (Nigeria), that every new leader makes the person he succeeded looks like the messiah.

I judge the effectiveness of a president primarily by how much the economy grows under his tenure. Not really interested in presidents who spend a lot of money building public works while letting private industry stagnate. Say what you will about how you'd have liked OBJ to accomplish more, but no one can deny the economic gains under his tenure.

Private enterprise @ all levels exploded during Obj's reign & the economy expanded exponentially.

Paying off external debt - personally, I think this one of the most important achievements of any govt in d past 40 yrs. We know that d economy was paralysed by these debts for almost 2 decades.

Reform of the banking sector - though some of the excesses/inadequacies of those reforms are now being railed back, the original reforms/consolidation was by & large a great success

Just some of d achievements that come to mind. One doesnt have to like Obj to accept he delivered in some areas.

I don't like childish arguements, just tell me the OBJ's policies that had impact on Nigeria for the so called growth you are talking about? Selling oil $130 per barrel is not anyone's achievement.
If you are producing 2 million barrel per day and selling it $130 per barrell for most of your eight years in power, I don't see why paying some debt off is considered an achievement, which are more or less Okonjo Iwuala's/Soludo's ideas in the first place.
Under his watch Nigeria was importing petroluem from non oil producing nations like Holland and you talking about achievement?

The problem of most Nigeria is not having ever experience a good governance all their life, so anything, irrespective of how irrelevant is considered great.