₦airaland Forum

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says President Muhammadu Buhari may not do well in economy and foreign affairs, except in military matters.

“Buhari is not a very hot person on the economy and foreign affairs,” Obasanjo said.

The former President stated this on Monday at the third International Conference on African Development Issues — themed, “Driving inclusive and sustainable development in Africa: Models, methods and policies” — organised by Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State.

While reacting to a question posed to him by a member of the audience: “Is there any hope for Nigeria under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari?”, Obasanjo replied, “Is there any hope for Nigeria under this administration? I came back from Geneva, Switzerland a few days ago to attend a conference titled, ‘Are elections giving democracy a bad name?’ We had an election, we elected a leader and the good thing about democracy is that the power you have to elect a leader is also the power you have to remove him. I am saying this because I said earlier that if you don’t see any leader that has done well in the 56 years of Nigeria’s independence, then let us forget about Nigeria.

“I will tell you what I know and I will tell you what I don’t know. I know Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. He served under me in the military. His characteristics that I know, his behaviour that I know, he has not deviated from them. He was never a perfect man, he is not a perfect man and no leader can ever be a perfect man because they are human beings. But if you read my book, what I said about him is correct. He is not a hot person when it comes to economy. He is not a very hot person when it comes to foreign affairs. But he will do well in matters of military and he will do well in fighting Boko Haram.”

The former president also said he tried his best in fighting corruption, especially in the recovery of funds looted by the late Gen. Sani Abacha and that as of the time he left the government, about $1bn was still to be recovered.

Obasanjo said, “For me, we have no hope if we have no future. I am an optimist as far as Nigeria is concerned. If somebody doesn’t get it all right for now, we will get somebody who will come up and fix whatever is missing. The administration before this had no clue on how to deal with Boko Haram, there is no doubt about that.

“You may not like the way he (Buhari) is fighting corruption. I fought corruption. We recovered over $1.25bn from Abacha and his men. We didn’t make noise. Also, we recovered £100m and about N30m and those who were helping us, the lawyers and the rest said there was still at least $1bn to be recovered at that time. I put it in my handover notes. But rather than encourage scrupulous persons, we had another spate of corruption.”

Obasanjo added that fighting corruption would not be effective if it did not translate to better life for the citizens.

He said, “Fighting corruption is not a one-day or a one-regime affair. If where we left it, they continued, we would have gone far. For me, the questions are: Is corruption being fought? And if it is being fought, is it being effectively fought? Are we getting the desired results? And if we are getting the desired results, what impact is it having on our society and on our nation?”

Other speakers at the event included Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Prof. Joy Ogwu, and the Associate Vice-President, Research, McMaster University, Canada, Prof. Bonny Ibhawoh.

They both said if Africa was to experience any development, leaders must match their words or policies with action.

The Federal Government has said the introduction of a new price regime for Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) has become inevitable in order to halt the crippling fuel scarcity in the country and ensure availability of the product.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who stated this at the inauguration of the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) Marketers Conference in Lagos on Friday, said only the liberalization of petrol supply will ensure the availability of the products.

“Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I can tell you that that decision is inevitable, if we are to end the crippling fuel scarcity that has enveloped the country, ensure the availability of the products and end the suffering that our people have been subjected to,” he said.

He said the crash in the price of crude oil, which has impacted negatively on foreign exchange earnings, has further compounded the crisis in fuel supply.

“With the drastic fall in the price of crude oil, which is the nation’s main foreign exchange earner, there has also been a drastic reduction in the amount of foreign exchange available. The unavailability offorex and the inability to open letters of credit haveforced marketers to stop product importation and imposed over 90% supply on the NNPC since October 2015, in contrast to the past where NNPC supplies 48% of the national requirement,” the Minister said.

He further elaborated that in the absence of available forex lines or crude volumes to continue massive importation of PMS, it is clear that unless immediate action is taken to liberalize the petroleum supply and distribution, the queues will persist, diversion will worsen and the current prices will spiral out of control.

Alhaji Mohammed, however, said the liberalization of petrol supply and distribution will allowmarketers and any Nigerian entity willing to supply PMS to source for their forex and import PMS to ensure availability of products in all locations of the country.

He noted that the resultant fuel scarcity has created an abnormal increase in price, resulting in Nigerians paying between N150 and N300 per litre as prevalent hoarding, smuggling and diversion of products have reduced volumes made available tocitizens.

The Minister explained that the new fuel price regime should not be misconstrued as the removal of subsidy since there is no provision for subsidy in the 2016 Appropriation, saying the erstwhile PMS price of N86.50 gives an estimate subsidy claim of N13.7per litre which translates to N16.4 billionmonthly.

“There is neither funding nor appropriation to cover this,” he explained.

Alhaji Mohammed used the occasion to draw the attention of Nigerians to the renewed insurgency and pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta, which have drastically reduced national crude oil production to 1.65 million barrels per day, against 2.2 million barrels per day planned in the 2016 budget thereby reducing income to Federation account and also affecting crude volumes for PMS conversion.

Listing the benefits of the new price regime, he said it would end the recurrent fuel scarcity by ensuring product availability across the country, reduce hoarding, smuggling and diversion of products substantially, improves fuel supply situation through private sector participation, creates labour market stability, as this will potentially create additional 200,000 jobs through new investments in refineries and retails and prevents potential loss of 400,000 jobs in existing investments”.

Alhaji Mohammed gave the assurance that underthe new price regime, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) will be further empowered to ensure a level playing fieldand strict compliance with market rules by all stakeholders and consumer protection.