₦airaland Forum

Obasanjo leaves Nigeria uncertain future By DULUE MBACHU, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 29 minutes ago



When Olusegun Obasanjo was elected Nigeria's president in 1999, Nigerians hoped long years of military misrule were behind them and stable democracy was ahead.

As he leaves office Tuesday, Nigeria's democracy is in doubt, and its people seem uncertain of their future. But Obasanjo, a 70-year-old former military leader, is credited with making economic strides, and earned respect abroad for his efforts to secure peace across Africa. While he will no longer be president, his influence in Africa's most populous country will likely remain strong.

Many of his critics say he failed woefully. Obasanjo, though, counts his greatest achievements in terms of intangibles.

"Democracy is not a destination, it's a journey," Obasanjo said in a nationally televised farewell address Monday. "We are well on our way to a greater destination."

Term limits kept Obasanjo from running again, and he says he will be a farmer after he leaves office. But last-minute political engineering has ensured a powerful party position for him: chairman of the party's board of trustees. A daughter, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, won a senate seat on his party's ticket in April elections and is likely to help keep the family name in the limelight. His wife Stella died in 2005.

Umaru Yar'Adua, picked by Obasanjo to lead his People's Democratic Party ticket, was declared winner of the elections that domestic and international observers said were deeply flawed. Yar'Adua takes office Tuesday, but has been battling a crisis of legitimacy since the vote.

"After eight years, Obasanjo is leaving Nigeria the way he met it," said Emma Ezeazu, who leads the Alliance for Credible Elections, an umbrella of civic groups campaigning to end the country's history of vote-rigging. "We have a tradition of rigged elections but he has given us the most-rigged election in the country's history."

When Obasanjo took office in 1999, his credentials were among the most impressive of Nigerian politicians. He succeeded an assassinated predecessor as military ruler of the country in the 1970s, then became the first military ruler in Africa to voluntarily transfer power to an elected civilian government in 1979.

Retiring to his farm on the outskirts of the country's biggest city, Lagos, Obasanjo set up the Africa Leadership Forum and became an international statesman renowned for its governance advice to other African countries. When the military toppled the civilian government that succeeded him, Obasanjo became a vocal critic of the autocratic regimes that spanned more than 15 years.

Obasanjo was charged with plotting to topple Gen. Sani Abacha in 1995 and given a life jail term that was later reduced to 15 years. Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, who succeeded Abacha on his death in 1998, freed his old friend Obasanjo.

Obasanjo won the elections that followed by a landslide. He vowed to tackle Nigeria's debilitating corruption and abysmal power supply situation, as well as heal ethnic and religious wounds that made the country prone to upheavals.

Obasanjo said Monday his restive nation of 140 million people, split among 250 ethnic groups and almost equally between northern-based Muslims and southern Christians, had grown more united under his tenure.

"We have become simply Nigerians interested in the development and progress of our country. This is a great gain," he said.

Obasanjo had also pledged to make Nigeria a leader on the continent. He ended his tenure with a farewell tour of Sierra Leone and Liberia, where he played a leading role in bringing peace after years of civil war. He has sent Nigerian peacekeepers to several African hot spots, and hosted talks aimed at ending the bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region.

But after eight years in office, many complain that Nigeria is still rife with problems. The country's infrastructure has decayed, and fuel shortages and power cuts — which Obasanjo promised to end within two years of assuming office in Africa's leading energy producer — have hit their worst levels in the country's history.

The oil sector remains volatile, with attacks by militants claiming a greater share of the country's exports and shaking world markets. Corruption remains endemic.

"The public was betrayed on so many levels," said Nigerian Nobel literature laureate Wole Soyinka, who with 48 fellow laureates from around the world called for new elections. Of Obasanjo, the writer says: "Reluctantly I've been forced to conclude that he's a dictator at heart."

Some critics, like Olisa Agbakoba, a human rights lawyer and president of the Nigerian lawyers professional body, make a distinction between his political failings and economic achievements.

"His politics pulled him down," Agbakoba said, citing Obasanjo's failed attempt to amend the constitution in order to run for a third term in office. "On the economic front I think there is progress."

Agbakoba said Nigeria paid off its foreign debt of more than $32 billion in a deal Obasanjo's government negotiated with the Paris Club of creditors last year. New economic partnerships forged with China have reduced dependence on the West, Agbakoba added.

But many of the problems he promised to solve appear likely to remain long after he is gone.

"At the time Obasanjo came to power, Nigeria was completely divided by years of military misrule," said Ezeazu, the elections monitor. "He has spent eight years not healing any wounds."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070528/ap_on_re_af/nigeria_obasanjo_s_legacy

baba idi, it na me. i stay [n small township in PH. can u help? i wan go america

na wah for you guys, even with the glass one can see that his eyes were on Rhi face not on her chest

when u doing buz and money is coming in, you are bound to grin

maybe he will use ojuju like them travel agent

baba i get strong faith like honeydrop how do i get in touch now??

you mean i can fly fron nig to anywhere? i want to go to oversea how do i fly there? will i not fall into the atlantic? which bird is better to fly with?

thank you for ur reply baba.

@ Stacey

now this is what i call ''true daughter of the shoil (soil)" telling it like it is.

welcome back sister.

se anjima or se gobe.
ni ma ina so yin berichi.

mu kwana lafiya

barawo is an insult so is Dan Izka or Dan Iska 

if you call someone a thief it's an insult (barawo is a thief)

no don't interprete it, lets just speak it blindly lol

ya ya dey, ya ya yara, ya ya makaranta

ina fura dey nunu




babu fura de nunu a wurin na.
no fura de nunu at my place

dan izka = Hello ?? kariya 

barawo = friend ? lol kariya 

aha!! this guy kana zage wai? ma su Nairaland ?  ina yin dariya

lol, wa yoooooooo

kana zage su fa!!

zai kya masu

lol native doctor witch dey the forum too? lol oh oh oh

i think they all feeding on desperate nigerians who want to go oversea by all means.

if it is one's destiny to go oversea, you don't need to pay anyone no dime or kobo. nothing!!! it will just come through for you without any agency or human being.

gaskiya, na seni. akwai kwaruru a wurin ka?

true, i know. are there kwaruru beans at your place?

gas price dey bite me ooo

Any nigeria bread will do o. just want Nigeria bread. who even know how to bake nigeria bread now?  i want to learn so i can bake one myself.

that is the only thing I can't make and am desperate to know how to if i can get recipe for nigeria bread, 

the senators are all talking from both side of their mouth anyway.

my neighbor who is supposed to be back (7months already) is still not back. not matter what, i support the troops. when you have friends and family members deployed (like i do) there is nothing you can do more than pray and support them.

but then can't wait for Bush to just leave. the war is dragging on too much.

thought it was the highway road,

lol, Seun voted from nigeria. He was one of the74million Americalanders that voted   

i think i saw Seun's face in Kodak theatre  closed to Simeon, Randy and Paula's back during the time Sanjaya was singing, oh was it during Cece and Bebe + Melinda singing,  gosh I forget but saw a similar face 

Haley?  with all those shorty pant and skirt and blouse she is cute? oh davidylan  read on idol website when she was kicked out that it's cuz of the skipys, lol
she is cute sha

maybe to make it more interesting for non hausa speakers, we should interpret what we said below it, how abt that?

wa yooo !

eee ya dede ban chi kwaruru ba, ama ban manta ba,

now kuma na fara ji yuwan ma kwaruru o.

do they still have it in the north?

duka ku, anyone eaten KWARURU before? there is the lovely Northern beans called kwaruru, sooooooooo delicious, and we used to tease other playful kids as kwaruru indo lol,

wanke din, ya yin dadi sose yummy

finally able to make my jollof rice, oh my goodness taste of heavenly bliss yummy,

NOW i feel like eating Nigeria Bread i get long throat this weekend oo!

nferyn, i have a questn for u

communion and confirmation same time??


i did my communion first (lots of cathesm classes, passed the test in which alot of catholic question were asked (actually it's what they teach in the class) and then selected for 1st holy communion) i think at a certain age of awareness.

confirmation came much later. lots of classes where you learn more about Catholic church. then passed the class and then confirmed. (that's like 15years above i think)

is this how u guys do it there? I asked because I grew up in a catholic church where my dad was a lay priest. I'd like to learn abt your country's catholic

in Nigeria, confirmation are not done to children but when they are at the age of reasoning where they can learn more about R Catholic. how abt your country,

your kids look cute

i hate the war going on in Iraq. still, am supporting the troops

wale, it's normal. the first thing when you get here is you want to go back home. but just remember what you came here for in the first place and then you will be occupied. like was it education, if so put more time studying, (i did just that, studied like no tmr). was it to work, then just to that. at the end of the day you are lonely that's true. but if you are in sch, join the international student club, i joined one and then the asian club, before i knew it there were so much things to do. join a church (i take it that you are a christian) they care about newbies here. even in church they will link you with other nig if they have any or knew someone etc, just relax and you will be alright, engage more in your hobbies, be happy
cheer up brother.