Obasanjo’s Tenure As Nigeria’s President Was A Calamity

A prominent Afenifere Chieftain, Ayo Adebanjo has described former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration as a calamity.

The elder statesman said this in his autobiography titled ‘Telling It As It Is,’ which was publicly presented in Lagos on Tuesday.

In the book which was read by Professor Wale Adebamwi, the author took a swipe at former President Obasanjo. Adebanjo said if it were to be in a decent society, Obasanjo will not feature in public anymore, adding it amazes him how people give Obasanjo ‘undue prominence in spite of his known character.’

“As for Obasanjo, the author reserves his severest content. Obasanjo’s tenure as President, he declared was a calamity, adding that for all the negative things that people has about Obasanjo which he could not refute. If it were to be in a decent society, people like him will not feature in public light again. There’s more, when you read the book,” Adebamwi, the book reviewer said.

Adebanwi said further that the book is sharpest criticism for a fellow Yoruba leader. The author in the book described Obasanjo’s eight years in government between 1999 and 2007 as a civilian President as a tragedy and calamity, declaring that his scorecard was nothing to write home about.

“The man who carried on as if he was all-in-all failed woefully on all counts as President. His eight-year tenure (1999-2007) was a tragedy. His scorecard was nothing to write home about. What did he do in eight years? Before he came, we were buying fuel for N20 per litre, and crude oil was $23 per barrel. In 2007, under his regime, we were buying fuel at N75 per litre, and crude oil was between $65 and $75 per barrel. In the worst days of Abacha, one dollar was over N120,” Adebanjo wrote in the book.

In the book, Adebanjo did not only fault Obasanjo’s eight-year democratic rule. He raises the question of Chief Bola Ige’s decision to join the Obasanjo’s administration which he ranked as one of the gravest and one of the most fatal political errors ever committed by a leading progressive politician in Nigeria’s history.

The author, however, describes Chief Ige as brilliant, one of the greatest Awoist.

“We were opposed to Ige joining Obasanjo’s cabinet but he accepted the appointment oblivious of the fact that Obasanjo was not inviting him in good faith. Bola Ige didn’t need Obasanjo, it was Obasanjo who needed Ige.

“However, how a man of such superb and enviable endowment could join the cabinet of one of the most perverse figures in our political history is a question that the author attempts to grabble with in this book,” Adebamwi added while reviewing the book.