Ex Nigerian President Olusegun
Obasanjo, Wednesday, reacted to
the comments about him made
by former President Ibrahim
Babangida saying that he [IBB]
was being foolish as his
comments were not well though
out.
According to him, former
President Babangida should be
pitied and shown sympathy
rather than anger or
condemnation as he was being
foolish at the age of 70.
Obasanjo who spoke with news
men in Abeokuta during the visit
of an American Team on an
inspection of the Olusegun
Obasanjo Presidential Library
[OOPL] said that his initial
thought was not to respond but
that on second thought he
decided to reply IBB so that he
would not consider himself wise.
He said “well, normally when I
read these things I don’t believe
them. Yesterday when
somebody phoned me and said
this was said, I said don’t believe
it. He said check on all the papers
and I said get me all the papers,
they got me the papers and I
read; it’s a little bit unlike
Babangida.
But if Babangida had decided on
becoming a septuagenarian,
that he will be a fool, I think
one should probably do what
the Bible says in Proverbs
chapter 26, verse 4. It says
don’t answer a fool because you
may also become like him.
“When you go to the same
Proverbs chapter 26, verse 5, it
says answer a fool so that he will
not think he’s a wise man. So, I
am now torn between which of
the two verses I should follow in
this respect. Some of the things
he said unfortunately were not
well thought-out.
“For instance, he talked about
our energy. When I was the
military head of state, I built
Jebba dam; built Shiroro dam, I
prepared the foundation of
Egbin plant which President
Shagari completed and
commissioned. That time the
money we were making was not
up to the money
Babangida was
making annually for his eight
years and yet we built two dams.
Because it was important, you
know that power is the driving
force for development and for
any developing country. But
since the building of Egbin
power plant, until I came back in
1999 there was not any
generating plant for almost 20
years and Babangida spent eight
years out of that. Now, he has
the audacity to talk about
anybody; I think that is
unfortunate.
“I also read where he said in his
time, he gave the dividends of
democracy and at the same time
he regretted. When I read that,
well I said Babangida should be
pitied and shown sympathy
rather than anger or
condemnation because the old
saying says a fool at 40 is a fool
forever and I would say a regret
at 70 is a regret too late. Well a
regret at 70 is a regret to the
grave.
“Then as elected president, I built
Papalanto, Omotosho, others and
I started five what they called
Independent Power Stations
which were stopped for two and
a half years. Now that the
present administration has
started building a new power
project at Uyo. As a country,
Nigeria should be adding
nothing less than 1,500
megawatts annually. South Africa
with a population of 50 million
generates 50,000 mega watts.
Nigeria with a population of
about 165 million we are not
generating, we as at 1999 met
1,500 mega watts before we
took it up to 4,000 mega watts.
What we started they are now
allowing it to go on. I believe if
they continue with the
programme that we left, In
another two years , we will get
to 10,000”.
Further straightning issues, the
former Presdent confirmed that
he in fact blocked the sale of
Nigeria Airways saying such a
sale would have put the Nigeria
nation in further debt.
He said “I blocked the sale of
Nigeria Airways, not that I
attempted to block the sale of
Nigeria Airways. When I was
military head of state, Nigeria
Airways had 32 aircrafts, by the
time I came back as elected
president of Nigeria, Nigeria
Airways had only one aircraft.
“One of the 32 was a wide
bodied aircraft, they have all
gone and the report on which
we worked is here, the amount
of money we will have to pay if
Nigeria Airways was sold, what
we would get out of it is less
than 10 percent of the debt we
have to pay. That will be the debt
Nigeria tax payers will have to
pay; that will not be the way to
run the affairs of this country. I
won’t run my own affairs that
way, so I opted for liquidation.
So, it was bankrupt, it was
liquidated; in which case
whatever you gain from
liquidation which is also a form
of sale, it means the burden will
be shared by all the creditors
and everybody. So, if I owe you
10 dollars and what I sell when I
am liquidated is two. That’s what
you get. So, I did not allow
normal privatization or sale
because it would have put very
heavy burden on Nigeria.
“So, Nigerians should know that
and in fact my administration
should be commended for that.
It’s not that I did not allow that
sale because the law establishing
it is sale and liquidation is also a
form of sale”
Culled from Vanguard
