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A Lament For Obasanjo By Barr. Etete Nyiang
There is something unique about the human being which has intrigued philosophers for ages. Although endowed with a greater sense of intelligence than all other animals, the human being has a tendency to quickly forget the good done him or to take whatever good he has been a beneficiary of for granted.
But he remembers forever the negative thing or offence done him. He will forever grumble, murmur or complain about an offence done him or the hardship he is experiencing now.
We are more profuse in lamenting ills than we are in expressing gratitude.This did not start today. In the biblical account of how Moses led the children of Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, we are told of the many signs and wonders God did before Pharaoh could allow the Israelites to leave Egypt.
These same Israelites, who were live witnesses of the truly amazing things God did to grant them deliverance, were the very people who began to grumble, murmur and complain in the wilderness when they experienced occasional shortages of water or food.
At one point, they nearly stoned Moses to death. They even demanded that life would be better for them in the slavery of Egypt than an uncertain future in the so – called Promised Land.
One thinker has said that the human being is not a creature of logic. That he is only 10 per cent reason and 90 per cent emotion. No wonder why since creation, leading human beings has been such a thankless job.
Take the case of President Olusegun Obasanjo. After handling over the reins of power of a country that was in the late 70s and early 80s described as a potential world power, Obasanjo came back to power 20 years later to discover that his Nigeria was now rated as one of the poorest nations of the world.
So much had gone wrong. The country was heavily indebted. Although one of the worlds’s leading producers of crude oil, fuel scarcity was the order of the day in Nigeria. Year in, year out, Nigeria was being rated as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
Most of the nation’s socio – economic infrastructures were so badly run down that some were merely gasping for breath. The roads were dilapidated, public power supply was grinding to a halt; telecommunication services were only for a few rich citizens and even at this, the services were nothing to talk about.
A few months after his swearing – in, Obasanjo confessed to the nation that after seeing things for himself, he was now convinced that he had grossly under – estimated the rot in the system. The decay was so much that a faint – hearted person would have given up in utter despair. But being a man of courage, Obasanjo set about addressing the ills he had identified.
It is important to give this background because human memory is very short. As said earlier, we tend to forget the awful state we were in before the succour, which we hardly ever appreciate, came.
The few examples of what went wrong which we have identified here, is only a snapshot of the Nigeria Obasanjo inherited in 1999. A complete picture will show a country on the brink of disintegration with decay noticeable in almost all sectors; a country that needed a very skilled and dedicated repairman to fix.
If we human beings living in Nigeria were not creatures of emotion, the fair way to evaluate Obasanjo is to take a look at the situation we were in seven years ago and the reality today.
I am convinced that if we do this, we will hail Obasanjo. We will not forget or take it for granted that Nigeria is no longer a heavily indebted country. We will not forget or take it for granted that with Obasanjo, fuel scarcity which had lived with us for nearly 20 years, is today a thing of the past. We will also not forget or take it for granted that because of Obasanjo’s leadership, Nigerians today enjoy Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM).
Today, many are hailing Obasanjo for introducing a new pension scheme which, everybody agrees, will give retirees a secure future and a fulfilled retirement life. As for pension, many still remember the nightmare retirees went through before some could get their pension benefits under the old pension scheme. Many may take for granted the will, the determination and the political capital Obasanjo invested in order to get the new Contributory Pension Scheme.
Today, many Nigerians have forgotten that before Obasanjo’s second coming in 1999, Nigeria was a pariah nation. With his astute diplomacy and the quality of leadership Obasanjo has offered Nigeria, our country is today a respected member of the community of nations.
Barr. Etete Nyiang |