Dear nairalanders, how do we react to this? I was going through the punch some minutes back and found the senate president throwing accolades on the former president olusegun obasanjo refering to him as a patriot and a great leader with untiring effort at uniting and developing Nigeria.
What do you make of this??

Tell dat man he doesnt know his age. OBJ is at least 76 !!! and not 72 even his son confirmed it in the interview with "the news" in 2005.

May God continue to bless Baba for lifting this country up to greater heights. Despite what evre short comings he had he succeeded in leaving the country far better than he met it, laid the foundation of a greater tomorrow and he is truly the greatest leader we ever had in this country.

KunleOshob:

May God continue to bless Baba for lifting this country up to greater heights. Despite what evre short comings he had he succeeded in leaving the country far better than he met it, laid the foundation of a greater tomorrow and he is truly the greatest leader we ever had in this country.

KunleOshob:

May God continue to bless Baba for lifting this country up to greater heights. Despite what evre short comings he had he succeeded in leaving the country far better than he met it, laid the foundation of a greater tomorrow and[b] he is truly the greatest leader we ever had in this country.[/b]

i respect your opinion but i beg to disagree. Electricity was better of before OBJ and OBJ left it in a worse state and to add salt untoinjury $16 billion was sunk into it which makes it more disgusting.

OBJ played politics with Lagos and stalled lots of developmental progress of Lagos, witheld legitimate alloacation, stalled the independent power programme in 1999, caused trouble on lagos federal roads and lots of trouble.

OBJ worst achievement was the shambles of April 2007 election which was the worst in Africa and probably in the world so how did he leave the country in a greater state when he forced this man Yaradua on us. The election that brought him to power in 1999 altho rigged was 90 times better than 2007.

The few achievements of OBJ was the use of some technocrats to achieve good thing which i acknowledge but overall he was a terrible leader for Nigerian poor not benefitting anything from the $100 oil price in abt 5 yrs of his administration. No infrastructural develeopment on any large scale that we withnessed during Gowons regime and indeed many of the infrastructure of Lagos was during that regime.

Shame on the Ota Farmer!!!

Lagosboy:

i respect your opinion but i beg to disagree. Electricity was better of before OBJ and OBJ left it in a worse state and to add salt untoinjury $16 billion was sunk into it which makes it more disgusting.

OBJ played politics with Lagos and stalled lots of developmental progress of Lagos, witheld legitimate alloacation, stalled the independent power programme in 1999, caused trouble on lagos federal roads and lots of trouble.

OBJ worst achievement was the shambles of April 2007 election which was the worst in Africa and probably in the world so how did he leave the country in a greater state when he forced this man Yaradua on us. The election that brought him to power in 1999 altho rigged was 90 times better than 2007.

The few achievements of OBJ was the use of some technocrats to achieve good thing which i acknowledge but overall he was a terrible leader for Nigerian poor not benefitting anything from the $100 oil price in abt 5 yrs of his administration. No infrastructural develeopment on any large scale that we withnessed during Gowons regime and indeed many of the infrastructure of Lagos was during that regime.

Shame on the Ota Farmer!!!

Good talk!!!

I wonder how some people would be praising someone who is clearly anti-people, who rather than uphold the constitution which was the backbone of the office he held decided to abuse and trample upon that same constitution.

Lagosboy:

i respect your opinion but i beg to disagree. Electricity was better of before OBJ and OBJ left it in a worse state and to add salt untoinjury $16 billion was sunk into it which makes it more disgusting.

I don't know why you nigerians always fall for cheap propanganda sponsored by disgrubtled elements. The truth is that less than $6 billion was spent on power project by baba, and he had a lot to show for it. There were 11 power plants in various stages of completion when babaleft power, infact  geregu, papanlanto and omotosho were already completed the only bottle neck was gas supply due the the uncompletion of gas pipelines to the power stations. this uncompletion was due to militant activities in the Niger delta. Even during the power probe they discovered billions of doolars worth of equipment which was lying idle in the port due to yar' dua's goverment non realease of funds to clear these goods yet some idiots went to town and started shouting as if the money had disappeared. the truth is that although baba did not complete the power projects before he left power he had already reached an advanced stage with it and if that idiot yar' dua had not suspended the power project for political reasons we would have had stable power in the country as at a year ago.

Lagosboy:

OBJ played politics with Lagos and stalled lots of developmental progress of Lagos, witheld legitimate alloacation, stalled the independent power programme in 1999, caused trouble on lagos federal roads and lots of trouble.

It was that idiot tinubu that cause problems for Lagos by creating unviable and unconstinutional local goverments and running them illegally with money from federation account without the ratification of the National assembly. When OBJ tried to correct him he politicized the whole thing. In any case only local goverment money was witheld from him and NOT state allocation as he tries to make people believe. This is the excuse the asshole always gives for his collosal failure in Lagos. On the federal roads issue, that was politics between tinubu and his rival ogunlewe and if you want to be honest OBJ actually took sides with tinubu on this matter by rsacking ogunlewe and removing ferma from federal roads. he also went ahead to hand over some federal roads such as Ikorodu road and third mainland bridge to lagos and that was how they were able to start their BRT scheme.

Lagosboy:

OBJ worst achievement was the shambles of April 2007 election which was the worst in Africa and probably in the world so how did he leave the country in a greater state when he forced this man Yaradua on us. The election that brought him to power in 1999 altho rigged was 90 times better than 2007.

even though the election was flawed there was absolutely no way a well known criminal like Atiku could have won or a religious zigot and tribalist like buhari could have made any impact either. What i blame OBJ for is for not ensuring PDP presented a better candidate like Donald duke for the precsidency.

Lagosboy:

The few achievements of OBJ was the use of some technocrats to achieve good thing which i acknowledge but overall he was a terrible leader for Nigerian poor not benefitting anything from the $100 oil price in abt 5 yrs of his administration. No infrastructural develeopment on any large scale that we withnessed during Gowons regime and indeed many of the infrastructure of Lagos was during that regime.

Shame on the Ota Farmer!!!

The achievements are quite many and space would not allow me tolist them all here but as an economist i can assure you from my understanding of the fundermentals of the economy OBJ as laid a very solid foundation for Nigeria's transformation and developement.

Stay there and be defending the indefensible. Someone that was in power for eight years and could not even do the Benin/Ore/Shagamu road, Kano/Kaduna/Abuja road, Benin/Agbor/Onitsha/Aba road, Aba/Uyo/Itu/Calabar road, Ibadan/Ogbomosho/Ilorin road and many more yet the nation made stupendous money within this period. Has anybody thought of the losses to the economy on account of the bad state of these roads and in a nation that doesnt have a functional railway system?

Stay there and be defending the indefensible. Someone that was in power for eight years and could not even do the Benin/Ore/Shagamu road, Kano/Kaduna/Abuja road, Benin/Agbor/Onitsha/Aba road, Aba/Uyo/Itu/Calabar road, Ibadan/Ogbomosho/Ilorin road and many more yet the nation made stupendous money within this period. Has anybody thought of the losses to the economy on account of the bad state of these roads and in a nation that doesnt have a functional railway system?

gbam!!!!!!!

dispite all the recovered loots from swizz!! hmmmm

@ KunleOshob
Why are you writing all these nonsense posts. We don't agree with you.Obj was a dumb leader and in fact effective in chaos.

Coomot for dia my friend.

ikeyman00:

gbam!!!!!!!

dispite all the recovered loots from swizz!! hmmmm

Well he left the country debt free after inheriting a debt portfolio of over $33 billion, and he also left a very hefty foreign resrve in excess of $50 billion which has helped in giving stability to our economy and attracting foreign investment. I really pity the ignorance Nigerians exhibit as far as Baba is concerned. If he had been allowed to do a third term we won't be in this mess we are in today.

fender:

Dear nairalanders, how do we react to this? I was going through the punch some minutes back and found the senate president throwing accolades on the former president olusegun obasanjo refering to him as a patriot and a great leader with untiring effort at uniting and developing Nigeria.
What do you make of this??

He was one of the people named by STV as nigeria's legend or hero, i can't remember what they called it.

KunleOshob:

If he had been allowed to do a third term we won't be in this mess we are in today.

So where does that leave the constitution?

KunleOshob:

Well hr left the country debt free after inheriting a debt portfolio of over $33 billion, and he also left a very hefty foreign resrve in excess of $50 billion which has helped in giving stability to our economy and attracting foreign investment. I really pity the ignorance Nigerians exhibit as far as Baba is concerned. If he had been allowed to do a third term we won't be in this mess we are in today.

Of what use is a foreign reserve sitting in a foreign bank when our the whole nation is crying for infrastructure. Foreign investors would only come when there is adequate infrastructure. Lagos needs a 4th maniland bridge why cant some money from the foreign reserve serve that purpose and d govt puts toll on it to reap some revenue back. OBJ is a useless man , 300 billion sunk into roads and he and Anenih couldnt account for it. his firend Bode George stole 80 billion from NPA they used d money for election. OBJ is d worst hypocrite Nigeria ever had.

May God continue to bless Baba for lifting this country up to greater heights. Despite what evre short comings he had he succeeded in leaving the country far better than he met it, laid the foundation of a greater tomorrow and he is truly the greatest leader we ever had in this country. 

I wish all Nigerians will celebrate this man. He's an achiever, a father and above all non tribal man. May God in heaven add more fruithful years to him. Happy Birthday baba. True Nigerians truelly love you and hold you in high esteem.

desgiezd:

So where does that leave the constitution?

The constituiton is amendable

Lagosboy:

Of what use is a foreign reserve sitting in a foreign bank when our the whole nation is crying for infrastructure. Foreign investors would only come when there is adequate infrastructure. Lagos needs a 4th maniland bridge why cant some money from the foreign reserve serve that purpose and d govt puts toll on it to reap some revenue back. OBJ is a useless man , 300 billion sunk into roads and he and Anenih couldnt account for it. his firend Bode George stole 80 billion from NPA they used d money for election. OBJ is d worst hypocrite Nigeria ever had.

A healthy forein reserve surplus gives the economy stabilty(inflation and exchange rate stability) by building international confidence in the country. It also attracts more credit to the coutry via private sector, it attracts huge foreign investment (that started to flow in during OBJ's regime) the benefits are numerous but i would not expect those of you that are unlettered in economics understand the intricacies of these issues.

@kunleoshob

I perfectly understand where ur comming from but my point is half of that money could be used to affect the lives of the citizenry and not just stack cash away. Going on an infrastrucutre drive would provide jobs and also infratsructure to the country. Foreign investors would come but run back if there is no infrastrucutre.

Tourism for example: there are many destinations in Nigeria but no roads leading to them, their potential would never be fully utilised without infrastructure.

There was a time some investors came to nigeria for coal, there is massive coal in Enugu but there was no rail line from enugu to the neares port of Calabar. The coal could not be taken out.

these are just few examples of the pressing needs for infrastructure. even Obama promised to go on an infrastrucuture drive in the US with all their advancement.

@Lagosboy
Now you are talking i would have to admit that baba failed in some areas but that is not enough to condenm him as the Nigerian media normally do. It is quite obvious his achievements out weigh his short comings and people should learn to see the other side of him. The hatred people have for baba started with the nigerian press. OBJ made it clear to them since he was head of state in 1979 that he could not stick press men and he express his disdain for them on several occassions( unlike other politicians that were always giving them brown envelopes) Becos of this the press went ahead to demonize the poor man concentrating mostly on his short comings and giving the credit for his performances to other people such as Ribadu, el-rufai, Akunyili, Okonjo-Iweala, Charles soludo, Ezekwesili, Ndukwe and several other people obasanjo appointed and empowered to assist in moving Nigeria forward. but if he appointed someone that fails the press would carry it as thus " OBJ minister involved in contract scam" that automatically puts a bias in the human mind that OBJ is involved in what he probably knows nothing about.

OBJ demonised himself with the 3rd term agenda. My dad is a die hard OBJ fan and he is even stronger than you are in support and defence of him. we never see eye to eye when it comes to OBJ issue

If OBJ quit honourabky nigerians might have forgiven his shortcommings but his 3rd term ambition messed up his image and his petty fight with Atiku was unstatesman like.

Well i wanted him to have a third term and i don't know why you guys are making so much noise after all he attempted to do it through constituitional means (via amendment which is allowed by the constituiton) he was honourable to accept the verdict of the senate on it. Other African rulers would have still imposed themselves on the country, but as a stateman OBJ bowed out.

KunleOshob:

Well i wanted him to have a third term and i don't know why you guys are making so much noise after all he attempted to do it through constituitional means (via amendment which is allowed by the constituiton) he was honourable to accept the verdict of the senate on it. Other African rulers would have still imposed themselves on the country, but as a stateman OBJ bowed out.

just curious, lets assume he got his third term. would you see anything wrong if he decided at that time to seek a 4th term?

I think that OBJ is good enough in knowing exactly what to do with power(Whether good or bad0 unlike what we have now. Under OBJ, we had a president that is self confident, strong, opinionated on any major issue, whose government reflects his personal character and trait. He was everywhere, strategic (especially when he came in e.g. restoring Nigeria's stand in the comity of nations, etc). To be fair, he was overbearing and did not know when to leave. Apart form these, he was a present president and that was what i admire most about him,  and that is exactly what we are missing in Abuja today.

Remember that he also rallied the country around party lines(don't ask me under what ideology) and not along ethnic or religious line. His mind is broad and strong enough to contain highly cerebral team in the cabinet unlike what we have now. I wish him happier years ahead.

must_a_far:

just curious, lets assume he got his third term. would you see anything wrong if he decided at that time to seek a 4th term?

The truth is in principle i agree with you that tenor elongation is not exactly right, however in Nigeria's peculiar situation att hat time i felt we still needed OBJ to complete several of the wonderful reforms he had started. There is no Nigerian that has his experience at that level and strength of character coupled with the good will and zeal to make Nigeria great that OBJ had. We really neede him to have a very strong foundation for our development. For instance see what happened to EFCC after baba left, it makes a president with strong political will to make an organization like EFCC work in a corrupt country like Nigeria.

KunleOshob:

The truth is in principle i agree with you that tenor elongation is not exactly right, however in Nigeria's peculiar situation att hat time i felt we still needed OBJ to complete several of the wonderful reforms he had started. There is no Nigerian that has his experience at that level and strength of character coupled with the good will and zeal to make Nigeria great that OBJ had. We really neede him to have a very strong foundation for our development. For instance see what happened to EFCC after baba left, it makes a president with strong political will to make an organization like EFCC work in a corrupt country like Nigeria.

Finishing the reform he started? that is where continuity comes into play. if he had some weight to determine his successor, then the idea of term limit being extended to finish his reform shouldnt be an option. if he chose YarAdua and non of his reform was continued then i must say, that single action rubbishes all u claim he had done to warrant a 3rd term. as per ur efcc example, what would we call his palling around with the same people his efcc went after.