OBASANJO AND THE LEADERSHIP QUAGMIRE IN NIGERIA- PART ONE
The art of leadership must be learned and the hurdles facing effective leadership can easily controlled by understanding challenges that leadership face and the wealth of history has so much to rely upon been streamlined with available facts and resources to make it work for students of history .Depending on the political , economic and social strategies deployed ,like organic human cells that follow biological processes during metabolism ,this art can be channeled to the attainment of its objectives by mere understanding of this history ,equitable value system and the needs of the society at a particular period.The Nigerian societies cannot be immune from these challenges and the wherewithal to surmount them .
Leadership like every field of human endeavors and professionalism is a thing of choice .Its capability speaks volume base on the level of visions ,focus ,faith and commitment above all passion or passion thrust and the level of preparedness and competences of those who desire with their intellectual aptitude to take to the contours and business of leadership .They must understand its art and science .Indeed it is a business of direction composed by vision ,strategy ,values ,integrity and a high sense of ideological freedom .These we know are catalyst for mastery of the art of leadership and the moment a leader looses this trait he ceases to be a leader .We know that societies where these items of moral leverage are critically observed has resolved leadership quagmire –a corrupt free institution not only cultivated but that leadership is a thing of service and the first service of the nation .
LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES ,LANDMARK PROFILES AND NATION BUILDING
Nigeria like every nation of the world is no exception to this challenge and this piece is specifically interested in ranking leadership profiles of our successive regimes since independence with prejudice to rate most glorious years of nation building in general while schematically perusing the twist and turns of the nation’s history and giant strides and low strides in sustainable economic Development as a whole .
The two eras simply comes to mind –the Gowon regime and the Murtala-Obasanjo regime with Specific bias for former President Olusegun Obasanjo –the Baba Iyabo himself .What makes the point of our discussion ? Even though he is an elder statesman ,everybody loves to hate and personifies the face of leadership quagmire and epicenter of landmark profiles all rolled into one colossal behemoth , the history of this country cannot be complete by his giant contribution to nation building and sustainable economic development in the country in general .
No size fits all.This is because the business of leadership has become a thorn in the flesh of not growth and development and leadership but much more on the part of the followership suffering where the two elephants met and fought .Take it or leave it Obj is about the most successful leader the nation ever had not based on the longevity of years of service but much more determined the sprawling expanse of capital projects undertaken during his tenure .In fact in the whole of Africa ,he ranked ahead of every one excluding Mandela and to some extent Gadhafi and can be ranked only second to Mandela if we rate and include the checkered antecedence of the nation’s foreign policy during his military regime.With the benefit of antecedence we shall explore the artesian wells of this indisputable axioms including the strategic figures to back up this claim,that many media critics and pundits loved to dispute ;for they are as holy as the righteousness of nature or mothernature.Irrespective of the bellyaching of critics ,the wealth of history cannot be disputed and human fallibility itself cannot question its domains of pristine values as the final arbiter of mankind . Disputation aside let us turn to the relics of history to provide this strategic evidences begin to be explored.
It is on record that the most successful development plans in the nation’s history till date still unprecedented happened under his watchdog. The 60s and 70s national development plans ,the NEEDS policy document,the FSS2020 excluding the short-lived Yaradua 7 point agenda and untested transformation agenda that still requires the furnace of history to be tested after the exit of the regime .Majority of these landmark policies happened under Baba Iyabo’s regimes.With the evidence of history we shall rate SAP and why it can be regarded as the downturn worst epoch though debatable and the downside of the nation ‘s history .Excluding this landmark profiles ,development layout plans are mere vain embellishment and entangles of these glorious eras of our nation’s history .having become a legal framework for successive regimes to build upon .
To argue this claim ,we shall x-ray the Nigerian economy and history into 4-four divisions-the pre-independence era ;post independence era ;post civil war era and the return of democracy .We treat the exposition and the report below at they matter.
THE PRE-INDEPENDENCE ERA
The socioeconomic development that became a matter of priority in the country in the pre-independence era was facilitated and accelerated by regional leadership .Agriculture was dominant foreign exchange earner toppling development items .Government interventionist development policies saved the day and made possible an agrarian economy like elsewhere across Africa .Cash crops such as Cocoa In the West , Groundnut pyramids, rubber and palm oil in the North and cotton among other became the mainstay of the Nigerian economy .
Infact this competitive basis at the regions was instrumental to the infrastructural development of the immediate post independence era .Consequently ,the Eastern Region was reported to be the world fastest growing economy in the 1940s precisely in 1946 growing at alarming rate of over 70 percent per annum –a feat that was not equaled 50 years after until equatorial Guinea discovered oil in 2001 and achieved the same feat becoming the world fastest growing .
The economic priorities of this scale was responsible for the development of education, health among other infrastructural development projects as political class desired and determined to exit their people out of poverty .According to Ogunjinmi,1997:97] the process of social and political development of any country can be facilitated by deliberative efforts and theoretical development plans of the sitting government of the day .Socialist ideologies and development plans were adopted in the old Soviet Union and recorded a lasting impact on the citizens through beneficial policy interventionism of the period .Policy interventionism also require broad based mechanism and general framework incorporated as mass development plans to operate or cover every sector of the economy. On the hand political planning also gives direction to government direction including the rate of growth .With this conscious policy mass infrastructural development as the most logical interpretation are likely to be prioritized and implemented.-Ayinla-1998:21].
The successive and progressive implementation of diverse projects in the pre and post independence era was facilitated by national development plans of the eras .When the British Colonial Office mandated colonies to prepare development plans for Colonial and Welfare Funds disbursement in 1940 ,the basis of development plans was fairly laid .National Economic Council came up in 1955 and following recommendation by World Bank was specifically established for development coordination and growth supervision. Consequently national development plan of 1959 set up for the country was inspired by the institution . Raising the standard of living to the highest level possible and the creation of a legal framework to achieve this goal became its principal objectives .With the emergence of the new nation nation-Nigeria in 1960 at independence the successive generation of post independence development plans were rolled out in earnest. Making it possible for government to articulate programmes and launch prioritized policies in efficient allocation of waste management resources , income growth, better public amenities .Ayinla,1988].
The ten year development plans launched in 1946 can be traced as the source or origin of conscious development planning in Nigeria.The total expenditure of the historic Colonial Development welfare funds stood at 110 million naira to be executed between April 1,1946 to March 31,1956.Ogunjimi,1997:97]. The development plans by objectives were meant to serve the interest of the colonial masters .The development plan did not run its full course having being truncated by 1950 due to inadequacies of the system and the terrain wherein it was been implemented as subject of rapid structural changes and the evidence of its volatility. Thereafter it was broken into two five yearly programs with new plan formulated to cover the 1950-56 period. When federal system of government was introduced this revision was affected as regional governments exploited their autonomy to adopt diverse economic policies .
The federal structure was predicated on 3 tier administrative state structure-western,Northern and Eastern regions in 1954 and by 1964 the Midwestern region came into being. True federalism during the period also contributed immensely to the development of infrastructure and economic growth in the country. We could remember the healthy rivalry between the Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the great Zik Of Africa as both premier of Western and Eastern regions .Immediately Awolowo introduced free education in the West ,Zik emulated with similar gesture in East and Ahmadu Bello did the same in North .The moment the great Awolowo introduced western T.V, station-WNTV and western radio –WNBS THE East and the North introduced and also adopted Radio and TV in their regions. With the establishment of Liberty Stadium ,in the west Ahmadu Bello Stadium and Enugu Stadium were also introduced in the East and North to rival west.That is the beauty of competition in a federal state . So fiscal federalism was crucial to development based on the competitive autonomy of the regions during the era .
The plans of 1955-60 was to be implemented by federal government itself and they serve as reviewd above as the basis of development planning practice .It cannot be disputed however that fiscal federalism and the competitive autonomy of the regions was a critical development factor of the pre-independence era . Irrespective of the weakness as can be noted from the work of Olaniyi,1998:106],Ayo,1988:1],and Ogunjimi :1997] contributed a great deal to flag of the practice of development planning in Nigeria .
THE POST-INDEPENCE ERA
At independence in 1960 , indigenous development plans took off in earnest launching the era of the generation of the most comprehensive development plans ever contrived in the nation’s history or for the newly independent nation.They were plotted within the framework of revamped national account system ,covering both public and private sector related projects with well articulated overall economic targets .
From the 1960 to 1985 Nigeria implemented four national development plans –This includes the First,Second,Third and Fourth national development plans with each development plan having its own well articulated focus and goals with far reaching implications ushering unprecedented development history .In April 1962 federal government launched First national development plans to cover the period of 6 years -1962-68 .About 2.132billion naira as proposed investment expenditure was earmarked for the plan and about 1,352 billion naira was envisaged to be spent under this plan and the 780 million naira remainder was to be undertaken by private sector . Unfortunately the two major political events such as the military intervention of 1966 and the 1967-70 Civil War truncated this beautiful plan with the period of the plan extended to march 1931 ,1970.
However a number of landmark achievements were recorded at both regional and federal level during the period .This includes –Oil refinery in Port Harcourt ,the Sugar Mill and the Niger Dam in Jebba and Bacita ,the Niger Bridge ,ports extension and the Paper mill and a handful number of trunk A roads .The construction of first generation Universities such as the Ahmadu Bello University by the Northern Nigerian Governmennt ,the University of Nigeria Nsukka –UNN,by the Eastern Government of Nigeria and the University of Ife now known as the Obafemi Awolowo University by the Western Nigerian Government .
The capital budgets operated within the framework of development planning providing the vigour to federal and State govts to be able to achieve this landmark inspite of the economic crisis during the period .These budgets and plans were deployed as the main instrument of control and for resources allocation;as they provided also guidelines for meaningful development coordination inspite of two political crisis during plan period Ogunjimi,1997:98].In 1970 the Gowon regime launched the second national development plan.Being a post war development its purpose was on rehabilitation ,recon reconstruction and reconciliation of a war shattered economy and bridging social and economic development gap across the country .
Like the first national development plan it also a couple of landmark achievements at both the federal and state level .This includes federal roads ,the national youth service corps-NYSC scheme; federal scholarship introduction; and Nigerian students loan schemes .The third national development plan was also launched by the Gowon regime and it covered a five year plan period – April,1975-1980 March – a water shed in economic development planning in the country .The initial investment of 30 billion naira was raised to 43.3 billion naira with extensive consultations from the private sector . The growth of percapital income ,the equal distribution of income ,reduction of unemployment ,economic diversification,development balancing and indigenization of economic activities constitute the cardinal objectives of the plan period .Unfortunately the change of government in july,1975 altered the implementation of the plan barely three months after the plan was launched by the faded regime. This change and policy succession crisis hence altered some of the cardinal objectives of the plan though more relevant projects were focused upon that have direct bearing on the standard of living of the people .This basically included agriculture , water ,health and Agriculture including housing .We shall soon did more circumspection on this third national development plan-the most successful of the development Nigeria ever had .
Nevertheless in the immediate post independence era ,Nigeria has had a truncated industry as evidenced in the GDP growth rate of the period .This recorded a paltry 3.1 percent per annum between 1960s-70s compared to the oil boom era of 1970-78 which recorded 6.2 percent –a far cry from the negative growth rates of the 80s.Besides the period 1980 and 1988 which recorded dismal growth rate of 3.2 percent and 2.9 percent respectively ,the industrial sector grew exponentially and benefited immensely from the development plans ,oil boom of the 70s and the import substitution industrialization policies or prebisch thesis of the era .With the quadrupling of the oil boom revenues during the period ballooned from $3 to $12,Nigeria recorded monumental economic development .This growth was catalyzed by the first boom -1973-75and second boom -1978-79 totally the Nigerian economy and launched unprecedented infrastructural development in her history.
With the oil boom of the 70s the neglect of agriculture was more than by the advent of political rent seeking landlords which deliberately neglected the erstwhile cash cow sector .Consequently it fell from 63 percent at its peak in 1960 to 34 percent in 1988 and so Nigeria became a net importer of the basic food staples it once produced .Generally speaking the 1960-70 was a bad decade for the sector and totally unsatisfactory with poor and depressed commodity market prices including the negative impact of the oil boom of the period .Hence labour migrated from the rural areas to the cities and metropolitans in search of greener pastures .
The positive gross domestic investment of 16.3 and 22.8 percent recorded between 1965-73 and 1973-80 respectively was not sustained .This declined to 14 per cent 1980-88 ………contd.
The Success Of The Third National Development Plan
These are the fundamentals of the nation but how did Obj come into the picture. And then indeed history and verity cannot be disputed from their glory as the undisputed final arbiter of mankind. Let me flash back your memory to the third national development of the late 70s .Generally speaking the second national development plan started with little or no capital and relied too much heavily on foreign capital and for this reason was criticized for being over ambitious for some of its major programmes under control of the political class.In the studies by Tella:2013 this rapid scourge of ambition by resultant effect led to the rigging of the first general elections and the attendant coup d’etats that followed thereafter with its extension of counter coup, the democratic and development processes were halted .The prolonged disruption that followed the civil war truncated the consumption and production of the economy .
When military took over Government in 1966 the Nigerian economy was run on command control and central planning bases especially after the civil war was successful as a result of the cooperation between the bureaucrats , the politicians and the military .The landmark civil service purging of 1975 by Murtala Muhamed/Obasanjo regime did a lot both positively and negatively to the vibrancy of the Nigerian civil service especially its robust culture ,reliability ,transparency and commitment to good service as an arm of good governance was eroded by the then administration .This purging had been massively criticized by diverse scholars including the importation culture saga that destroyed confidence in domestic goods
With the exit of the Gowon regime and the short lived regime of Murtala Muhammed third national development plan took off with new and unusual radicallity. Shortly before his death on Feb 13,1976 Murtala Muhammed spoke with candour and dreamt of “a united ,strong and self reliant nation a great and dynamic economy ,a just and egalitarian society ,a land of opportunities for all citizens and a free and a democratic society . “
With the emergence of Obasanjo as the Nigerian heads of State third national resumed its momentum and created a record in infrastructural development that is still yet to be broken today. They were astounding and without parallel in our history .Now consider here a record sampling of this golden age era of Nigerian economy :Cement plants at Calabar ,UKpilla,Sagamu , Yandev and Ashaka ;Vehicle Assembly plants like leyland ,Volkswagen etc ;new refineries ;petrochemical plants ,Aluminum Smelting plants ;Oil pipelines networks ;paper and pulp projects at Jebba ,Calabar and Iwopin ;Thermal and hydro electric power stations ;new Airports and acquisition of new aircrafts ;Water Supply ;Some 150 farm service centres nationwide to empower productive small scale farmers under guise of operation feed the nation policy;new steel rolling mills;new seaports ; the river basin authorities for irrigation and water supply ;new healthcare delivery centres and public hospitals ;about 10,000km of roads were constructed ;local and international exchanges constructed in 45 locations nationwide ; The enrolment at the public primary schools ballooned from 4.997million naira in 1975 to 10.2 in 1979 under the then universal basic education-UBE scheme;Similarly the secondary school enrolment also rose from 507,290 to 1,650,300 in addition to the population of varsities that increased to 13 from 6 ;fresh undergraduate enrolment also grew from 32, 286 to 83,000;corresponding growth was recorded in both polytechnics and monotechnics nationwide .The development economics of O.Aboyade and the import substitution strategy –the so called prebitsch thesis that China later used to develop was widely adopted .
This regime left 26 ships with the defunct Nigerian national shipping line-NNSL and about 36 planes with the now defunct Nigerian airways in 1979 –a period in which the per capital income in the country stood at $1,000 as the highest in the country .In a face off with Obasanjo IBB relegated to the background of OBJ regime as too wasteful not prudent in resources management .This caused the old man to reply IBB as a fool at 70 as noted below .
The Nigerian foreign policy recorded its neplus ulstra during the period and the best for the whole of Africa till date as Nigeria made continental voyage and bankrolled liberation movement of several African countries during the period including Apartheid in South Africa in which the country played a key in addition to the Sullivan principles in America .The introduction of presidential system of government came during the period as the nation changed its political system from the British parliamentary system.Equally interesting and not the least included the introduction and adoption of federal constitution of i979 .In 1976 ,Nigeria also became a 19 State federal structure
From a federation of 3 regions and 4 regions in 1954 and 1964 and later 12 state structure in 1967 respectively .In 1981 it became a federation of 21 states and later a 31 State federation and 36 State structure in 1991 and 1996 respectively .The 19 state structure period was unique because during the same period in 1976 ,the local government system was introduced for the first time at the centre after it was initiated by the colonial regimes and the old western region of the great Obafemi Awolowo first adopted it.By 1976 we already had 301 local governments in the country compared to officially recognized 774 today .
As if that is not enough the largest expansion in the Nigerian Judicial happened under the watchdog of the Murtala/Obasanjo regime.Prior to the period the Nigerian Supreme court replaced in 1980 upon independence the judicial committee of the privy council as the highest or apex court in the land . With the exception of the Supreme Court all other courts of the superior courts of records including the court of appeal ,the high courts and the inferior courts of records like the Sharia courts.Area courts ,Magistrate courts.Customary courts were established during the period.
The indigenization policy that began during the Gowon regime took a scintillating dimension with the incursion of 3rd national plans in which Nigerians for the first time were empowered to take over the commanding heights of the economy for the first time in the nation”s history.About 900,000 shares of the public sector companies were sold to the Nigerians during the period .
Although some media pundits like the Tella:2013 among others have contended that the mass purging of civil service in 1975 by the Murtala/ Obasanjo regime had been blamed to have massively contributed to the erosion of public service or the bureaucracy at large as an important arm of good governance.The service consequently lost its vibrancy ,dedication ,transparency and commitment to public service in addition to the incapacitation of the civil service by the fear of the military , and the degeneration of the service value system .That we import 95 percent of what we consumed till date obtained its blundering impulse from the era.
Surely these are drawbacks but one thing cannot be taken away from this regime , that the largest expansion in the nation’s history and the most successful socialist antecedence e happened under its watchdog .In the golden words of Yemi Ogunbiyi as noted in the piece “Why OBJ Deserves A Second Term –Part 1” published in the defunct Comet –April 8,2003 .He noted besides being “one of the most purposefuland resolute in the history of Nigeria “ also concluded “none achieved so much in so liitle a time “.That is to say if had had 9 years and 8 years that Gowon and Babangida squandered literally speaking the whole of Nigeria that chief Obafemi Awolowo regarded as mere geographical expression by now would have been a paradise of some sorts .Taka OR IT LEAVE IT that is the truth .He further noted “none perhaps none did more to set Nigeria on a path of self reliance and sustainable growth “.By 1979 it was clear not only had we recorded the highest percapital income ever but also that the 10 percent growth rate had not been exceeded ever since .The UNDP regarded Nigeria as a middle class economy during the period when the external debt was below 500 million naira .Today the then rising middle class meant to defend democracy were by all ramification no more and lulled into the obscurity of the nation’s antecedence .
All the successive regimes beginning from 1979 loved to be associated with this regime.On October 1st,1979 the outgoing President Obasanjo expressed so much optimism for a country destined for great things .The new President Shehu Shagari enthralled with the foundation laid by third national development plans also admitted this feat at the joint session of National Assembly on 12thJanuary 1981 while launching the fourth national development plan.He noted “.the plan has undoubtedly succeeded in laying a good foundation for further development of our national economy towards self sustained growth and self reliant “posterity so to say .Upon assumption of power the Buhari/Idiagbon regime in 1983 also declared their strategic intention of being an extension of third national development plan in attempt to gain to gain moral acceptability .Ultimately none of the successive regimes even before it were close to this magical feat supposedly and unarguably the golden age of economic development in Nigeria.They failed woefully so that 1983 the government that took over by 1979 was in trouble before the end of its first term in office .Its good beginning was not sustained .
The fourth national development plan-1981-85 launched by new regime and the governments of 19 States was the first by a democratically elected government under the first federal constitution. Unlike other previous plans this was the first the local government s were to participate by both preparedness and then autonomous to execute their separate development programmes .Capital investment target 82.2 billion naira jointly shared by both private and public sector with the former taking a larger chunk of 70.5 billion naira and the rest by the private sector .Apart from the two quick succession crisis in 1983 and 1985 ,the performance of the fourth national development plan was generally poor.
Ogunbiyi further noted “Although it claimed at the outset to have been an offshoot of the Murtala /Obasanjo ,the Buhari regime soon proved itself to be bereft of the ideas and convictions that set Murtala/Obasanjo regime apart .Instead of articulated political and economic programmes ,it offered draconian laws and adhoc policies .As our foreign debt mounted ,the Buhari regime refused to borrow any more and turned its back on debt repayment .The administration out countraer trade policy but that too failed .Then it returned to the era of rationing essential commodities again with little success .Not even the government rigid import licensing policy provided the desired result of economic stability .As government ran out of ideas on what to do with the economy ,Nigerians watched helplessly even as our standard of living slid.Nigerians were so sick and tired of the regime ,that when General Babangida overthrown the government in AUGUST 1985 ,there were widespread jubilations in the country “
It is clear with the above that successive regimes though motivated by the Obasanjo regime could not reenact this feat even with higher investment capital at their disposal let alone exceeded this feat . Ogunbiyi better captured the mood of the era and unworkability of governance during the period under survey .Tella-2013 also corroborate this claim .That “the return of democractic regime in 1979 under the leadership of Alhaji Shehu Shagari did not help matters .The “huge” external reserves that was handed over by Obasanjo military government to the Shagari regime was mismanaged as corruption and unbridled importation of all sorts of items became the hallmark of the regime.The rapid depletion of the reserve ,the glut in the oil market -1980/81 and the world economic recession that started in 1983 combined to expose the weakness in the economy and by implication exposed the people to avoidable hardship.”
This precarious situation was responsible for the truncation of democracy once again on January , 1984 by then Buhari/Idiagbon regime .Tella-2013 also noted not only was fifth national development distress implementation truncated but the palace coup that came in 1985 with its new regime “were in many respects momentous years” and the objective assesments of his achievement and their impact onour national life will remain the subject of fierce disputation by political historians for many years to come “.Ogunbiyi concluded.But Tella-2013 in the piece “The Trends In The Economy ‘ published in Oct .1,2013,Punch] was factual ……..”under the second coming of the military beginning with Babangida the standard of living “ plummeted ,infrastructural development nosedived and corruption institutionalized as judiciary and rule of law entangled.”Politic
