THE SUN

I warned Obasanjo – Prof Aluko
By BOLU-OLU ESHO, Ado-Ekiti

Thursday, May 15 , 2008

Foremost economist, Professor Sam Aluko, has given a rare insight into why Chief Olusegun Obasanjo performed woefully during his eight-year administration.

According to Aluko, the former president’s decision to implement his concocted private sector economic policies, even against sound advice not to do so, led him to the path of perdition.

He also described the corruption war fought by Obasanjo as fruitless, as grand corrupt acts were perpetrated under the ex-president’s nose.

The Ondo-State born technocrat, who served as Economic Intelligence Committee chairman under the late General Sani Abacha, said he warned Obasanjo that the “voodoo” economic system he was operating then would not take the country to the promised land.

“I told him that the private sector-led economy, which he was operating would lead the country into chaos and retrogression but he did not listen.

“I used to say that it would lead us into chaos and retrogression. I told him (Obasanjo) that this economic system you are imitating is like somebody who is going to Lagos from Akure and he faces Benin. The harder he walks, the more distant from Lagos he would be.

“Obasanjo was working 15 to 18 hours a day… Look at what is happening now. (It is) as if he wasted his time and did nothing. I’m sure he will be a sad person because he worked hard for this country but in the wrong direction. That’s why we are where we are.”

Aluko said the ex-president would be a sad man, as the shameful acts of his lieutenants unfold.

Similarly, the professor of Economics described as crazy the plan by the Federal Government to import rice into the country by setting aside N80billion, saying it was another plot to loot the treasury.

He said most of the money would end up in private pockets, like the N50billion set aside for upgrading farming during Obasanjo’s regime.

He said: “It is madness because we cannot feed ourselves agriculturally. We cannot maintain ourselves industrially, technologically and we cannot even maintain ourselves informationally. We are not human beings. Anybody who cannot feed himself is not a human being. A country that cannot feed itself is not a country.

“The N80billion will not be used for importing rice. Majority of it will go into private pockets unused. In any case, how much did they vote to produce rice locally? If you vote N80billion to import, how much did you vote to export? During Obasanjo regime, he put N50billion to develop agriculture.”

Aluko, however, called on the House of Representatives to make sure it forces President Umar Yar’Adua to build more refineries, warning that no private investor would build refineries.

“Rather, they would prefer to continue importing,” he declared.

He alleged that most of the importers of fuel and generators in the country were behind the travails of the refineries and power plants in the country.

“When I was the chairman of Economic Intelligence Committee, we submitted memo to government saying that for every shipload of fuel that came to Nigeria that time, the profit was $100,000. It’s too much temptation you will want to lose. So, all these oil magnates don’t want our refineries to work, just like those who import generators. They don’t want NEPA to work. So, it is obvious we have no factory, no agriculture. We are a stupid nation. Economically stupid.

“So, the House should really be thinking of how we are going to build more refineries. How are we going to stop importation? I had a whole evening with President Obasanjo before he was sworn in in 1999. I told him that as long as we import fuel, our refineries would not work, but if we stop importing, when we are suffering, we will build more. I gave him the statistics and the problems. They are the people sponsoring spoiling of the refineries and the pipeline vandalisation.

They finance it. So, that’s what the House should face. They should compel the government to build refineries. Private people will not build refineries, they would rather import. The same thing, they don’t build factories; they would rather import. All this talk about importing rice, they will not allow rice to grow, because when they import, they will give the licence to the rich people.”

In the same vein, Aluko argued that the ongoing investigations in the House of Representatives is mere waste of time and resources as no one can jail Obasanjo over the series of corruption allegedly perpetrated during his administration. To him the investigation exercises are nothing but charade, as he said this was not the first time such revelations of grand corruption are being made in the country. He dated this back to 1962, saying nothing serious came out of the exercise.

Aluko said that Obasanjo could not be jailed because he performed his role as the president to award contracts to companies that bidded, noting that it is not the former prsident’s duty to supervise or monitor the projects.