President Jonathan’s economic policies similar to Abacha’s – Obasanjo

 By Bankole

Former Nigerian president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has likened the present economic situation in the country under President Goodluck Jonathan to the one witnessed during the era of the military tyrant, Late General Sani Abacha in which the middle-class was destroyed by the economic situation.

Obasanjo who declared this on Sunday when a group of traders visited him in Abeokuta while rummaging through his phone message file to read an SMS from the unidentified Nigerian requesting for his financial assistance.


He said that the development, notwithstanding, did not change his conviction that, “tough time does not last forever, and when tough time comes, tough people get going. We will keep going and we will survive this tough time”. “I told him (the SMS sender) that we have experienced this period in the time of Abacha, all the members of the middle class were completely destroyed,” he said. Obasanjo who also talked about a military officer who could not afford to buy a car, said that it was a surprise to him. “I was surprised the day a Colonel in the Army came to me complaining that he and his family could not afford to buy a car!”.

Another example to buttress his assertion was about a medical doctor family that had to relocate to Saudi Arabia to survive. “A friend of mine, Dr. Okoro, a medical doctor, his wife was also a medical doctor and they have a daughter too, who is also a medical doctor: between the three of them, they could not afford a new car. They had to go to Saudi Arabia, but I pray we will not have such a time in Nigeria,” Obasanjo prayed. Speaking on the way forward ahead of the 2015 political dispensation, the former President advised Nigerians to be alert and vigilant. “We have to be at alert.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed, if we will get ourselves out of the morass we find ourselves in, it has to be done by each and every one of us. We all have contribution to make and should not leave our responsibility for others to do for us. If we fail to participate in things that are meaningfully positive for this country, you will be a victim and we all become victims,” Obasanjo stated.

 Obasanjo also stated that “as far as the next political dispensation is concerned, I cannot decide yet, we should all resort to spiritual guidance for help.” “As for me, we don’t know where we are going yet, may God show us the way. The way that will take this country and make it a great country and well for me too. I understand and If I see the way, I will tell you. I pray that God will show me the way, may God show you the way,” the former President declared.

Culled from www.today.ng/news