Everything about Olusegun Obasanjo totally explained
General (rtd.) Olusegun Aremu Okikiola Matthew Obasanjo,
GCFR () (born circa
March 5,
1937) is a retired
Nigerian Army general and former
President of
Nigeria. A
Christian of
Yoruba descent, Obasanjo was a career soldier before serving twice as his nation's head of state, once as a military ruler, between
February 13,
1976 to
October 1,
1979 and again from
May 29,
1999 to
May 29,
2007, as elected President. His current home is
Ado-Odo/Ota.
Early life and first time as head of state
Obasanjo was born in
Ogun State, grew up in
Owu, and he enlisted in the army in 1958. His name, Olusegun, means "
God is victorious". He trained at
Aldershot, was commissioned as an officer, and fought against the
Biafran secessionists in the
Nigerian Civil War. Although he didn't directly participate in the
military coup of
July 29,
1975, led by
Murtala Mohammed, he supported it and was named Mohammed's deputy in the new government.
As chief of staff of Supreme Headquarters, Obasanjo was Mohammed's deputy and had the support of the military. He had earlier commanded the federal division that took
Owerri, effectively bringing an end to the civil war. In 1976, he was marked for assassination along with Mohammed and other senior military personnel by coup plotters, lead by army col. Dimka. But one colonel was mistaken for Obasanjo, and was subsequently killed together with Murtala on
February 13 1976. A low profile security policy adopted by Murtala in guarding very important persons allowed the plotters easy access to their targets. However, the coup was foiled because they missed Obasanjo and General
Theophilus Danjuma, chief of army staff and
de facto number three man in the country. The plotters also failed to cut off the communication line, although they were able to take over the radio station to make their announcement. Obasanjo and Danjuma where able to establish a chain of command and re-established security in
Lagos, thereby regaining control. Obasanjo was made head of state in a meeting of the Supreme Military Council. Keeping the chain of command established by Murtala Muhammad in place, Obasanjo pledged to continue the programme for the restoration of civilian government in 1979 and to carry forward the reform programme to improve the quality of public service.
The model for the
second republican constitution, which was adopted in 1979, was modelled on the
Constitution of the United States, with provision for a
President,
Senate, and
House of Representatives. The country was now ready for local elections, to be followed by national elections, that would return Nigeria to civilian rule.
The military regimes of Murtala Muhammad and Obasanjo benefited from a tremendous influx of oil revenue that increased 350 percent between 1973 and 1974, when oil prices skyrocketed, to 1979, when the military stepped down. Increased revenues permitted massive spending; this spending, however, was poorly planned and concentrated in urban areas. The oil boom was marred by a minor recession in 1978-79, but revenues rebounded until mid-1981. The increase in revenues made possible a rapid rise in income, especially for the urban middle class. There was a corresponding inflation, particularly in the price of food, that promoted both industrialisation and the expansion of agricultural production. As a result of the shift to food crops, the traditional export earners — peanuts, cotton, cocoa, and palm products — declined in significance and then ceased to be important at all. Nigeria's exports became dominated by oil.
Industrialisation, which had grown slowly after
World War II through the civil war, boomed in the 1970s, despite many infrastructure constraints. Growth was particularly pronounced in the production and assembly of consumer goods, including vehicle assembly and the manufacture of soap and detergents, soft drinks, pharmaceuticals, beer, paint, and building materials. Furthermore, there was extensive investment in infrastructure from 1975 to 1980, and the number of parastatals — jointly government- and privately owned companies — proliferated. The Nigerian Enterprises Promotion decrees of 1972 and 1977 further encouraged the growth of an indigenous middle class.
Plans were undertaken for the movement of the federal capital from
Lagos to
Abuja, a more central location in the interior of the country. Such a step was seen as a means of encouraging the spread of industrial development inland and of relieving the congestion that threatened to choke Lagos. Abuja also was chosen because it wasn't identified with any particular ethnic group.
Heavy investment was planned in steel production. With
Soviet assistance, a steel mill was developed at
Ajaokuta in
Kogi State, not far from Abuja. The most significant negative sign was the decline of industry associated with agriculture, but large-scale irrigation projects were launched in the states of
Borno,
Kano,
Sokoto, and
Bauchi under
World Bank auspices.
Education also expanded rapidly. At the start of the civil war, there were only five universities, but by 1975 the number had increased to thirteen, with seven more established over the next several years. In 1975 there were 53,000 university students. There were similar advances in primary and secondary school education, particularly in those northern states that had lagged behind.
Obasanjo was also responsible for enormous political repression. In one particular instance, the compound of Nigerian musician and political activist
Fela Kuti was raided and burned to the ground after a member of his commune got in an altercation with military personnel. Fela and his family was beaten and raped, and his mother, political activist
Funmilayo Ransome Kuti was killed by being thrown from a window. Her coffin was carried to the barracks of Olusegun Obasanjo, to expose political repression.
Obasanjo served until
October 1,
1979, when he handed power to
Shehu Shagari, a democratically elected civilian president; this made Obasanjo the first leader in Nigerian history to surrender power willingly. In late 1983, however, the military seized power again. Obasanjo, being in retirement, didn't participate in that coup, and didn't publicly support it.
Later career and second presidency
During the dictatorship of
Sani Abacha (1993–1998), Obasanjo spoke out against the
human rights abuses of the regime, and was imprisoned for his participation in a bait coup. He was released only after Abacha's sudden death on
8 June 1998. It was after his release from prison that Obasanjo announced that he was a
born-again Christian.
First term
In the 1999 elections, the first in sixteen years, he decided to run for the presidency as the candidate of the
People's Democratic Party. Obasanjo won with 62.6% of the vote, sweeping the strongly Christian Southeast and the predominantly
Muslim north, but decisively lost his home region, the Southwest, to his fellow-Yoruba and Christian,
Olu Falae, the only other candidate. It is thought that lingering resentment among his fellow-Yorubas about his previous military administration of 1976 to 1979, after which he handed power over to a government dominated by northerners rather than by Yorubas, contributed to his poor showing among his own people.
May 29, the day Obasanjo took office as the first elected and civilian
head of state in Nigeria after 16 years of military rule, is now commemorated as
Democracy Day, a
public holiday in Nigeria.
Obasanjo spent most of his first term travelling abroad visiting mostly western countries. He claimed, this was to polish the country image and re-establish the country to international scene after being battered and stained by the regime of Gen. Abacha.
His party, PDP, was established without him, as when he was called to contest the presidency he was languishing in prison. Thus, he wasn't able to control the party in the direction he wanted. The party became its own opposition with various infighting.
Some of the public officials like the National Assembly speaker and Senate president were involved in conflicts of self importance and the president had to battle many impeachment moves from both houses.
Obasanjo was effective in making changes to the party officials but lacked support in the National Assembly, but was able to pass anti-corruption laws, survive impeachment and got renomination.
Second term
Obasanjo was re-elected in 2003 in a tumultuous election that had violent ethnic and religious overtones, his main opponent (fellow former military ruler General
Muhammadu Buhari) being a Muslim who drew his support mainly from the north. Capturing 61.8% of the vote, Obasanjo defeated Buhari by more than 11 million votes. Buhari and other defeated candidates (including
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the former
Biafran leader of the 1960s), claimed that the election was fraudulent. International observers from the
European Union, and the U.S.
National Democratic Institute and
International Republican Institute also reported widespread voting irregularities, including in the restive oil producing
Niger delta where Obasanjo's party had without explanation won close to 100% of the votes.
However, a delegation from the
Commonwealth of Nations — led by representatives of former colonial power and trading partner
Great Britain and African nations that had undergone troubled elections of their own — were less critical in their assessment. Much more worrying was the increasing polarisation of Nigeria along geographic and religious lines. Obasanjo swept the South, including the south-west where he'd lost four years earlier, but lost considerable ground in the North. For a nation in which ethnicity and religion ties in strongly to geography, such a trend was seen by many as particularly disturbing. Other commentators might simply note that in 2003, unlike 1999, Obasanjo was running against a Northerner and could therefore expect his support to erode in the North. Obasanjo won more Northern states than Buhari, but the latter did well in his region of NW, winning Kano and retaining other ANPP states.
Since leading a public campaign against corruption and implementing economic reforms in his country, he's been widely seen abroad as an African statesman championing debt relief and democratic institutions (three times rejecting government change by coups d'état in Africa as the chairperson of the
African Union). Critics of his politics say that he's used the campaign to fight his enemies and not to transform Nigeria.
Obasanjo's second term was more effective than the first. He had been able to control the party and got effective support from the National Assembly. Many governors, mostly from his party, were either exposed or prosecuted for corruption. Some ministers and state officials were also dismissed or prosecuted for corruption. Also, the Senate President was removed at Obasanjo's insistence, after he'd been exposed for receiving cash for budget approval from a minister. The country witnessed the trial and dismisal of senior Naval officers for corruption and similar faith for the chief of police. Some governors too were removed for corruption, though, some judges reversed some decision. Obasanjo himself is seen as a corrupt leader with oil revenues going missing from the federation account and paying out over $50bn on power sector to non-existent companies.
He was able to attract technocrats and Nigerian expatriates to his administration. They were able to plan various reforms in the country administration. They made effective contribution to the country economic planning and development. His administration had now established future planning and development for the country for the next five years.
He was well known for supporting and facilitating many illegal executive actions and ignoring judgements against his government including judgements delivered by the Supreme Court. Examples included the illegal withholding of funds due to Lagos State Local Governments for more than 2 years after the Supreme Court ordered its immediate release. He also supported the illegal impeachment of several state governors which the Supreme Court also reversed. The National Judicial Council demonstrated its independence by dismissing several judges who connived with the executive to undermine the constitution during his reign.
He wasn't able to trickle down reforms and development effective to states and local government level, even in the states controlled by his party. The states and local governments are still riddled with corrupt officials. Also, he failed to solve police and security issues in the country.
Before Obasanjo's administration Nigeria's GDP growth had been painfully slow since 1987, and only managed 3% between 1999/2000. However, under Obasanjo the growth rate doubled to 6% until he left office, helped in part by higher oil prices. Nigeria's foreign reserves rose from $2 billion in 1999 to $43 billion on leaving office in 2007. He was able to secure debt pardons from the Paris and London club amounting to some $10 billion. Most of these loans were secured and spent by past corrupt officials.
In 2005 the international community gave Nigeria's government its first pass mark for its anti-corruption efforts. However, a growing number of critics within Nigeria have accused Obasanjo's government of selectively targeting his anti-corruption drive against political opponents and ethnic militants, ignoring growing concerns about wide-scale corruption within his own inner political circle.
On
October 23,
2005 (just hours after the crash of
Bellview Airlines Flight 210), the President lost his wife,
Stella Obasanjo,
First Lady of Nigeria. Obasanjo has many children, who live throughout Nigeria, the
United Kingdom and the
United States.
Stella wasn't the first wife he lost. In 1987, his ex-wife Lynda was ordered out of her car by armed men, but was fatally shot for failing to move quickly.
Other officials
Third Term Agenda
Obasanjo was embroiled in controversy regarding his "Third Term Agenda," a plan to modify the
constitution so he could serve a third, four-year term as President. The bill wasn't ratified by the
National Assembly. Consequently, President Obasanjo stepped down after the
April 2007 general election.
Post-presidency
He has become chairman of the board of trustees of the PDP, and from that position he can control nominations for government positions and even policy and strategy. As one Western diplomat said, "He intends to sit in the passenger seat giving advice and ready to grab the wheel if Nigeria goes off course."
In March 2008, Obasanjo was indicted by the Nigerian parliament for awarding $2.2bn-worth of energy contracts during his eight year rule, without due process.
Revelations are also coming out of the massive corruption perpetrated by the largely Igbo and Hausa dominated cabinet under Obasanjo. He was ultimately the supervisor of the ministry charged with managing the country's oil resources. Accusations that have bypassed his cabinet include mismanagement of funds for road projects, the sales of the country's businesses(Nitel, Nicon Noga Hilton Hotel etc), land allocations, and oil blocks to himself and his Igbo and Hausa investors.
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