OBJ Accuses President GEJ of Squandering $55Bn Oil Money

Olusegun Obasanjo, former president has accused President Goodluck Jonathan of squandering $25billion crude oil savings left behind by his administration.

Obasanjo made the allegation while hosting the South-West women leaders at his residence in Abeokuta, describing the administration of President Jonathan as full of impunity.

The former president also said the failure of Jonathan’s administration to save for the rainy day led Nigeria into the current economic mess where a dollar exchanges N195.

Obasanjo claimed that the more than $25billion inherited by his successor, Musa Yar’Adua, was raised to $35 billion but the Jonathan administration squandered all, including also the $40billion in Nigeria’s foreign reserve account after paying the outstanding debt at the time.

According to him, former President Yar’adua also raised the reserves to $60billion, but under President Jonathan, the reserves plummeted.

These new claims followed series of public denunciation of Jonathan’s government by the former president.

Last year, Obasanjo repeatedly lambasted the current government, accusing the president of promoting and tolerating corruption, and failing to provide security for Nigerians.

But Obasanjo, yesterday, said he was not fighting the President, nor was Jonathan fighting him. He said he was more concerned about the interest of the country, and, therefore, cared less about criticisms.

“I have no grudges against Jonathan and I think Jonathan equally has no grudges against me. I’m not quarrelling with Jonathan. All I know is that whatever is good for Nigeria, that I’m ready to die for.

“I emphasize that whatever is good for Nigeria is what I’m ready to defend with my life. Whoever I emphasize, whoever says he would not do anything good to Nigeria, even if he says he’s ready to go ‘konko below’, I’m ready to square it up with such a person. I say again, whoever that person may be, I want you to get that correctly. If this country is going to change for the better, it would start from the top and if it’s going to be otherwise, it would start from the top, too,” the former president stressed.

The former president also lamented the poor condition of Nigeria’s economy, saying it shouldn’t have been this bad.

“Our economy should not have been this bad. When I was leaving office about eight years ago, I left a very huge reserve after we had paid all our debts. Almost $25billion was kept in what they called excess crude, including the excess from the budget we were saving as reserve for the rainy days. When we left in May, 2007, the reserve was said to have been raised to $35billion.

“But today, that reserve has been depleted! The reserve we left when we finished paying all our debts, our debts that was about $40billion, that is including debt forgiveness, the remaining debt was not more than $3billion. Our reserve after we had paid off this debt was about $45billion. As at the end of 2007, I heard that the reserve increased to almost $67billion before the end of that year. But our reserve now, I learnt is left with around only $30billion.

“That is why the Naira has been falling against the dollar. What would now happen? I learnt if you want to buy a dollar now, it’s about N192 or N195. What it means is this, what you have been buying at N150 to a dollar, now you need N192 or N195 to buy it. That is the real situation. Is there any remedy? There is, but it does not come overnight because it means we have to give up all the bad things we have been doing,” Obasanjo said.