Congratulations Is In Order Mr. President!

Saturday, 02 July 2005
Congratulations Is In Order Mr. President!
By Paul I.Adujie
New York, United States


President Obasanjo is famous for his loathe of praise singers and sycophants, this is true.
But President Obasanjo scored yet another major victory for Nigeria, spectacularly so, in the economic front, as he has secured debt relief, debt relief, which he has pursued with dedication and utmost commitment. His vigorous pursuit of debt cancellation has yielded wonderful result, as the Paris Club of creditors granted the president’s requests!

Minister Okonjo-Iweala, Minister Esther Usman, Professor Soludo the Nigeria central bank governor, and other members of President Obasanjo’s economic team deserve our commendations as well, for their laudable roles in bringing debt relief for Nigeria to fruition! This is the desire of the average Nigerian who has borne the brunt of the stifling and crushing effects of Nigeria’s foreign debts.

It has been the desire and passion of President Obasanjo to bring succor and relief to Nigerians, to remove the hardships and suffering that these debts have brought about, through harsh fiscal measures, and sundry deprivations of public infrastructures and need basic social amenities.

President Obasanjo is surely a smart and brilliant manager of Nigeria’s resources, it is often said in management, that smart and savvy managers hire the best fits for the jobs at hand, and in this case, President Obasanjo has certainly surrounded himself with the best brains, in the business of administering Nigeria’s economic affairs admirably well.

His good intentions, his passions and efforts are yielding desirable results and profits.

Nigerians will do well to applaud and offer encouragement to the president and his economic team, for the remarkable and spectacular achievement in the department of debt relief, their focus and tenacity culminated in the relief agreed to, in principle, only a few days ago, by the Paris Club of creditors.

Secondly, the president is now free to concentrate on the task, the tough challenge of doing his best for our republic, during the unexpired term of his second term which run out in 2007, as the Supreme court of Nigeria has removed the legal cloud over his presidency, once and for all. The verdict is in. The Supreme Court has answered affirmatively, that the re-election of President Obasanjo complied with Nigeria’s electoral law, the president’s re-election is therefore conclusively declared fair, proper and legal!

Finally, Nigerians may now start to breathe a little more easily and will be able to appreciate the good intentions of President Obasanjo, he really means well for Nigerians and Nigeria, but our expectation fatigue that has permeated the populace for several decades, has made cynicism and pessimism pervasive mental attitudes.



Some of us, have always been fairly certain, that the multifarious efforts, being made by President Obasanjo and the teams of technocrats that he has meticulously and diligently selected for his government, would bring good results, even if not immediately, in certain areas, but sooner than later in all areas, this, due to the resounding changes and reforms in public policies that President Obasanjo has been instituting since the inception of his government administration. The rules, the policies and processes that are being entrenched now, will yield bountiful results, even long after President Obasanjo retires from the political scene!

As time progresses, it would have become clear, that the needed changes and reforms, that are being undertaken by President Obasanjo, are unarguably essential for the attainment of an advanced Nigeria and a great Nigeria, a Nigeria that we all want and need, a Nigeria that we can all be proud of.

The president clearly has full grasps of what the important issues are, he recently was quoted as saying, a hungry man is and angry man and a dangerous man, loosely, translated, it means the same thing, President Bill Clinton once said here in America, “It is the economy stupid!” In a good economy, Nigerians, will become happily oblivious of the recently exemplified and exacerbated divisiveness of ethnicities, religion, region, citizen, indigene and settler dichotomies, or the loud proclamations of resource control, smokescreen for ineffective officials, who would not even spend what is available on Nigerians in their domain, even as they angles for more national resources.

With these recent achievements, I suspect that Nigerians have now had a taste of the results of the president’s zeal and fervor for a better Nigeria for all Nigerians.

The president and his team, with these resounding victories, in both financial and legal battles, must remain singularly focused, on bring health, wealth and happiness to all Nigerians, the long suffering Nigerians deserves no less!

Congratulations Mr. President! Congratulations Nigerians! Congratulations Nigeria!