Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has averred that Nigeria not a difficult country to manage.
He, however, admitted to the country’s complex nature.
He made this known in a speech at the memorial lecture in honour of Akintola Williams, Nigeria’s first chartered accountant.
The lecture with the theme ‘Leadership Dynamics: Current Realities and Way Forward’, was organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and held in Lagos.
Obasanjo who has served Nigeria twice as military head of state and civilian president, respectively, said: “I always say Nigeria is a complex country. You must understand that. But Nigeria is not a difficult country to manage. You have to be honest with yourself, Nigeria and your God,” Obasanjo said.
He pointed out that despite the economic challenges the country faced during his tenure, his administration did everything possible to achieve development.
“When I was there, I did everything I should do for Nigeria and I can beat my chest and say that. I took over the affairs of Nigeria as elected president with N3.7 billion in reserves and we were spending N3.5 billion to service debt.
“So, I decided we must seek debt relief and I went out for it… and we got debt relief. Not only did we get relief from a quantum debt of N3.36 billion, but we also came to a quantum debt of N3.6 billion and I left with over N25 billion in what we call excess crude, that is, the money we saved from the budget and what we actually received and we had a reserve of over N45 billion,” he stated.
He praised the late Akintola, adding that he deserves every honour conferred on him posthumously “for what he did for this country politically, socially and economically”.
Davidson Alaribe, ICAN president, implored members to uphold the standards of the profession set by Williams.
