DAILY TRUST
The Presidency has kept silent on the criticisms of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s reforms by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Obasanjo had, according to a statement by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, alleged that Nigeria is currently under a state capture and that the country’s situation is bad.
The former president was quoted to have said this while delivering in his keynote address at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum, Yale University New Haven Connecticut, United States.
On the other side, the IMF, in its latest outlook report for sub-Sahara Africa, said Nigeria is one of the Resource Intensive Countries (RICs) in Sub-Sahara Africa struggling to realise gains of its reforms.
It said while it is cheery news in some countries within the region, it is not looking good yet in Nigeria.
Attempts by Daily Trust yesterday to get reactions from the Presidency met a brick wall as Tinubu’s media aides declined comment.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Tope Ajayi, could not be reached on their mobile telephone lines and did not reply to text messages sent to them.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Print Media, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, also neither answered calls nor replied messages sent to their phone lines.
However, a source at the State House told Daily Trust on condition of anonymity that Obasanjo is a statesman and that the Presidency “will not want to join issues with him.”
The National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, had, last Wednesday, said President Tinubu’s administration had achieved significant progress in tackling insecurity and creating conducive environment for business.
What Obasanjo said
Obasanjo, in his address titled “Leadership Failure and State Capture in Nigeria”, described Nigeria’s situation as bad.
The former leader also alleged that Nigeria’s failing status under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was “confirmed and glaringly indicated and manifested for every honest person to see.”
He alluded to a World Bank and Transparency International’s definition of what a state capture was, saying it was described, “as one of the most pervasive forms of corruption, “a situation where powerful individuals, institutions, companies, or groups within or outside a country use corruption to shape a nation’s policies, legal environment, and economy, to benefit their own private interests.”
He noted that state capture is not always overt and obvious as it can also arise from the more subtle close alignment of interests between specific business and political elites through family ties, friendships, and the intertwined ownership of economic assets.
He said: “What is happening in Nigeria – right before our eyes – is state capture: The purchase of national assets by political elites – and their family members – at bargain prices, the allocation of national resources – minerals, land, and even human resources – to local, regional, and international actors. It must be prohibited and prevented through local and international laws.
“Public institutions such as the legislature, the executive, the judiciary, and regulatory agencies both at the federal and local levels are subject to capture. As such, state capture can broadly be understood as the disproportionate and unregulated influence of interest groups or decision-making processes, where special interest groups manage to bend state laws, policies, and regulations.
“They do so through practices such as illicit contributions paid by private interests to political parties, and for election campaigns, vote-buying, buying of presidential decrees or court decisions, as well as through illegitimate lobbying and revolving door appointments.
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