Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo has said Nigeria is complex but “not difficult to manage.”
Obasanjo stated this on Wednesday at the maiden memorial lecture in honour of the late legal icon, Akintola Williams, themed, ‘Leadership Dynamics: Current Realities And Way Forward,’ organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria in Lagos State.
He 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.”
The ex-military leader who emerged as the nation’s democratically-elected Head of State in May 1999, recalled how he sought relief to service the nation’s high debt profile while in office.
“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, even though we were the fifth country in all exporting in the world 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,”
