AMILOADED MEDIA HUB NEWS UPDATE
Kebbi State governor, Sen. Abubakar Bagudu, has said the former Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, achieved a lot for the country with little resources.
According to him, unlike today where the country’s reserve runs into billions and trillions, the former military President ruled at a time when Nigeria’s reserve was less than $750 million.
Despite this, he said Abacha worked so much in stabilising the economy, ensured steady exchange rate and security in the sub-region by funding the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG).
He said this yesterday in Abuja at the 2nd General Sani Abacha Colloquium, organised by the Centre for Political Research, Education and Development (CEPORED)
Bagudu said the late military Head of State achieved this through the use of home grown solutions.
Bagudu said the negative perception of Abacha was mainly instigated by the west that was not comfortable with his policies of developing the country through home grown efforts.
Bagudu said Abacha was a patriotic and courageous Nigerian who wanted the best for the country.
“By training, family background and zeal, he (Abacha) had a clear appreciation that each country is unique in its own way. There is no book that would tell you how to grow your country like others have.
“He believed that despite Nigeria’s uniqueness, the country was part of a regional economic arrangement, the ECOMOG and Gen. Abacha were vigilant about what was happening in the sub-region as well as Nigeria.
“ He was foresighted in appreciating that security challenges elsewhere in Africa, particularly in the sub-region which would one day be a security challenge in Nigeria if they are not handled, which explains his enthusiastic support and funding for the ECOMOG and many West African countries.
“Sometimes leaders in addition to risk taking also encourage society by being courageous. To say Gen. Abacha was courageous is an understatement because on numerous occasions, aware of the dangers of his policies, he would still convince his ministers to do it. He was so patriotic, believed in Nigeria and believed that even if he lost his life in the service of Nigeria, so be it and indeed he lost his life in the service of Nigeria.
“But what went wrong? Why is it that Gen. Abacha is being misrepresented in history? This is very agonising for his family and all of us. Well it is because sometimes home grown solutions involve risk taking because you are exposing yourself to the judgement of others whom are competitors. Countries that are amazed at how much you are able to do with so little are eager to criticise, rivals who are influenced by other interests are eager to say you have done wrong or not done well. Our father is not alone in history among great men who have seen history being attempted to turn the tide wrongly against them but one has to draw inspiration from the experience.
“I want us to take solace in the fact that General Abacha gave his best to Nigeria and it was remarkable with little resources but he was able to stabilise the economy, reserves was less than $750 million and yet the exchange rate was steady. The military was functioning properly and the sub-region benefited from Nigeria.
(Nation)
Leave a Reply