A former gubernatorial candidate in Oyo State, Hon. Saheed Ajadi, has stated that Nigeria would have been rid of its present economic challenges had the former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, decentralized the country’s power sector.
Ajadi submitted that it was a great error on the part of the former military head of state to have pumped billions of naira into a sector that was begging for decentralization.
The business man cum politician who was the flagbearer of Accord party in 2019 berated the former president for some of the economic measures he took while in office which according to him were taken to placate the West.
Ajadi cited the example of the foreign debt the former president paid off adding that such had such humongous amount been plunged back into the economy the woes being experienced right now would never have happened.
“A lot of economic policies introduced during Obasanjo regime were done in bad faith. The problem Obasanjo regime created is what the Buhari-led administration is dealing with now. It is a bandwagon effect. Okay, let me give you an instance on electricity; when President Obasanjo came in he said NEPA was moribund, was not functional, why was he pumping money into NEPA when he knew it was moribund?
“Decentralization of NEPA wouod have been the best solution to our electricity woes then. If we have coal somewhere in the East that can generate electricity let’s use use it. if it is hydro in another part, let’s use hydro. Federal government can then allign all these powers generated in different parts and pack them in the national grid, that is the way Obasanjo ought to have taken.
He continued, “America does not like us but Obasanjo likes America. Obasanjo if we are not care might become an agent of America and the West because all his policies were pro West. He gave back $20 billion to the Paris Clubs and the likes and said he will help us to negotiate our debt after we have paid $47 billion as interest for the money that never arrived in Nigeria. How much of that money came to Nigeria banks when they borrow us that money?” Hon. Ajadi asked rhetorically.
On the state of the economy in Oyo State, Ajadi wondered why despite the glaring signals of untapped economic potentials, the state government has not made any significant moves to harness those economic opportunities but instead the government is burrowing money to undertake projects that will not take the economy of the state to nowhere.
“What I expect Governor Makinde to be doing now is to strategize for Oyo State for the future. He ought to have come up with an economic roadmap of 20 years. What President Buhari is doing now will boost the economy of this state later, provided we tap into it.
“Right now, we are not aware that the population of Oyo State has exploded, Look at the quantum leap of supermarkets in Ibadan for instance. Structures of various sizes are springing up because our consumption graph is going up. There is actually too much money around in some sectors that we need to take away and put in other sectors. When you go around Ibadan in the evening go and look at the beer parlours, they are always full to the brim. Where do they get the money? If I were the governor I will take little of that money and put elsewhere”
He maintained that Oyo State is going backward economically because people at the helms of affairs are yet to take advantage of its huge potentials, the reason he attributed to their non preparedness before the mantle of leadership fell on them.
Ajadi, an accountant by profession, who had contested for the Senate twice before running for the governorship post under Accord Party in the last gubernatorial election in Oyo State declared that he was able to cling the Accord Party ticket in 2019 due to his loyalty and steadfastness to the party, adding, that those who were claiming to love the party in 2011 and 2015 were only saying so because they saw the party as a perfect platform to actualize their gubernatorial ambitions.
He declared that not many Accord Party faithful expected him to still stay in the party till 2019 having witnessed the cruelty the former leader of the party and a gubernatorial flag bearer, Sen. Rashidi Ladoja meted out to him.
He added that he was not surprised that the former Governor eventually ditched the party.
Ajadi concluded that he would still contest for the gubernatorial election in 2023 saying that he has three economic formular that will set Oyo State in the pedestal of economic buoyancy.
