Abachas Vision 2010 Blueprint revisited  It is often said that if mirage is repeated often and often it assumes the garb of truth and people begin to doubt if what they cherished as truth was not really a mirage. That is the situation that we have been having in Nigeria since the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme by the Babangida regime in 1986 and particularly since the emergence of the Obasanjo administration on May 29, 1999. The slogan and the pet word in the Obasanjo economic dictionary today is the Reform Agenda. The advocates of the perpetuation of Obasanjo as the life president of Nigeria hinge their main reason on the need to allow Obasanjo to complete and consolidate his economic reform agenda for Nigeria, so that by 2020, Nigeria will become an economic and industrial giant in the world. In other words, the proposed amendment of the 1999 Constitution to provide for three terms of four years each, instead of the existing two terms tenure of four years for the President and the governors of Nigeria, is not to enable Obasanjo to stay in office for another four years but for a new fresh presidential term of twelve years that will terminate in 2019. That is why the slogan in the Presidency in Abuja, today, is 2020, not 2011. The proposed amendment is in the mould of the late General Abachas henchmen in the Vision 2010 Committee. They were planning two terms of six years each, after 1998, for General Sani Abachas transition from military head of state to a Civilian president, so that, in the language of the henchmen, by 2010, adequate measures would have been put in place, to stimulate economic growth and to transform Nigerians into patriotic citizens and place the country en-route to becoming a developed country. The visioners went further to state that, it is necessary that the reform measures being recommended, should be carried out not only with the full weight of the government machinery, but also with the complete support of the private sector, and the willing cooperation of the general public. The Vision 2010 Committee was inaugurated by Abacha on September, 1996, to complete its assignment and submit its report not later than September, 1997.The 2010 visioners, like the present proponents of a third term for Obasanjo, were proponents of massive new reform agenda for Nigeria. In the charge to the Vision 2010 Committee, on September 27, 1996, General Abacha asked the Visioners, first, to constructively analyse why after more than 36 years of political independence, our development as a nation in many spheres had been relatively unimpressive, especially, in relation to our potentials. Secondly, to envision or visualise where we would like to be at the time that Nigeria will be a fifty years old as an independent nation, in 2010. Thirdly, to develop the blue print and action plans for translating the envisaged vision into reality. The 230 page Report of the Vision 2010 was submitted to Abacha in September, 1997. The Visioners consisted of 247 elite Nigerians, under the chairmanship of Chief (Dr.) Ernest Shonekan, the preceding head of state to General Abacha. The committee was assisted by 141 technical and secretariat staff, drawn from the Presidency, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), federal ministries, the National Assembly, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the universities and the private sector. In addition, 29 Facilitators, 24 Resource persons, and 17 consultants, including foreign experts from Asia, Europe and America, participated in the Vision. The 247 members included the countrys major emirs, obis, and obas, Christian and Muslim religious leaders, leading industrialists, commercialists, bankers and academicians, many of whom are now very prominent leaders in the ongoing Obasanjo reform administration. In its letter of transmission of the report to Abacha, the Visioners stated that, The Report is the outcome of 12 plenary meetings, 57 around-the country meetings and workshops, 53 sub-committee meetings, field studies, and, thousands of memoranda from the public, including input from federal ministries, state governments, private sector institutions, Nigerians domiciled out of the country, and some foreigners who have interest in the welfare and livelihood of Nigeria. These foreigners are now called, Development Partners in the Obasanjo administration. The Report proposed both immediate, short-term, medium term, and long-term measures to stimulate and grow the economy of Nigeria. The Committee rightly adumbrated that, all of us, and not one single segment of the society or a single administration, could be strictly said to be responsible for our problems. The Committee then proceeded to ask, and answer, three questions about the country; viz: Where we are, and why? Where do we want to be? And, How do we get there, so that by 2010, Nigeria will be a democratic society, committed to making the basic needs of life affordable for everyone and creating Africas leading economy? Unknown to many of the Visioners, the moving spirit behind the Vision was to elongate the rule of Abacha, because of his alleged achievements in government during 1993-1997. The achievements were said to include; the stablisation of the political terrain, after the annulment of the June 12, 1992 elections by General Babangida and the political upheavals that followed it, leading to the exit of General Babangida and the installation and the exit of the interim administration of Chief Ernest Shonekan: the stabilisation of the value of the naira and its stoppage from further devaluation; the increase in the countrys foreign exchange reserves from $494 million dollars in 1993 to $9.6 billion by the middle of 1997; the improvement in the general standard of living of Nigerians during the regime; the establishment of the Petroleum Trust Fund and the improvement in the infrastructural services it occasioned; the caging of, and the reduction in the influences of the IMF/World Bank in the Nigerian economy, which reached its height during the regime of General Babangida; the prudent management of the annual budgets of the Federal Government; the reduction in the external debt of Nigeria from $36 billion in 1993 to $27 billion by 1997; improvement in the salaries and pensions of public servants; and the unprecedented provision of money for the settlement of internal debts which had been incurred by previous administrations but for which little or no provisions for their settlement had been made until the Abachas regime. He was later adopted as the Presidential Candidate of the five main political parties for the 1998 election. He died in June, 1998! The similarity between these reasons and the reasons being advocated for the elongation of the tenure of President Obasanjo today is obvious. Some of the then proponents of regime elongation said that Nigeria would slide back into retrogression if Abacha did not continue. They also say the sane thing about President Obasanjo today? The then National Economic Intelligence Committee (NEIC), set up by the government of General Abacha, saw through the main motive behind the setting up of the Vision 2010 Committee and of some of its leading members. As the chairman of the NEIC, the 14 members of the NEIC mandated me to appear before the Vision Committee and oppose some of its economic agenda as likely to take Nigerian economy backward rather than forward, and to warn General Abacha on the dangers posed to his person and to the government and the people of Nigeria should he agree to translate into a civilian President after October, 1, 1998, when he promised to surrender power. Thrice, I met General Abacha and thrice he was grateful about the warnings. He promised that under no circumstances would he succumb to being used by the advocates of regime translation. But from the information that the NEIC gathered from the then Chief of General Staff, Lt. General Oladipo Diya, General Abacha and his henchmen were scheming to elongate the regime. It was mainly the opposition of General Oladipo Diya, who argued that the regime must honour its promise to leave on October, 1, 1998, that led to the charge of a coup plot against Genera! Diya in 1997. It led to General Diya being tried and sentenced by a Military Tribunal in late 1997. The similarly between the rel
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 06:56:05 +0000
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