Subject: FW: [Biafraland] U.S. Predicts Nigeria Downfall
Obasanjo denounces US intelligence reports
By Emmanuel Aziken
Posted to the Web: Wednesday, May 25, 2005
ABUJA— PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo has denounced a United States
Intelligence assessment of Nigeria as a nation heading towards
failure, and vowed to prove the lowly report on Nigeria as a product
of the prophets of doom among the US intelligence community.
President Obasanjo reacted in a letter conveying to the Senate the
report of the United States Intelligence Council in which Nigeria was
rated as being managed by leaders at war with one another and headed
towards possible self-implosion.
The US report which is an analysis of Africa political prospects
warns that the possible chaos stemming from Nigeria's destruction
could overflow to Ghana.
The letter was read on the Senate floor just as the Senate passed the
FCT budget for the 2005 fiscal year.
Also yesterday, a bill by Senator James Manager (PDP, Delta South)
seeking to increase the number of judges in the FCT judiciary to 37
was unanimously received in the Senate and forwarded to the Senate
Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters for fine-tuning.
Among Senators who supported the bill entitled: "An Act to prescribe
the number of Judges for the High Court of the Federal Capital
Territory, Abuja" were Senators Sule Yari Gandi (ANPP, Sokoto),
Dahiru Umar (ANPP, Sokoto), Tunde Ogbeha (PDP, Kogi) and Joy Emodi
(PDP, Anambra North).
All the lawmakers who commented on the bill commended the sponsor,
Senator Manager. They said the increase in the number of judges would
help to redress a legacy of injustice that had until now prevailed in
the FCT judiciary through the non-representation of several states on
the FCT bench.
The United States intelligence report while noting the efforts of the
present administration in consolidating the nation's democracy,
however, cast a pessimistic outlook at the prospects of the country,
noting the separatist tendencies of the country's leaders.
Responding to the report in a letter to the Senate President dated
May 17, 2005, President Obasanjo said: "As a means of informing
ourselves, I hereby forward a copy of the United States National
Intelligence Council document on `Mapping Sub-Saharan Africa's
Future' for your attention. I am sending this to you not because I am
alarmed by the report but because if we know what others think of us
and about us, we can prevent what they project for us.
As a person who has participated in similar so-called `expert group'
on issues, situations and regions, I know that the predictions and
projections can be wide off the mark because both politics and
economics cannot be absolutely predicted and their dynamics can fool
the greatest and best expert. But it is important for us to know that
we are being rated low, not because of what is happening to us from
outside but because of what we do to, for and by ourselves internally.
"I believe that it is only God and ourselves that can map our present
and future. No outsider can do that accurately for us. I know that
some people glibly talk of the probability of Nigeria as a failed
state. I believe that they are living in the past and incapable of
noticing and appreciating the positive strides we are making on all
fronts and the determination of the Nigerian people to join hands to
consolidate democracy and promote sustainable growth and development.
Because they are stuck to old ideas and dreams as well as stereotypes
about us and our capabilities, they cannot see the new Nigeria that
we are building collectively as we move beyond the past but allowing
the past and present to strengthen and sustain our future.
"Similar experts at the beginning of the second half of the 20th
century predicted worse scenarios for South East Asia. In fact, at
the dawn of independence in Africa, Africa's chances were rated much
better than that of South East Asia, but because they pulled
themselves together, the predictions and projections about them have
been proved false. In the case of Africa, the reverse has been true
as the early favourable predictions and projections for the continent
have remained largely unattained.
"If our detractors cannot see our far-reaching reforms, our fight
against waste and corruption, the new culture of prudence and service
delivery that is gradually emerging, the various political reforms
including the on-going National Political Reform Conference as well
as the sacrifices our people are making to ensure economic progress
and democratic consolidation as indications of progress and a radical
departure from the past, then they must have some dubious or
diabolical benchmarks for measuring efforts at ensuring oneness,
unity, stability, indivisibility, prosperity, development and growth
of our dear country.
"I believe that we can and should disprove the modern experts of the
United States Intelligence Council who are like prophets of doom and
by the Grace of God, for Nigeria in this first decade of the 21st
Century, we must be determined to show that we are neither a basket
case nor walking on a banana peel."Copyright ©1998 - 2005 Vanguard
Media Limited All rights reserved
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