Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo admitted Monday his administration has failed so far to lift most Nigerians out of poverty and end violence, in a speech to mark the country's 41st independence celebrations.
More than two years after taking power in May 1999, following more than 15 years of military misrule, Obasanjo said his government was working hard to improve security and uplift the economy for the 120 million Nigerians but acknowledged 'enormous' challenges.
"What still remains to be done is vast and enormous, eclipsing the modest achievements we have recorded so far," Obasanjo said in a televised broadcast, the text of which was issued to AFP in advance.
"Far too many of our citizens still remain poor," Obasanjo said, industry was still weak and inflation was a problem.
"I acknowledge that the response of the economy, especially the manufacturing sector, to our determined efforts at revitalization has been slower than expected," he added.
The president blamed in large part the "dismal reality" of how run down Nigeria was in 1999 before he took over.
"I had naturally assumed that after so many years of bad and tyrannical government, the task of restoring pristine values and reviving our infrastructure would be an enormous one.
"But what we actually found, and continue to discover virtually every day, was more shocking than we could ever have imagined," he said.
"Everything, it seemed, had nearly collapsed: the economy, our physical infrastructure, the system of our social organisation together with our values and morals. Cynicism and corruption were the order of the day. Violent crime had reached unprecedented levels and nothing seemed to work."
But despite the problems, Obasanjo said, he had recorded some successes.
On entering government, the president said, he had launched a series of "systematic inquiries" into the problems facing Nigeria and was now putting their findings into practice.
The government was privatising moribund state companies and improving the power and telecoms systems, investing in power generation, boosting power output from a low of 1,400 megawatts to around 3,000 megawatts, and allowing two foreign-owned mobile phone companies to launch services here.
Obasanjo said the government had raised salaries in the public sector, raised public pensions and ensured more regular pension payments. It had set up a commission to help develop the troubled Niger Delta region.
The administration had "tackled head-on the problem of corruption" by setting up an anti-corruption commission and "tamed the scourge of human rights violations" by setting up a panel to look at past human rights abuses and recommend changes.
New roads were being built, strike activity had been reduced in education, and police reforms were taking place.
Nevertheless, the country was still shaken by repeated outbursts of communal violence, the president went on, admonishing Nigerians: "We all have the duty to respect this fundamental right of every other Nigerian...
"We owe it to ourselves and to the future of this great nation ... not to think of or see any fellow Nigerian as a 'settler' in our country where he or she is a citizen by birth."
Despite the problems which remained vast, Obasanjo said Monday, more Nigerians are now reporting that "things are indeed getting better." |
