Some Nigerians attribute the official international cancellation of the Nigeria's huge foreign debt by the western financial institutions and the mobile phone technology in Nigeria to be the two visible, tangible and enduring legacies of the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. How true are these two assertions in all reality. Olusegun Obasanjo succeeded in securing a debt write-off for Nigeria, but failed completely in the implementation of the goals of that debt write-off for Nigeria.
Olusegun Obasanjo's debt write-off is a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul or solving one problem to immediately create another type of problem. The debt write-off for Nigeria is like a person who won a case of bankruptcy in the court of law against his creditors, but failed completely to enjoy the primary purpose of that bankruptcy in all reality by going back into a new set of debts with the same creditors again. The primary purpose for that debt write-off was for Nigeria under the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo to be able to spend more money on her old infrastructure, overwhelmed healthcare, outdated education and inadequte food security that would also attract greater foreign investment.
These things that I have listed above never happened one day under the watch and the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo. Where are the new national infrastructures? Where are the 21st century health care system? Where is the 21st century educational system? Where is the food security and the modern agricultural practices? What is the benefit of that debt write-off for Nigeria today in 2013? What did OBJ do with the debt write-off? Nothing.
The mobile technology was simply a technological transfer. The whole world was getting digitalized with the mobile phone technology at that time when Olusegun Obasanjo was the then President of Nigeria. Nigeria as a nation could not afford to be left behind in a changing world or else she will be cut off completely from the rest of the mankind without the 21st mobile telephone technology to reach the rest of the world. The mobile phone technology was a global phenomenon that was not limited to Nigeria only. It is like the internet technology. No country in 2013 can do business, survive or can interact with the rest of the mankind without those two technologies in place.
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