“He Had Bad PR”: Financial Analyst Lists Abacha’s “Achievements”, Nigerians React
- Netizens have come heavy on a financial analyst who gave kudos to the administration of the late Nigerian dictator, General Sani Abacha
- In a lengthy social media post, the financial analyst revealed how the economy of Nigeria thrived compared to what it is today
- The analyst stated that the late military junta had an ineffective public relations team to project his significant achievements
Economic commentator and financial analyst, Kalu Aja, has described the administration of the late military head of state, Sani Abacha, as one of the best in Nigeria's history.
In a lengthy social media post on X, Aja revealed that the only shortcoming of the late dictator was that he had a bad public relations team that could not relay his good side to the public.
Source: Getty Images
Aja revealed that Abacha rolled out some significant projects during his tenure, ranging from reducing the national debt from $36bn to $27bn.
He also claimed Abacha took the country's foreign reserves "from $494m in 1993 to $9.6b in 1997."
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Aja said:
"Abacha reduced the inflation rate from a crazy 54% to 8.5%....All these with oil price at $15 a barrel.
"Abacha invested the seed fund of $1b to the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas company...NLNG. Abacha set up the Aluminum Smelting Company. Abacha stabilized the fragile national balance sheet by introducing VAT.
"Abacha administration is also credited with creating the most comprehensive and realistic blueprint for Nigeria's development through the Vision 2010 committee chaired by his predecessor."
Nigerians react
However, Nigerians reacted differently to Aja's assertions on Abacha's administration.
Emmanuel Odunsi, with the X handle @ToksOdunsi, revealed that many industries collapsed under the watch of the military dictator.
He wrote:
"Under the same Abacha most Industries closed down, public schools went on strike.
"Petroleum products were unavailable, Nigerians State cooking with Saw dust (Abacha Stove).
"The economy was literarily dead under Abacha."
Another netizen, Fasanmi Afolabi Lawrence, with the X handle @FasanmiLawrence, wrote:
"I was a teenager in 1997, but I remember vividly that people couldn't afford to buy kerosene anymore and had to be going to sawmills to get sawdust for cooking.
"I also remember that this was the period I learnt about 1-0-1.
"Are you saying our parents deliberately suffered us?"
@Letter_to_Jack wrote:
"I’m sure this deliberate washing is aimed at Gen Z; people who were too young (or not yet born) to experience what actual suffering and brutality was.
"A maximum tyrant who formed a state-backed killer-squad, whose mission was to kill and disappear any opposition had bad PR because he pegged the dollar?
"What was the real rate of the dollar in the black market then? It was around N80/dollar. (I’m sure you know this).
"That moment was the start of the era of dollar round-tripping in Nigeria. His associates got dollar at official rates and sold them at 400% profit to the black market."
@Itiroro wrote:
"People used "Abacha stove" bro and cotton seed became a condiment for very watery soup...what bad pro are we talking about exactly? #Abacha like #Buhari was hellish and no pro could have whitewashed what people experienced then and no pro can whitewash it now!"
Tinubu on EFCC: "How do you expect civil servants to have N5m for housing without corruption?"
In another report, President Bola Tinubu discussed the approach the EFCC should embrace to address corruption.
Speaking at the Nigerian Economic Summit recently, he raised concerns about how a civil servant could afford housing worth N3-N5 million without resorting to corruption.
Consequently, he proposed the introduction of mortgage banks to address this issue as he reiterated his commitment to reviewing the salaries.
Source: Legit.ng
