“I was fully in charge of the affairs of the country when I was the president” – Obasanjo

 

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says he can beat his chest and say that when he was President, he did everything he needed to do for the country and was in charge of the affairs of Nigeria.

While speaking at a lecture held in Lagos recently, Obasanjo who was President from 1999 to 2007, said;

“When I was there, I did everything I should do for Nigeria and I can beat my chest and say that. I took over the affairs of Nigeria as elected president with N3.7 billion in reserves and we were spending N3.5 billion to service debt. So, I decided we must seek debt relief and I went out for it… and we got debt relief. Not only did we get relief from a quantum debt of N3.36 billion, but we also came to a quantum debt of N3.6 billion and I left with over N25 billion in what we call excess crude, that is, the money we saved from the budget and what we actually received and we had a reserve of over N45 billion.”

The former President added that Nigeria may be complex but certainly not difficult to manage.

“I always say Nigeria is a complex country. You must understand that. But Nigeria is not a difficult country to manage. You have to be honest with yourself, Nigeria and your God’’