Obasanjo made this statement in his keynote address at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum, held on Saturday at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
In his speech, titled, “Leadership Failure and State Capture in Nigeria,” he expressed concern over the country’s dire situation, noting, “as the world can see and understand, Nigeria’s situation is bad.”
Using Singapore as an example of a country with effective leadership, Obasanjo highlighted how the government there has remained responsive to the evolving needs of its citizens, making significant investments in sectors like healthcare, education, and social welfare.
He said, “Nigeria’s situation, as we can see and understand, is bad. The more the immorality and corruption of a nation, the more the nation sinks into chaos, insecurity, conflict, discord, division, disunity, depression, youth restiveness, confusion, violence, and underdevelopment.
“That’s the situation mostly in Nigeria in the reign of Baba-go-slow and Emilokan. The failing state status of Nigeria is confirmed and glaringly indicated and manifested for every honest person to see through the consequences of the level of our pervasive corruption, mediocrity, immorality, misconduct, mismanagement, perversion, injustice, incompetence and all other forms of iniquity. But yes, there is hope.”
The former President, while quoting from a short, classic treatise published in 1983 called, “The Trouble with Nigeria” by Chinua Achebe, said, “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.
“The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership.”
According to him, two prominent US intellectuals, Robert Rotberg and John Campbell, had once raised the alarm about the failing status of Nigeria and its inevitable effects on the African continent given the country’s size, economic viability, and population, among others.
He described state capture “as one of the most pervasive forms of corruption, a situation where powerful individuals, institutions, companies, or groups within or outside a country use corruption to shape a nation’s policies, legal environment, and economy, to benefit their own private interests.
“State capture is not always overt and obvious. It can also arise from the more subtle close alignment of interests between specific business and political elites through family ties, friendships, and the intertwined ownership of economic assets.
“What is happening in Nigeria – right before our eyes – is state capture: The purchase of National assets by political elites – and their family members – at bargain prices, the allocation of national resources – minerals, land, and even human resources – to local, regional, and international actors. It must be prohibited and prevented through local and international laws.
“Public institutions such as the legislature, the executive, the judiciary, and regulatory agencies both at the federal and local levels are subject to capture.
“As such, state capture can broadly be understood as the disproportionate and unregulated influence of interest groups or decision-making processes where special interest groups manage to bend state laws, policies, and regulations.
“They do so through practices such as illicit contributions paid by private interests to political parties, and for election campaigns, vote-buying, buying of presidential decrees or court decisions, as well as through illegitimate lobbying and revolving door appointments.
“The main risk of state capture is that decisions no longer take into consideration the public interest but instead favour a specific special interest group or individual.
“Laws, policies, and regulations are designed to benefit a specific interest group, oftentimes to the detriment of smaller firms and groups and society in general.
“State capture can seriously affect economic development, regulatory quality, the provision of public services, quality of education and health services, infrastructure decisions, and even the environment and public health.”