The second term of former President Olusegun Obasanjo was the “most successful” in terms of economic development, job creation, and inflation rate in Nigeria, according to Nasir el-Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna State.
El-Rufai made this statement on Friday at a session of the Africa In the World conference in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
He claims that at this time, oil prices started to climb, but the Obasanjo administration did not waste the windfall, adding that Nigeria’s fiscal health was at its best in 2007, therefore when the global financial crisis hit in 2008, the nation was unaffected.
“If you look at Nigeria’s economic trajectory, the most successful four to five-year period of economic growth, job creation, and reduced inflation was the period of the second term of President Obasanjo in 2003 to 2007, when for the first time, the country went back into proper integrated planning and we also got lucky,” he said.
“Nothing was felt in Nigeria because Nigeria had a big savings account,” the former Kaduna state said.
