Former Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai has stated that former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s second tenure was the “most successful” in terms of economic growth, job creation, and inflation rate in Nigeria.
El-Rufai, Kaduna’s immediate past governor, made the remarks on Friday at a session at the Africa In the World conference in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
“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.
According to him, oil prices began to soar during this time, but the Obasanjo administration did not squander the windfall.
According to El-Rufai, Nigeria’s fiscal health was at its best in 2007, hence the government was unaffected by the global financial crisis in 2008.
“Nothing was felt in Nigeria because Nigeria had a big savings account,” he said.
He went on to say that Nigeria had massive reserves at the time and that the government was able to absorb the shock with no internal concerns.