In a letter he addressed to the President of the Senate, Obasanjo compla">

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You are prophet of doom, Obasanjo tells US

Posted by By BASHIR UMAR, Abuja on 2005/05/25 | Views: 588 |

You are prophet of doom, Obasanjo tells US


President Olusegun Obasanjo Tuesday, landed heavily on the United States Intelligence Council (USNIC) describing it as "prophets of doom" and Nigeria's "detractors."

President Olusegun Obasanjo Tuesday, landed heavily on the United States Intelligence Council (USNIC) describing it as "prophets of doom" and Nigeria's "detractors."


In a letter he addressed to the President of the Senate, Obasanjo complained that the USNIC report on "Mapping Sub-Saharan Africa's Future" was based on hollow knowledge of the continent and therefore wide off the mark.


He said: "I am sending this to you not because I am alarmed by the report but because if we know what others think of us and about us, we can prevent what they project for us," Obasanjo told Senator Nnamani, in his letter entitled: "Report of the U.S Intelligence Council" and read in the Senate chambers.


He said that as a person who once participated in similar "so-called expert group," on issues, situations and regions, "I know the predictions and projections can be wide off the mark because both politics and economics cannot be absolutely predicted and their dynamics can fool the greatest and best expert."


He however, admitted that it is important that Nigerians should know that they are being rated low, not because of what is happening to them from outside "but because of what we do to, for and by ourselves internally," adding: "I believe that only God and ourselves can map our present and future. No outsider can do that accurately for us. I know that some people glibly talk of the probability of Nigeria as a failed state."


He, therefore, wrote off those people as "living in the past and incapable of noticing and appreciating the positive strides Nigeria is making on all fronts and the determination of the country to join hands to consolidate democracy and promote sustainable growth and development.


"Because they are stuck to old ideas and dreams as well as stereotypes about us and our capabilities, they cannot see the New Nigeria that we are building collectively as we move beyond the past but allowing the past and present to strengthen and sustain our future," he said.


The President recalled that similar experts had predicted worse scenarios for South East Asia in the late 20th century, adding that, those predictions proved false. "We can and should disprove the modern experts of the United States Intelligence Council," he said.


PDF: Africa Future Report

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