Debt Worse Than Leprosy, Destroys Generations, Says Obasanjo

•⁠  ⁠Warns AI may be another booby trap of the West against developing countries
James Sowole in Abeokuta

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday declared that debt was worse than leprosy because while leprosy destroyed only one person, debt destroyed generations.
He made the remark while questioning how Nigeria accumulated its debt and the impact of the country’s economic decisions over the years.

“And for anybody to say that debt is no leprosy is absolute nonsense. Debt is worse than leprosy because leprosy destroys only one person, whereas debt destroys generations,” he said.

“How did we get ourselves into this trap? Can AI help us?”
Obasanjo also warned that Artificial Intelligence (AI) might be another booby trap of the West against developing countries.
The former president stated this while speaking at the Ajibosin 3.0 Symposium, held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The symposium, with the theme, “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Solve Grassroots Problems and Accelerate National Development”, drew speakers from academics, policymakers, politicians and other stakeholders, and featured discussants who warned Nigerians against uncontrolled exposure to AI applications.

Obasanjo, who specifically picked on the lead presentation of the Convener and Founder of the League of Northern Democrats (LND), which dwelt on historical perspectives of AI, admitted that he did not know too much technically about the subject.
He said, “I don’t know too much technically about AI, but I know that anything that is not under your control can be abused against you. You can therefore understand why, in his statement, Dr. Umar Addo approached the subject from a historical perspective.”

Quoting Ardo, Obasanjo said, “Look, these things they call AI, I am looking at them from a historical point of view. Everything that has been packaged and nicely presented to us from the West has always turned out to be a booby trap.
“He was not discussing what AI is or what it is not. Others had spoken about that. His point was that we have seen this pattern before. We have been packaged as commodities.

“First, there was the slave trade. Then they came back and introduced what they called legitimate trade. That was colonialism. After that came foreign direct investment, accompanied by the requirement that we pay for technology transfer. But what exactly is technology transfer? Who transferred technology to them, and what did they pay for it?
“Then came globalisation, which, in practical terms, meant that we opened our doors, they took everything in our houses, and then closed their own doors.

“At another point, they came back and told us that we could not do anything without certain conditions. I believe the World Bank introduced it. Yes, Structural Adjustment. We did not have the necessary structures, yet they came up with structural adjustment.
“Now, consider these things. I once sat with someone like the former Prime Minister of Britain, James Callaghan. He was a sheep farmer and received four euros per annum for every sheep he owned. Yet we were told that we must never subsidise agriculture.
“We were warned that if we subsidised agriculture, we would not receive loans from the World Bank or the IMF.
“The World Bank and the IMF were not designed for us. They were established before we became independent. Yet these are the institutions that determine what we should do.

“We have brilliant young men and women who attended Ivy League universities, Oxford, Cambridge and other prestigious institutions. My children attended some of these universities too. One went to Cornell, one of the Ivy League universities.
“But how can someone who has not managed a home tell me how to run mine?
“These brilliant young men and women package their ideas in impressive academic language, present them to us, and we accept them lock, stock and barrel. We then proceed to implement them.

“In a country of 250 million people, we allow young men and women who may not even be married, let alone have experience managing a household, to tell us how to manage our people and our country. We swallow their prescriptions, and in the process, we destroy ourselves.

“When I started my farm 47 years ago, one naira was worth 1 dollar and 85 cents. That was 47 years ago. What has Nigeria done in those 47 years that has brought us to a situation where one dollar is now worth 1,500 naira?
“What have we done? What do our leaders know, and what do they not know? Of what they know, what can they actually do for us?
“We have 24 million Nigerian children who should be in school but are not. If you are looking for the disasters of tomorrow, these children represent one of them.

“What can AI do for us in this regard? Can AI help us identify the types of food and crops we should produce and ensure that we produce them adequately and in sufficient quantities to achieve food and nutrition security?
“Can AI help us improve healthcare delivery? Can AI help us in the production of drugs?
“I believe these are the kinds of questions we should be asking. We want AI to help us at the grassroots level.

“And I believe that if we are masters of our own homes, particularly in matters concerning AI, we will be able to make AI do for us what we want it to do.”