A former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, has said the second term of former President Olusegun Obasanjo was the “most successful” in terms of economic growth, job creation, and inflation rate in Nigeria.

El-Rufai, the immediate past Governor of Kaduna, said this on Friday during 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 rise during this period but the Obasanjo government did not waste the windfall.

El-Rufai said Nigeria’s fiscal health was at its best in 2007, such that when the global financial crisis took place in 2008, the country did not feel it.

“Nothing was felt in Nigeria because Nigeria had a big savings account,” he said.

He added that Nigeria had huge reserves then and that the government was able to absorb the shock without any internal problems.