Nigeria today is more in the news negatively for terrorism acts in the country than the positive deliverables of president Goodluck Jonathan [PDP] administration. To the discerning minds, this do not come as surprise because the issue of terrorism is not only global and destructive to human lives and economic activities of any nation affected by insurgency, it is has also become an issue that requires the concerted efforts of humanity across the globe, be it developing or developed nations. Hence, the need for nations to work collaboratively together logistically/operationally, intellectually, financially and internationally to stem the global insurgency becomes imperative.
Efforts are ongoing to find the location and release of over two hundred Chibok girls that have since gone missing and by whatever means , be it diplomatic or any other approach/es , to free these innocent girls .Retrospectively, there are views that suggest the abysmal failure of neglect by the governor of the state where this abduction was carried out, who by law, is the chief security officer of the state and question the governor’s role before and after the disappearance of these girls.
There have been arguments for and against the utterances/actions and the sincerity of the governor in searching for these innocent missing girls. If the governor thinks otherwise, then some security questions need to be asked. Nigerians would like to know how the governor is not aware of the activities of boko haram in his state he governs as a governor and if he does, what mechanisms did he put in place and how effective if any, his approach/es in fishing out these terrorists and curtailing the activities of book haram in his state?
Nigeria practises a Federalist system of government known as Federalism example, the three layers system of Federal, state, local government and bi-cameral in nature comprising of The executive , Legislative and Judiciary . Nigeria constitution explicitly states the roles and responsibilities of these layers of government to Nigerian people. Since the abduction of these innocent girls , Nigerian government and international community have been working together to locate and release these girls to their parents.
President Goodluck Jonathan, having put in place an effective intelligence and information gathering mechanism, and working collaboratively with Western countries like United State of America, Britain, France and UN to find these girls, is not relenting in his efforts in ensuring safe release of these innocent girls . Also, his recent meetings with Neighbouring African countries like Chad, Cameroun, Niger and Benin with the host, The French president to discuss, receive advice and support, shows how touched and serious president Goodluck Jonathan in addressing the menace of insurgency in Nigeria and Africa as a continent.
As sadly as the abduction of these girls has been to our nation and gives anti-Jonathan administration the weapon to portray our visionary president as a weak leader, discerning progressive Nigerians both at home and in diaspora knows how protracted the issue of global insurgency could be and how our leaders plays politics with every issues, even of national importance in Nigeria. For example, the recent insurgency attack in one of the biggest Chinese market comes as a rude shock not only to the chinese government and its people but to the global world at large. Why, because this attack is remarkable as china has never witnessed and known for this kind of terrorist attack but Chinese leaders did not apportion blames to the government in power but reassures their citizens of government security measures to protect their country and ensures terrorists in their country are fish out and dealt with accordingly.
No nation can afford to compromise with its internal/external security and all hands must be on deck to ensure adequate security of lives and property by the government and Nigerian people must work with their traditional rulers, The State security services, state governments and Federal Government to report any suspicious behaviours, activities and illegal harbouring of terrorists at their wards, local, state and federal levels. These terrorists are not ghosts for heavens sake, they are human beings and should be fish out by Nigerians and government.
This writer like many progressive patriotic Nigerians ,believe that the issue of security should be a major concern to well-meaning Nigerian people in-respective of class, religious inclinations, political ideology/ies and affliations. While Federal Government constitutionally has a national responsibility in providing adequate security protection for Nigerian people against external aggressors, state governors as the chief security officers of their domains , without passing unnecessary blames to Federal government should by law, also provide adequate protection for their people. Where there are lapses within the state/s, it should be investigated by the federal government , where applicable, sanctioned and their security votes running into millions if not billions, stopped until such state/s can prove to its people that such lapses has been holistically address. Where such governor/s remain aloof, a state of emergency should be declared and such governor/sponsors should be named and shamed.
While terrorism has become a global issue and developed/developing countries coming together to discuss and find an effective approach to address this menace, it is obvious and glaring to Nigerians that recent comments and utterances made by some leaders in the country has not been helpful in uniting the country but rather fuels the amber of discord in anticipation to cause mayhem and unsettle president Goodluck Jonathan who in-spite of all odds, have remain focus and performing well to the admiration of Nigerians both at home and in diaspora.
In developed countries like Britain, USA to mention a few , such treasonable comments and actions would warrant cross parties concerns [ Patriotism] and where applicable sanctioned. Alas, such things in Nigeria happens as some of our visionless and power drunk leaders think that they are powerful than the country and do not understand the concept of patriotism and regards for the rule of law. Today, these visionless and unpatriotic leaders continue to denigrate the office of the president they are desperately seeking to occupy for their selfish reasons, even when it is obvious that Nigerians wants president Goodluck Jonathan to continue with his transformation agenda policies and programs of developing the country.
What are the remarkable achievements of President Goodluck [PDP] administration transformation agenda so far ?.
Electoral Reform
It is on record that before 2011 general elections , Nigeria electoral system faced lots of logistics and financial challenges which made it impossible for Independent National electoral commission [INEC] the body saddle to organise free, fair and transparent elections to judiciously carry out effectively its responsibilities. President Goodluck Jonathan promise Nigerians electoral reform before the 2011 election and the then opposition party [ACN ] was pessimistic that INEC would not be able to conduct free, fair and credible elections as they thought the president will use his power of incumbency to rig the election for his ruling party [PDP] and ACN hope the electoral process will be flawed before Nigerians and the international community .
The 2011 election came and president Goodluck Jonathan [PDP] won the presidential election by a landslide and today, INEC is strong financially, logistically and has been able to conduct free, fair and credible elections even to the advantages of opposition parties like ever complainant then [ACN ] now APC . To show how democratic president Goodluck Jonathan is, states where the president ruling party[PDP] lost to an op
position party like APC , Mr president congratulated the opposition winner Example, Edo state [ ACN] now APC and plays progressive politics not retrogressive politics with opposition parties like Labour, APGA and other political parties to develop the country.
Today, in Nigeria under president Goodluck Jonathan, elections have become more meaningful and results more acceptable . Nigerians both at home and in diaspora welcome the electoral reform and opposition party like APC are still dazed with president Goodluck Jonathan humane, progressive politics and visionary leadership of developing the country and witnessing true participatory democracy given its real meaning by Mr president.
Yes, Nigerians including this writer welcome opposition parties which should objectively serve as check and balance for the main party and gives Nigeria better policies and programs on issues that affects our people and thereby expand the country’s political landscape . Unfortunately, APC which pride itself as progressive and alternate party to PDP has now become a fascist party in out look and orientation . Some APC leaders have the threatening nature of fascist ideology as they have extreme views on every political –economic and religious issues in the country.
The party [APC] do not offer meaningful alternative views on issues that affects the country and do not tolerate the oppositions like [PDP] Progressive views either, even if these views are good for the development of our nation . Yet, APC leaders call their party a progressive party. Nigerians are not fools to know what the party really stand for and could read along the line their primary objective. Nigeria should be preserved as a secular nation and Nigerians should be allowed to practise their preferred religion without imposing or forcing any religion on the people and country.
PDP is a democratic party which believe in the ideal of democracy, personal freedom and equality. Thats why, the party is called people’s democratic party [PDP] . A party for democrats not dictatorships . PDP, a party of the people by the people and for the people . A party poised to reform the political-economic landscape of our potential to be great country in the 21st century global politics. Below are the rest remarkable achievements of president Goodluck Jonathan transformational agenda.
Power reform
Past governments both Military and civilian before and after independence have not been able to solve our power problem. Several billions of dollars have been invested and wasted by past governments on power project and yet, fifty three years as a nation, Nigeria is still battling the issue of epileptic power supply in the country. When president Goodluck Jonathan came into power, Nigeria was generating about 2,800 MW and not stable. unlike presidents before him ,Mr president is seriously addressing the power issue head on by coming up with power road map and in three years of his administration, though not completely solved, the power sector has been transparently and successful privatised with positive results .
The road map envisaged that Nigeria by 2018 will be producing between 18,000 -30,000 MW or so. As power is capital intensive , findings by the government discovered there were serious challenges of power generation, a major problem with the NIPP projects and president Goodluck Jonathan has prevented total power collapse in the country. Today, the ten NIPP projects that president Goodluck Jonathan inherited at various stages of coma and non-functionality have now been re-assessed ,declared emergency in gas sector and working with expert to redesign the gas infrastructure ,improved and increased the quatum of gas available to these power plants.
Before now, it has been argued that the gas infrastructure was completely mis-aligned from these power plants but today, it has become success story for Nigerians under president Goodluck Jonathan as there has been remarkable improvement compared to what it used to be. However, Mr president is not complacency and is working with experts and private sector to ensure Nigerians enjoys uninterrupted power supply for personal and economic use for Nigerian people and nation.
The privatisation of the power sector started in 2005 under [PDP] government after many years of neglect before and after independence and with its challenges , seems there would not be a way out until president Goodluck Jonathan won the election and fully privatised the sector. Today, with the successful privatisation of the power sector , Nigeria has recorded one of the largest transparent privatisation of power sector in the country and in the world. With a massive injection of over 3 billion US dollars on the project by Nigeria government and private sector , it has been commended by various international agencies and multilateral organisations that the process was done in accordance with the world best international practise .Today, Nigerians are beginning to see the tremendous improvement in our power transmission, distribution and consumption of electricity in the country.
Banking Sector
Before PDP came into power in 1999, Nigeria was perceived to be a doom nation. Our Nigeria passport worthless, banking sector grounded , with a lot of financial uncertainty and our banks unappealing but today, PDP has reform the banking sector and under president Goodluck Jonathan administration, recovers the lost glory. The United States of America spent trillions of dollars to reform their banking sector, Europe spent trillion of Euro/ pounds to reform their banking sector but president Goodluck Jonathan [PDP] has been able to consolidate our banking reform and stabilize our financial sector in-spite of domestic and global challenges/ recession with prudent fiscal and monetary effective polices . Today, under president Goodluck Jonathan, our banks are among the best in the world.
Nigerians economy is growing faster than Britain , USA and South Africa. Today, Our Nigerian passport now takes a new modern digital out look , much appreciated and Nigerians travelling for holidays and businesses accorded the respect and dignity they deserved. Recently, a Nigerian pregnant lady travelling with a Nigerian passport on first class Virgin Airline on vacation had her beautiful baby born on board the flight to London and was well taken care of ,this could not be said to have happened before 1999.
Today, Nigerians banks transact businesses worthy trillions of dollars,Euro and pounds globally because of the fiscal and monetary policies that president Goodluck Jonathan put in place and the strict adherence to regulations and global best banking practises. Today, Nigerian banks are solid and can take part in the financing of mega projects both within and outside Nigeria and much is being done by the government to encourage Nigerian banks to help small scale businesses to low interest soft loans to grow their businesses in the country.
Agricultural reform
Before President Goodluck Jonathan came into power, it was difficult to get one kilogramme of cotton seed anywhere in the country. Nigeria was importing 5.2 million tons of rice yearly. Sorghum and maize production were totally in decline .Today, three years down the line with many years of our agricultural neglect by past administration of military and civilian governments, Nine out of eighteen ginneries that had been grounded in the North have been revitalised. This means new acreages of cotton farms have been cultivated, Nigeria now has large acreages of sorghum in the North and thanks to president Goodluck Jonathan agricultural transformation agenda being carried out by our youthful and dynamic Minister of Agriculture. Today, cotton is being produced at a large volume and by 2015 , Nigeria as a nation is looking forward to achieve sufficiency in sugar production. Today, The bank of Agriculture is has reform been reforme
d to be able to lend money to farmers at about 5.6 percent interest rate per annum and farmers in the country are happy with this new development. Today, president Goodluck Jonathan has made farming appealing with low bank interest rates to our new and old farmers in the country. Our export commodities like cocoa have doubled and farmers in the country excited.
Transportation reform
For over two decades, Nigeria railway system have been in comatose . Three years under President Goodluck Jonathan ,The major axial rail transport highways ,Lagos –Kano which is about 1,300 kilometres have been totally refurbished ,functioning and the volume of passengers per day have grown to about a million passengers per day. Today, new roads are being constructed by our hand-working minister of works in tandem with the transport transformational agenda of president Goodluck Jonathan [PDP] administration.
Today, various segment of Federal roads are near completion for example, The Abuja –Abaji –Lokoja road is more than 50% done. The East –West road is now nearing 60% completion and of recent ,president Goodluck Jonathan kicked of the redesigning and construction of the road . Also , the government is addressing the express road from Lagos to Ibadan , the Kano –Maiduguri and second Niger Bridge in the SE region.
With these aforementioned remarkable achievements of president Goodluck Jonathan who means well for the nation, well meaning Nigerians both at home and in diaspora are enjoins to work with president Goodluck Jonathan to sustain our democracy, tame insurgency, disguised in whatever form or shape and key into the transformation agenda of president Goodluck Jonathan to develop our country. Nigeria can only be developed by patriotic Nigerians and as a nation , we have what it takes both humanly and naturally under president Goodluck Jonathan to bring about the positive change that has eluded our country.
God bless the good people of our country and long live Federal Republic of Nigeria.
