~ 2015: Why Jonathan is favoured to win ~Afara Lane ~ ...There are so many reasons why I think that Jonathan is highly favoured to coast home to victory on February 14 and here are some of them that space could permit. Jonathan did not inter with the freedom of individuals and that of the press. He allowed Nigerians to hold contrary views opposed to his. He did not interfere with the freedom of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in their conduct of elections. Opposition parties won elections in PDP states and Jonathan congratulated the winners. Jonathan did not interfere with the rulings of the courts. He did not use the security agents against anybody including antagonistic governors. Despite abuses by some Nigerians, Jonathan did not invoke his powers on them in retaliation. Under Jonathans watch, no Nigerian went on exile and there was no political assassination; there was no state-sponsored impeachment. Jonathan is calm in spite of all provocations. He listens to Nigerians. Under his administration, the pump price of petrol has remained the same. He handled workers strike with maturity and reason. He restored peace in the nations universities and pumped huge sums of money (N200 billion) to revamp them. He built 12 new federal universities, 9 in the North and 3 in the South to ensure that all states in the country has a federal university and open more access to university education to our teeming youths. The polytechnics and colleges of education were not left out the funding largesse. The president also boosted access to education through the Almajiri Education Programme. The pragmatic education programme is one of Jonathans administration initiatives to improve access to education and reduce the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria. Its major aim is to integrate the traditional Tsangaya and Quranic School into the formal education system. Jonathan has done much in road infrastructure. Some of his completed 32 roads include section 1 of the dualization of the Ibadan-Ilorin road (Oyo), Vorn-Manchok road (Plateau), dualization of Section 1 of Onitsha-Owerri road and Onitsha eastern Bypass, rehabilitation of Funtua-Gusau-Sokoto road, Shagamu-Ore-Benin road and the Aiyegunle-Akoko-Edo road (Ondo/Edo states). Nigerian airports under Jonathan have been remodeled. They now look like others in other parts of the world. This is evident at Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Enugu and Port Harcourt airports. The railways have received some revamping under Jonathans administration. Nigerians now commute daily in trains across the country with modern coaches. Nigeria has made modest achievements in industrial revolution under Jonathan. Besides the rebasing of the nations economy that place us first in Africa with South Africa taking a second position, Unilever Plc invested $200 million in Nigeria, while Procter & Gamble opened $300 million new plant this year in Agbara , Ogun State. In the area of cement manufacturing, our local production grew from two million metric tones in 2002 to 28.5 metric tones in 2013. It is also expected that it will reach 39 million metric tones by the end of this year. The cement industry has attracted $8 billion in local and foreign investments and supports about 1.6 million jobs. After a successful power privatization, the country now generates over 4000 megawatts (MW) of electricity from less 2000 mw in 2010. This is why there has been tremendous improvement in power supply. The only problem here lack of prepaid metres, excessive estimate billings or crazy bills. The power sector needs to be put more on track. The agricultural sector has witnessed great transformation under Jonathan. We have witnessed new agricultural policies targeted at increasing domestic food production and growing private sector participation in the sector. Nigeria is now the highest producer of cassava. Something is being done to increase our production of rice. There is the need to still tap our agricultural potentials. Nigerias future will depend more on agriculture than oil. If Jonathan could achieve these much under the prevailing insurgency, he would have done more if there was no terrorism in the country. All the money expended to fight the terrorists would have been channeled to national development. With these and other achievements of Jonathan not mentioned, he will definitely be voted into power by Nigerians in the presidential poll.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 20:46:04 +0000
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