NIGERIANS HAVE HUNDREDS OF REASONS TO RE-ELECT JONATHAN The February 14, 2015 presidential and National Assembly elections are thick in the air. Unlike the previous polls under the present demo¬cratic dispensation, it has stirred up much passion and seized the attention of the populace, because for the first time two dominant and almost equally spread parties, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) are set to slug it out for the votes of the electorate. As the clock ticks, Chancellor of the Akpabi¬osm Centre for Leadership Development, Pastor Bassey, who is leading the Akpabiosm Ambas¬sadors for Jonathan and canvassing for votes for Goodluck Jonathan, makes a case for the re-election, saying it would represent a demonstra¬tion of justice, equity and fairness. Excerpts: We are a few weeks from the 2015 election. Looking at the politi¬cal environment, where do you stand? My stand on the 2015 election is very clear. We stand for justice, equity and fairness. We stand for unity and the totality of peace in this country. Nige¬ria is a great nation, and that greatness cannot be destroyed by politics or any issue. We are the giant of Africa and we believe very strongly that Nigeria is a gift from God to humanity, to Africa and to the world. We will continue to pray for the unity of the Nigeria and for oneness. We also believe that President Goodluck Jona¬than must be able to complete what he has started. It was said some years ago that one good turn deserves another. The performance of Jonathan in the last few years has placed him in the pinnacle and given Nigerians hope that things can be better in this country. Jonathan’s presidency has trans-formed Nigeria and given us leverage over other African countries. Today, Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa. We believe that under Jona¬than’s presidency Nigeria will be one of the top 20 economies in the world in the next four years. But there are many people who hold the con¬trary view that it is not enough to bandy about this claim that Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa, when we have massive unemployment and there are deficiencies in different sectors of the economy. What is your response to these misgivings? First, let us recognise that Jonathan took office a little over three and half years ago and vigor¬ously began to tackle the multifarious problems he met on ground. And he has made enormous progress. A fact anybody can accept is that Rome was not built in a day. You have seen the pattern of his administration and the Transformation Agenda that he initiated which has resulted in the massive transformation recorded in agriculture, the influx of foreign direct investment – far higher than what was recorded during former President Obasanjo’s tenure; the YouWIN programme that has been providing capital for small-to-medium scale enterprises. The Bank of Industry has made huge investments to grow SMEs; we have seen the reconstruction of the Benin-Ore Road and the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, both of which had been death traps. Everybody in Nigeria knows how much people used to suffer on the Benin-Ore Road, where travelers would sleep on the road because of the horrible traffic logjam that that kept them stuck, motionless and in agony. You have seen the reconstruction of several airport terminals and complete renovation of others. The Federal Government under Jonathan has energetically pursued the power sector reform agenda, and in the process invested heavily in both power generation and transmission infrastructure. That is why we are witnessing real improve¬ment in power supply. Just the other day, the sixth turbine of the Egbin Power Plc, which was damaged and left unrepaired for several years, was completely refurbished and reactivated. This resulted in the injection of 220MW of electricity into the national grid for distribution in Lagos State through Eko Electricity Distribution Plc and Ikeja Electricity Distribution Plc. In the next few years, almost every state in the country would be able to generate electricity when the various independent power projects they have embarked on with the participation of foreign investors be¬come operational. All these things have been made possible by the economic policies of the Jonathan administration, which are conducive. We know that the government did not deal with the issue of unpaid pension of old civil ser¬vants that retired some years ago. They were made to go for verification exercise several times, some even died without getting their pensions. There was also the issue of massive corruption in the fuel subsidy programme. Given this background, why should people go out to vote for Jonathan on February 14, 2015? First, let me state categorically that Nigerians have hundreds of reasons to re-elect Jonathan as President. But you only asked for three reasons, and I will oblige you. But let me address the issue of pension first. We all know that when the PHCN was unbundled, the qualified workers were all paid off before the entities were handed over to the new owners. Many junior workers received as much as N10 million and a good number of them were retained by the new owners of the generation and distribution companies. Why was it so? The reason is simple: there was proper documentation of the qualified personnel laid off after privatisa¬tion. In the case of the core civil service, the digital documentation ran into hitches because of the issue of ghost pensioners that had to be removed from the pension list first and foremost. It was necessary to conduct proper verification exercise to determine the number of retired workers quali¬fied to receive pension. I believe that this has been done, and the qualified pensioners would be paid. Where there are still cases of pensioners wrongly removed from the list, I believe the government will make necessary amendments. Now to your main question about why people should vote for Jonathan, I have previously reeled out several of the achievements of the administra¬tion. We should not belabour that because Jona¬than has delivered on the mandate given to him, and I think the majority of Nigerians agree with that and would willingly and happily renew his mandate on February 14, 2015. Nigerians know the truth; it’s not propaganda that the Jonathan administration has put down concrete, verifiable evidence of its achievements in the three-and-half-years-plus it has been in office. There is clear evidence that the Jonathan administration has delivered good governance. The facts are incon¬testable because any honest person can see them spread across the country. His second coming is meant to consolidate on what he has achieved and complete the Transformation Agenda
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 11:16:26 +0000
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