Nigerians tackle Jonathan on poverty reduction claim. In politics, promises are made. But it is not certain they will be kept. But when politicians wrongly assess their performances to claim glory where there is none, the people get back. President Goodluck Jonathan may have fallen into the snare of self-evaluation at the weekend when he told a large crowd in Benin, Edo State capital, during a south-south Peoples Democratic Party rally that the country has reduced poverty by 50 per cent. In veiled reference to ‘the belly infrastructure’ debate between PDP and the All Progressives Congress shortly after the Ekiti governorship poll, the President said the ruling party believed in stomach infrastructure to ensure there was food security and job creation in the country. But many Nigerians, who Jonathan said had benefitted from astronomical poverty reduction, have faulted the claim in the strongest term. In various comments online, they accused the President of lying against them. Oloyemekun who opened, the comments on Punchng , for instance, said only PDP members and not the rest of Nigerians mattered to the President, who, he said, would be comfortable if the rest of the country wallow in poverty as long as the ruling party members were fairing well. In response to those who endorsed Jonathan’s claim, Oyemekun said, “You are probably one of a select few, sadly, who could not see the irony and paradox in Jonathan’s utterance.” Sarcastically, Igogo resolved to mend the broken links in the President’s speech. He said Jonathan meant to tell the country how much investment the government had pillaged to reduce poverty among members of the ruling party. He considered the President had done well in that regards but to the woes of the entire country. Another commentator, Sed, took the path of Igogo. He urged the President to lower his campaign guards and wait for second-term inauguration since he had succeeded in broken the painful poverty records of the country. Several other responses ‘hailed’ and taunted the President for what they considered as lofty records. Patric Okafo, on his part, simply asked, “Mr. President, so you can lie? You think Nigerians are all blind, we can’t see?” He thus pleaded with him to stop lying and accept the true verdict of the people. Another, who identified himself as Dee, noted that the false assumption amounted to wickedness “when in reality many families have gone from at least being comfortable to being hungry.” He said the unprecedented level of unemployment and loss of means of livelihood recorded in recent years pointed to the opposite of the presidential assumption. “How can you claim to have reduced poverty when families are actually local governments on their own, providing practically everything for themselves – including security, power, water, roads and houses?” he asked. Indeed, some other found the Jonathan’s comment as more of a joke than a campaign statement. But while another folk described the President as the ‘Comedier-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, others such as Ahmed believed his performance score is not far from the truth. Ahmed said the President had achieved much in terms of poverty reduction. He was joined by others who said the critics of the President were not fair when they claimed only PDP members benefitted from the poverty-reduction. Do you agree with president Jonathans Opinion?
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 17:01:06 +0000