Sequel to various discussions held yesterday, I think it would be appropriate to put my taught together just for the records. I have realized that Increasingly, Social media status is depending on how many friends you have on Facebook or how many followers you have on twitter. So much investment goes into this because many derive their sense of self worth from these numbers. Furthermore users of social media have gained so much popularity when they diss or abuse authority figures such as government leaders, the president of Nigeria etc. Now where many on the social media are faced with a choice of speaking their minds or what isn’t popular others prefer to play to the gallery. This behavior has become so contagious and many youth simply conform and lose their personality to the crowd. And it is not just youths Increasingly, we are seeing elders, even those who might have been elder statesmen, kowtow to much younger Social Media overlords. What is happening here is very subtle but very real. In the New Testament, satan showed Christ all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and said to Him in Matthew 4:9 “all this I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me.” And what makes a person an overlord? The answer is of course Social Media followership. Social Media was created to influence the real world, however, it was not meant to be an alternative to the real world. But increasingly I am seeing that what i might call a cabal has been formed in the Nigerian Social Media space. And when people now focus on the virtual world of Social Media how can you convince them that the world is real and they have to reflect the real world on Social Media rather than reflect Social Media on the real world? I am going somewhere with this and I will plead that you take time to read this. I have mentioned in different discussions in the past about President Jonathan’s achievement in office. But friends and brothers have said that this President had achieved nothing and that my statements are not based on reality. Some people say vox populi vox Dei (the voice of the people is the voice of God). They may be right or they may be wrong, but certainly no one can argue that the voice of an echo is not the voice of God. It may be the voice of a tin god that I concede, but never the voice of God. And the behavior I have constantly seen displayed by many and also in the Nigerian Social Media space is gradually getting scary. Some people assume that whatever they disagree with is a lie. In other words, their opinions are superior to facts. So, for instance, when you quote data from the World Bank, The International Monetary Fund, IMF, the United Nations and other tested and recognized world regulatory bodies, like I mentioned yesterday they take only those aspects which are negative and amplify them while rejecting those aspects which paint the government and Nigerian economy in good light. I put it to Nigerians that this administration cannot be vulnerable to the antics of these mercenaries for the simple reason that the Jonathan administration has connected with the masses who form the bulk of the electorate that gave it its mandate in the first instance. Sometime last year I mentioned the revival of the Rail sector and my brothers stated clearly that it was false; some other critics said the trains were not the most modern trains. It’s obvious that these critics are disconnected from the masses of Nigerians. If they are not, why would they criticize a man who has given food to starving people because the food was not prepared by a gourmet chef? If we had no trains for decades and somebody brought us trains, your only thought is that you now have a cheaper alternative to get you from point A to B. When the consumer keeps patronizing the rail services, naturally the law of process will kick in and these trains will eventually be modernized as turnover increases. But here is the thing. Every time a passenger travels from the Lagos Terminus at Iddo to Kano at a cost of 1500 Naira, the President is putting back 10,500 Naira into his pocket which is the saving on the 12,000 Naira he would have spent on a bus ticket to Kano. In the same vein, whenever a Nigerian flies out of Nigeria directly from or to the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, the President is putting back sixty thousand Naira that he/she would have spent on connecting flights to either Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja or Kano Airports back into his pocket. It doesn’t end there. When an itinerant scholar known as Almajiri goes to school in the new Almajiri Model schools built by the Jonathan administration in EVERY state of the North, he no longer has to stay under the heavy rays of the sun during the hottest periods of the day. He can then learn and assimilate what he has learnt and with the combination of Eastern and Western education that such schools provide, he is better able to add value to himself, his family, his community and Nigeria. This is the impact of President Jonathan on Nigeria. The essence of that impact is to build up the abilities of the vast majority of the Nigerian masses to the level where they can join those privileged youth on Social Media and speak for themselves rather than have an overlord hand them their opinion. And it is happening right before our very own eyes. Unbeknownst to the overlords and critics alike, there are miracles taking place in rural Nigeria called the Conditional Cash Transfer (Under the SURE P). The Jonathan administration is giving cash to women who go to Federal Government provided health centers for pre and post natal care. If they choose to have their babies in these centers, they get another cash transfer. Many of these rural women are thus enjoying for the first time the better life they have been hearing about since the 1980s. Another miracle occurring right before our eyes is Dry Season farming. For the first time in Nigeria, farmers in arid and semi arid areas are being assisted by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to engage in dry season farming where they had hitherto only farmed during the rainy season. Many people in Nigerian cities are buying roasted and boiled corn as I speak. This is a new phenomenon. It used to be that corn was only available during the corn season. That you are able to buy fresh corn by the road side in March is one of the miracles of Dry Season Farming. Ask yourself how it is possible that Nigeria did not face a food crisis after the 2012 flood disaster that wreaked havoc on much of Nigeria? It was because of the miracle of dry season farming! After the flood, in just one week, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture distributed free of charge, 20,000 metric tonnes of rice seeds. In addition to these, farmers also received another batch of flood resistant rice seeds sourced from the Rice Research Center in the Philippines, a country that has learnt to cultivate rice in spite of their regular annual floods. The end result is that Nigeria’s annual food import bill has reduced from 2.3 trillion Naira per annum before 2011 to 1.8 trillion Naira today. This is 500 billion Naira that has remained in Nigeria in the hands of farmers instead of finding its way to Far East Asia from where we import a lot of our dry staple foods. The Sugar masterplan has also taken off with no fewer than 2.9mtpa installed capacity. The sugar demand for 2012 was in excess of 1.2mtonnes, valued at about $485m in Foreign exchange, and this has continually increased. The Federal Government of Nigeria has since commenced the Backward Integration Policy (BIP) in the sugar industry which saved approximately US$350m (about N58.45Bn) in 2013 and this trend will conmtinue as Golden Sugar coy, Dangote Sugar and Bua Sugar continually increase BIP capacity as more farms are been acquired. The Automobile Industry policy change has also commenced as Innoson Motors have already commenced made in Nigeria cars, buses trucks etc, the Stallion Group have started the production of Hyundai, Nissan vehicles and resently sighned on Honda, Dana group have also just signed on Kia motors isnt this a miracle happening in my own life time. And I encourage every reader to verify this report. They are publicly available and you can Google them. Farmers, Almajiri, and rural women may not all presently have access to the Internet and Social Media, but they all have access to and have been touched by the Transformation Agenda and are the major reason why Nigeria’s Per Capita Income which was at $1091 in 2009 is $1721 today. They are the reason why Average Life Expectancy in Nigeria which was 47 years in 2007 is today 52 years. And they are the reason why I remain a supporter of President Goodluck Jonathan and his Transformation Agenda irrespective of what an overlord may say.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 09:03:07 +0000