Jonathan is keeping faith with Nigerians – Okupe on November 03, 2013 / in Interview 12:50 am Dr Doyin Okupe, Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, in this interview, dismisses the claim that his principal has not performed Looking at the performance of President Goodluck Jonathan in the last two years that he has been steering the affairs of the nation, the programmes and projects that he has initiated in the transformation agenda, can you say he has justified the mandate given to him? The answer is resounding yes. It is not being sycophantic; these are things that we can prove. I have said before and I am saying it again; never in the history of this nation, indeed of Africa including North and South of the Sahara has a president of a country two years after assuming office achieved so much in such a short time. It is unprecedented. Now, what are the things that Jonathan promised? He promised electoral reform. Anybody in Nigeria will readily concede to him that he has done what he promised he would do in that area. He has also given personal commitment to free and fair election. He sang a song ‘one man one vote, one woman one vote, one youth one vote ’ and that has been the pattern of elections we have seen conducted under his watch. Okupe: Mind my roar Okupe Under his watch, his party has competed in elections and has lost and he has congratulated the winners. He has not used or abused his office or tried to influence the electoral managers in any way. When he said he would deliver on electoral reform and that he was going to improve the electoral system in the country, some people doubted it in view of experiences in our recent past. But now,elections have become more meaningful, the results more acceptable and we are all happy for that. Topical also on his agenda is power reform. When this administration came about, we were generating about 2,800 MW and it was not steady. What did Jonathan do? Unlike everybody that has preceded him, he attacked the problem head on, intellectually and professionally by putting up a road map. When somebody puts up a road map, you can benchmark him whether he is achieving what he said he will do. In two years, the power generation has doubled. By the power road map, we are supposed to be producing between 18,000-20,000 MW by 2018 or so. In the sector, there were a couple of challenges. One is power generation. There was also a major problem with the NIPP projects on which the preceding governments spent billions of dollars and they were all moribund and comatose. It was Goodluck Jonathan’s administration that brought things back and recovered them from total collapse. Now the ten NIPP projects that he inherited at various stages of coma and non-functionality and all that have been completed. Before they we re completed, it was anticipated that there will be major issue with gas supplies because all of them are powered by gas turbines. So, immediately also Mr President declared emergency in the gas sector and government seriously worked hard to redesign the gas infrastructure, improved and increased the quantum of gas available to these power plants. The gas infrastructure was totally misaligned from the power plants. This took a lot of efforts and a lot of money, but today it is a success story. That is on the issue of power.Now we then go to the issue of privatization of the power sector. This is something that was started in 2005 and this is 2013; that is eight years. There was no headway, there was no clear-cut direction, no assurance that the project itself would not crash along the way until Goodluck Jonathan came. Because of sincerity of purpose and lack of intention to amass wealth unnecessarily or introduce corruption into the process, Nigeria has recorded one of the largest sectoral privatizations in the world. It involved a figure of over 3 billion U.S. dollars and it has been done and commended by various international agencies and multilateral organizations that it was done seamlessly and in accordance to the world best practice. A major achievement of this administration is the successful completion of the privatization programme..In the banking sector, which most people also tend to gloss over; before this administration came, the sector was in a collapsible form and there was a lot of financial uncertainty. The United States of America spent trillions of dollars; Europe spent trillions of dollars and pounds to reform the financial sector, but Goodluck Jonathan’s administration has been able to reform and stabilize our financial sector with minimum cost to government. Today, our banks are like diaspora banks, they are virtually all over Africa and now, they are also invading Europe. This is because of the fiscal and monetary policies that this administration put in place and the strict adherence to regulations, ensuring that there are no slips. That is why today we have banks that have backbones, banks that are solid, banks that can take part in the financing of mega projects both within and outside Nigeria. In agriculture, let me give you typical examples. When this administration came, it was difficult to get one kilogramme of cotton seed anywhere in the country. We were importing 5.2million tons of rice yearly. Sorghum and maize production were totally in decline. But what do you have today, two years down the line? Nine out of 18 ginneries that had died in the North have been revitalized. That means new acreages of cotton farms have been cultivated, we now have large acreages of sorghum also produced in the North and rice also is being produced at a very high rate. And by 2015 we are also likely to achieve self-sufficiency in sugar production. The Bank of Agriculture is being totally refocused and repackaged to be able to lend money to farmers at about 5-6% interest rate per annum. If people go to borrow money in banks at 30 or 35 per cent interest rate there is no agricultural product you will embark on that it will be profitable and that is why farming is difficult in Nigeria, that is why younger people are not going into farming, that is why farming cannot go beyond sustenance level. But if it is possible for you to take loan from a bank and all you are paying is just 5 or 6, even if your total return was 20%, you have about 14% to go home with, which is enough for you and your family to live on. Our export commodities like cocoa, which we used to do about 250,000 metric tons a year, by 2014, that would have doubled to about 500,000 metric tons in one year. On transportation, for over two decades, the railway system was paralyzed. In two years, what do we have? The major axial rail transport highways, Lagos-Kano, about 1,300 kilometers have been totally refurbished and the volume of passengers have grown to about a million passengers per day. I’m aware . In terms of road, many roads that have been previously abandoned before this administration came in: the Lagos-Benin road or Shagamu-Ore as they call it, totally impassible. Various segments of the road have been reconstructed and it is now almost perfectly done with money from SURE-P. Now, the Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja road is more than 50% done. This is supposed to be completed in 2014. The East-West Road is now nearing 60% completion and, of recent, Mr. President went and kicked off the refurbishing and the redesigning of the new, befitting express road from Lagos to Ibadan. This is not to talk about the Kano-Maiduguri road and the second Niger Bridge. When you come to the economy, it is something that one has to be proud of that we have one of the highest growth rates in the world; I think we are second or third to China and maybe another country. Definitely, we are the first in Africa. Let me just take you up on the issue of insecurity because people have been saying that it should have been one of the primary challenges that he should have confronted headlong. But the security situation has not improved much. What barometers are you using to judge that the security situation has not been improved? When Boko Haram insurgency started, it engulfed eleven states in the federation. Today, as I am talking to you, Boko Haram activities are restricted to only two states of the federation; Yobe, which is more recent, and Borno. That in itself is a major breakthrough. I have read history and I have read issues concerning insurgency world-wide and I am telling you, there is nowhere in the whole world and in world history from British IRA to Vietnam, to Tamil Tigers to Malaysia to even the Maghreb and Somalia; there is nowhere in the world where insurgency has been contained so rapidly. I am telling you, it is like the power of God that is working in this country. It is unbelievable that all these things can be packaged in two years. It is absolutely unimaginable, from eleven states, it has reduced to two, from every Sunday, it has now reduced to once in a while. Unfortunately, it is still devastating but that is the nature of insurgencies. So, it is not correct to say insecurity is not controlled. Insecurity has been seriously curtailed. If you compare these figures of economic growth with rising unemployment and worsening poverty, can you justify your conclusion of sterling performance in the economy? Social economy is a dynamic thing. Ten years ago, our population was not 165million. Ten years ago, our intake to schools and universities and graduates that are coming out are not the same. Nigeria grows at an average birth rate of about 3-3.5% per annum. What am I trying to tell you? That means in ten years, we are increasing by about 35%. So, if you say that ten years ago, we were about 140million, or graduate production was say, 100,000; today, it is a different thing, that means it is 135,000. There is a dynamism, things are not static and we are coming from an economy that was moribund, that was not working, so, there is bound to appear some increase. It is a false increase, it is an increase that is brought about from years of malfunctioning of the system. As far as this administration is concerned, this government is doing a lot in terms of generation of employment. Let me also tell you, it is not something that is extremely desirable, youth unemployment today is almost a global phenomenon because whether you like it or not, most economies in the world are just emerging and they have not even really reached there yet. I heard the IMF President, Christiane Largarde said recently that the world is in a situation of economic transition. We are not there yet, Nigeria cannot be different but I can say that we are different in the sense that we are doing better than most African countries. Our growth rate is better than Japan, America, Britain, and if you also now look at our debt to GDP ratio, is definitely better than any of those, including South Africa. We are not near them at all, we are doing much better, all we need in this country is to follow the leader, support the government. For the first time we have a government that is visionary, that has set for itself goals and it is achieving them. We just need some degree of patience; we are going to get there. You have tried to put the security situation front in perspective, can you also do that for this other related security issue of oil theft? Oil theft is another major challenge that this administration is facing. The dimension at which it is now is something surely worrisome but that too is being tackled. If you look at it, it is a complex interplay. I was at Chatham House some two weeks ago because they wrote a report on oil theft in Nigeria. I met the editor of that write-up and they themselves explained that it is such a complex thing that it will require the cooperation of both the local authorities, the business community and the western world. It is not just a Nigerian affair. But I believe that government is challenging it, I am aware. I saw the M.D. of the NNPC the other day, saying that they have acquired about twenty-three vessels to combat this. The Navy, also have acquired some vessels and on a daily basis, oil thieves are being caught. It is another challenge but we will get over it. It is a very serious challenge, I am not undermining it and we are going to get over it. Are you aware of the perception that that problem has been made even more complex by the fact that there has been a kind of lack of will on the part of the president because of maybe where it is happening? There are various sentiments in Nigeria. We have in Nigeria a very powerful and vociferous opposition who will hang anything on the President. If the wind is not blowing on Bar Beach, it must have been caused by some policies that Jonathan did or did not do. We have just given you a catalog of the achievements of this administration under the leadership of this gentleman. This obviously is a man that is desirous of achieving results. How can you achieve results without money? This is something that I know personally that bleeds his heart. You set for yourself goals that you want to achieve and you have been doing so well, now, this phenomenon crops in and they say there is lack of will. Which will? Is it the will to perform or the will to harm yourself and your name? This is a Nigerian syndrome and we are so used to it that we are unperturbed and undisturbed by such innuendoes. The president is focused, he will deliver what he says he will deliver and I am sure that like Boko Haram, like insurgency, this issu e of oil theft will also be dealt with. Do you feel that the administration is fulfilling the promises made by the president? I am so proud of being part and parcel of this administration and when I say that, I say it with all sense of responsibility. I have been around for a while, I have been in the political scene for over thirty years. I have been around corridors of power for some decades and I am telling you that this is still the best of times in my own assessment. On the National Dialogue the president is organising, I was wondering, what is the imperative of this undertaking at a time when he has so much on his plate and General Election is just another year away? That is what I hate to hear, that election is just another year away. Does Nigeria exist just because of election? Was Nigeria amalgamated in 1914 because an election was coming? What is the purpose of conducting an election and putting people in offices and they are unable to perform or that the system works against them. How can people perform when the elites have not united or agreed to be a nation? This is just the desperate ploy of politicians who think that all that is important is to do an election, to win an office, whether I am able to perform or not, if I am able to get some money, good luck to me. Nigeria is much more than that. The interest of Nigeria is by far more than the political process itself and it is almost a devilish proposition for people to say that when an election is just around the corner, what election? The situation in the country today is so lopsided and people continue to clamor. We cannot move no matter the intention, no matter the zeal of the leader, if we are not in whole. A car that the back tire is not there, the boot is falling, whether the engine is good or not, can that car move? The car cannot move no matter the dexterity of the driver or the perfection of the engine with which it is working. The various parts of this country today, it is only the greatest liar of all time who will say that most parts of the country today are okay. They are not. So, the issue of election has nothing to do with the confab and there is no better time than now to have this confab. Let us dialogue, let us see how far we can go. Rome was not built in a day. Maybe this confab will move us so far. We are moving. A nation has an indeterminate lifetime. Nigeria is not going to end tomorrow or in 2015. Do not listen to these politicians who tell you election is just next tear as if 2015 is the most important year. 2015 will come and go just like 1999 came and went, just like 1960 came and went. However, Nigeria must remain, but we are concerned about what type of Nigeria we allow to remain for our people.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 09:45:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015