WHY PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN IS FAVOURED TO WIN By Robert Obioha Those following this column would have noticed that I have in the past few weeks written extensively on the 2015 general elections, particularly the presidential polls, the two dominant political parties that will slug it out for the soul of Aso Rock and the emergence of the two foremost presidential candidates, President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) of All Progressives Congress (APC). Today, I will zero in on why I think that President Goodluck Jonathan is highly favoured to win the February 14 presidential polls over Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. For a start, President Jonathan has made modest achievements in the past four years under the peculiar circumstance he found himself. I shall return to the achievements later in the article. Although, the Boko Haram menace predates Jonathan’s regime, no Nigerian is in doubt that it has intensified since Jonathan overwhelmingly won the 2011 presidential poll, which also was greeted with violence and killings in some parts of the North. Before Jonathan made public his intention to contest the 2015 presidential poll and after that the sect’s murderous attacks have continued unabated. Besides the bombings and killings of innocent Nigerians for no just cause, some self-appointed Northern elders have derided Jonathan’s presidency and his right to contest the 2015 polls based on the erroneous impression that after the death of former President Umaru Yar’Adua, a northerner would have succeeded him according to their myopic interpretation of PDP zoning formula. Despite the fact that most Northerners understood the imperative of Jonathan’s presidency and his right to run for a second term as provided in the 1999 Constitution, these elements still think otherwise. Now that Jonathan has emerged the PDP presidential candidate for the 2015 poll, such campaign of diatribe might have considerably eased. If what happened at the weekend’s fund raising of the PDP is anything to go by, there is no doubt that President Goodluck Jonathan, apart from being the PDP presidential flag bearer, is also a pan-Nigerian presidential candidate. In Jonathan, all Nigerians are united and speak with one voice. All Nigerians from all tribes and the six geo-political zones gathered in Abuja and donated hugely to his campaign fund that totaled billions of naira. The various endorsements by civil society groups from all parts of the country prior to Jonathan’s declaration to contest the 2015 polls show that Nigerians want another four years of Jonathan transformation contrary to what the opposition has been orchestrating. 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 Jonathan’s 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 nation’s 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 Jonathan’s 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 Jonathan’s 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 nation’s 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. Nigeria’s 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 p sunnewsonline/new/?p=97150 2015: Why Jonathan is favoured to win 0 By Our Reporter on December 26, 2014 Opinion Afara Lane Robert Obioha 08111813041 robobioha@yahoo Those following this column would have noticed that I have in the past few weeks written extensively on the 2015 general elections, particularly the presi…
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 22:05:26 +0000