We are not going to be deceived by the opposition insecurity mantra wherein several of these politicians are complicit in the unfortunate situation. We are aware that very fundamental steps have been taken to address the security challenges in the North East. Insurgency is not a tea party. If it was, United States of America would have resolved the security challenges in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pakistan has been dealing with the Talibans for years without complete success. If Major General Muhammadu Buhari is such a security expert, why was he unable to protect his undemocratic administration from fellow coupist, General Ibrahim Babangida? We are in a knowledge driven era. In this era, blackmail and falsehood from an opposition without a recognisable message, except the slogan ‘change’, will not suffice. A political party interested in forming government must present quality programmes that are better than those being executed by government in power. If the opposition thinks that throwing insults at Jonathan will bring them electoral victory, then they under-estimate the intelligence of Nigerians. In agriculture, what programmes are the APC bringing to the table that will surpass the globally recognised Growth Enhancement Scheme of the present administration that has thrown up several self sufficient farmers. For the first time in decades, our agricultural sector is now playing key roles in the economy with the creation of the necessary value chain in the area of key commercial crops such as rice, cocoa, oil palm, sorghum, wheat and cassava. The successes in this sector have attracted Dangote to invest $2.3billion in agriculture, while Olam Nigeria Limited has built a $120million rice mill in Nigeria, the biggest in Africa. Our dependence on imported food has been drastically reduced, with a changing labour composition for the agricultural sector. Several professionals are now involved in agriculture in all the states of the Federation. In education, the success story has been unprecedented. President Jonathan through the N1.3trillion set aside for public universities is building would class universities across the country. This has never happened. The same facility is being worked out for polytechnics and colleges of education. Through the TETFUND High Impact funds, critical infrastructure in public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education have been revived. We cannot forget the Almajiri schools, girl child schools and on-going construction of special vocational schools in the basic education sector. The 12 new Federal Universities and four new Federal Polytechnics. There is also the distribution of over 60million free textbooks, construction of electronic libraries in Federal Unity Colleges, training of teachers among other key projects in this sector. This has been the best time for education in decades. The rehabilitation and reconstruction of roads has been another key area of Jonathan’s administration which needs to be consolidated. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo who now acts as the APC navigator spent eights years, but was unable to achieve much in this regard. Major roads and bridges in the country are being fixed for the economic development of the nation. The Abuja-Lokoja expressway, the Enugu-Port Harcourt road, the East-West Road, the Lagos-Ibadan road, the Benin-Ore Expressway, the Third Mainland Bridge, the Apapa Expressway and several other key projects have received or are receiving attention. In the health sector, the Jonathan administration working with other key stakeholders fought and defeated Ebola. The administration has revived tertiary health facilities across the country. In the coming weeks, the country will be declared polio-free as a result of major work that has been done. The power sector has been unbundled and total privatization achieved, the railway is now working, youth empowerment through Sure-P and You-Win have taken centre stage, women empowerment has been elevated to global standards, there has been a silent industrial revolution occasioned by world class policies, the aviation sector has been improved upon and several other world class projects scattered across the country. Seeking power for the sake of it or to settle a score will not be beneficial to the country. Little wonder, members of the opposition APC are merely involved in provocative statements, market-place insults and never saying what they would do with power should they be privileged to get power. Thank God, majority of Nigerians know these persons.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 21:16:07 +0000