Nigerians do not need any “marking scheme” to assess the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan or any other at all because citizens know when a government has impacted positively on their lives, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has said.
In a statement issued in Ibadan on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party reminded President Jonathan that it is not the business of the opposition to spoon-feed his administration on how to govern, even though the party has time and again gone out of its way to proffer solutions to the myriad of problems confronting the nation, out of sheer patriotism.
On Wednesday, during the presentation of the Mid-Term Report of his administration in Abuja, Jonathan had slammed his critics, including the media, for their “unfair criticisms” and questioned the yardstick for measuring his achievements.
But the ACN said suggestions from itself and other well-meaning groups and individuals have been so arrogantly ignored by the administration. The party also wondered why Jonathan is suddenly irritated that
Nigerians have not given his administration a pass mark, after about three years in the saddle and two years since he was elected.
“Mr. President, Nigerians need no marking scheme to know that the rate of unemployment went up, under your watch, to an unprecedented 23.9 per cent by December 2011, according to figures given by the National Bureau
of Statistics. Today, the figure must be hovering above the 50 percent mark!” ACN said.
“Mr. President, Nigerians need no marking scheme to know that under your watch, security of lives and property, as well as the welfare of the citizens, the raison d’etre of any government, are at the lowest ebb.
“A day before you demanded a marking scheme from Nigerians instead of giving them better life, a popular musician was attacked by a nine-man gang that snatched his car and deprived him of his money in the country’s economic capital city, the fate being suffered daily by millions of your compatriots!
“Mr. President, what marking scheme does one need to know that despite the seemingly impressive economic figures being reeled out by your administration, the average Nigerian is worse off today than he or she was before you assumed office? What we are seeing is growth without development.
“The so-called 6.5 per cent economic growth announced by your finance minister is meaningful only on paper. How does that help the thousands of university graduates who are scrambling to work as truck drivers? How does it make Lagos-Ibadan Expressway or the East-West Road safer for Nigerians?
“Mr. President, what has been the impact for Nigerians of the high foreign reserves figure and the stable exchange rates for the Naira reeled out by your finance minister? Is it not a cruel irony that as Mr. President was luxuriating in phantom economic indices on the second anniversary of his administration, Nigerians across the land could not even watch him on television because the power situation has been exceptionally poor in recent times?
“And in case Mr. President thinks it is only the opposition and the media, his administration’s favourite whipping boys, that are scoring his administration low, the Washington-based global advocacy and campaigning organisation, ONE, was listing Nigeria, under President Jonathan’s watch, and DR Congo among ‘laggard countries’ pulling Africa back from reaching the MDG goals by 2015?
“Surely, this global body did not use any
‘Jonathan-style marking scheme’ to name Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi, Ghana and Ethiopia as the top performing countries in Africa (on the MDGs), even when they are less endowed than Nigeria?”’
The party claimed d it would not have wasted its energy on commenting on the mid-term performance record of the Jonathan administration had the president not disingenuously decided to blame imaginary enemies of his administration for his token achievements in the face of mounting challenges facing the country.
It urged the president to shut his ears to praise-singers, especially those of the pig-at-the-trough hue from across the Atlantic who have never seen an African government, no matter its governance record, that is unworthy of their association, as they hunt for cheap funds from despotic governments across the
continent to rehabilitate themselves back home.
According to the party, it is never too late for the president to put his shoulder to
the wheel, shun the political jobbers around him, and reinvigorate his cabinet by chasing away the deadwood there even though some of them come highly recommended on paper.
“When that happens, Mr. President,” ACN added, “you will not need to waste valuable time on lecturing your much-sapped compatriots on how to assess your administration, and you would have succeeded in rending those seemingly implacable critics of yours in the media and the opposition jobless.”
