Repeated claims by the opposition on the “cluelessness” of President Goodluck Jonathan are baseless, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe has said.
Addressing a Press conference in Abuja, Dr. Okupe described opposition’s claims that the president is incompetent as not only untrue and unsupported by facts but also part of a larger strategy to present the government as ineffective in order to advance their selfish cause.
He urged Nigerians to ignore the “wild and baseless comment” and instead team up with the “silent and effective achiever,” Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, whose background does not fall into the mould of incompetence or cluelessness that the opposition tries too hard to sell to the Nigerian populace.
He debunked such insinuations, saying the transformation agenda of the present administration cannot be “judged by noise making, propaganda and deception,” which are the hallmarks of the activities of the Nigerian opposition.
He maintained that President Goodluck inherited several challenges in areas like, power, infrastructural decay, youth unemployment, inability to diversify the economy, economic instability, insecurity and corruption, and most of these issues have been largely addressed.
In the power, recalled the challenges in the sector before Jonathan assumed office, such as low generating capacity (output less than 3000 MW), abandoned NIPP Projects, unavailability of gas to service the NIPP projects, transmission challenges and protracted Inability to unbundle the PHCN and the eventual privatization of the sector. Most of the above, he explained, have been achieved and improved upon 100 per cent. He also promised that the challenge of transmission will be overcome before the end of 2013.
“In the area of infrastructural decay, the roads were in states of disrepair nationwide, railway system was not functional and airports were in state of total dilapidation, most of them without any maintenance for decades,” he said.
“As at today, Benin-Sagamu road has been awarded and presently, the commuting time has been reduced from 12 hours and above to four hours. The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway concession was decisively dealt with and immediate rehabilitative efforts were carried out by Julius Berger and RCC, which reduced the burden on commuters on that road during the Christmas holidays. Abuja-Lokoja Expressway is progressing steadily while Kano – Maiduguri road is in progress.
“The East-West Road, despite the negative reports by detractors, has made significant progress with most of its concrete works and bridges nearly completed. Onitsha-Enugu-Port Harcourt dual carriage way a distance of 1664km is due for completion in 2013. On the second Niger Bridge, N5bn has been set aside for commencement of works.”
He equally informed that much ground has been covered in the resuscitation of the erstwhile comatose rail transport system.
Continuing, he said: “In the aviation sector, 22 Airports were earmarked for remodelling and rehabilitation. Eleven have been completed and commissioned. Five new terminals in Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Enugu as well as six cargo terminals will begin this year.
“The cassava component of the agricultural transformation programme has attracted N600bn, about $380m into the Nigerian economy from the substitution of bread wheat flour with cassava flour. Nigeria will before the end of this year earn an additional 136 million dollars from export of cassava chips.
“Nigeria is today producing 3.5 million tons of rice locally and will by 2015 meet its total local demand of 5 million tons of the staple. This will save about N300bn in foreign exchange and create jobs for our local farmers and entrepreneurs, among other innovations.
“It should, however, be realised that achieving macroeconomic stability is the foundation upon which other economic reforms such as the investment in power sector, infrastructure and development of skilled manpower will be built. Government, in realisation of the need to make the transition period less stressful, has initiated socio-economic programmes, such as the various youth empowerment, wealth creation initiatives under the SURE-P, NAPEP and other agencies.
“In view of the fact that the security agencies have severely weakened insurgents’ capacity to do damage, a call for ceasefire has emanated from them. It is clearly untrue therefore to say that government is not on top of security issues in this country.
“There is probably no better proof of a leader’s commitment to a corruption-free Nigeria than what this president has done in the area of exposing corrupt practices and ensuring that culprits are brought to book.”
He concluded that empirical evidence show that President Goodluck Jonathan has not only tackled the challenges he inherited but has successfully solved many of them while those that remain are part of works in progress which, God willing, will be resolved before the end of 2014.
“We want to assure Nigerians that with the undoubted and continued effective implementations of the Transformation Agenda, Nigeria will never ever be the same again,” he said.
“Achievements and competence are always not judged by noise making, propaganda and deception which are the hallmarks of the activities of the Nigerian opposition.”
