In response to President Goodluck Jonathan’s Order for Marking Scheme, before any fair assessment on his leadership is attempted; Conference of Nigerian Political Parties {CNPP} as a
mark of obedience to our dear president and in the absence of any concise pamphlet on the Transformation Agenda, adopted as marking scheme the 6 Points Agenda he delivered during his inaugural address on 29 May 2011.
‘Fellow Compatriots, lift your gaze towards the horizon. Look ahead and you will see a great future that we can secure with unity, hard work and collective sacrifice. Join me as we begin the journey of transforming Nigeria:-
i] I will continue to fight for your future, because I am one of you.
ii] I will continue to fight for improved medical care for all our citizens.
iii] I will continue to fight for all citizens to have access to first class education.
iv] I will continue to fight for electricity to be available to all our citizens.
v] I will continue to fight for an efficient and affordable public transport system for all our people. vi] I will continue to fight for jobs to be created through productive partnerships.’
CNPP in an emergence meeting took a careful assessment of the 2 years and indeed 3 years of the Jonathan regime and scores the regime 35% on the 6 Points Agenda Mr President enunciated.
In our assessment, Nigeria today is more divided than ever, more in a state of despair and despondency than ever. Answer, inept and clueless leadership.
i] Going by his address, as a minority who galvanized national support in an unprecedented scale to discard ancient prejudices and win peoples mandate, President Jonathan in our assessment is far from fighting for Nigeria’s future, especially as one of us, those who went to school without shoe? No! Where is the Fresh Air?
We expected Mr President to embark on massive peoples social programs and invest heavily in critical infrastructure, to restore the peoples hope for a better future.
He has no excuse, for he inherited over $20 billion Excess Crude Account, Oil sales has been above budget bench mark and Nigerians has been paying all manner of taxe
ii] Our medi-care has not improved; otherwise Mrs Patience Jonathan and other elites will not be wasting our foreign reserves on overseas medication. The poor also do not get adequate medical attention from our primary health clinics.
iii] West African Examination Council, and other similar examination bodies pay testimonies to the unfortunate decay of our education. Our mismatch and poor quality degrees, need urgent attention, yet 3 years down the line Mr President seems not to give a dam, even though he is a teacher.
The question is, what is wrong in using the 5 trillion generated annually by the Federal Inland Revenue Service {FIRS} and over 1 trillion from Customs Service to provide efficient medi-care and first class education? Anwser, officially approved Corruption.
iv] We had gone through the well calibrated Electricity Road Map, President Jonathan crafted then with Professor Barth Nnaji as Minister, from our assessment it seems to be
abandoned.
The question is, what is the problem in using our unprecedented oil revenue to generate electricity and embark on other critical infrastructure?
v] We regret to note that efficient and affordable public transportation cannot be guaranteed with
patch-patch roads and patch-patch rail lines, compounded with tepid implementation of annual capital budget.
The Chinese did 4000km of modern rail line of 150kmph between Beijing to Lhasa at $4.2 billion, while Nigeria in 21st Century is doing old gauge of 20kmph from Kano to Lagos at $8.3 billion.
For instance, Nigerians could have been on side of President Jonathan if the squabble today in the Nigerian Governors Forum is over investing money from the Federation Account on 1st
Class Medi-care and Education, Refinery in Bayelsa State, Mambilla Power Plant, Enugu Coal, Modern rail lines, Water ways or any other critical national infrastructure! Rather the squabble is Do-or-Die Battle for power as we approach 2015.
It is a maxim that using the same failed method and expect to get pass mark is mere illusion; President Jonathan cannot succeed as long as he maintains the philosophy of his party that Food is Ready and the motto of Share the Money.
In sum, CNPP’s candid opinion is that what we have is a primitive economy, earnestly yearning for huge public investment, which providence has graced us with. Over reliance on our captains
of industry is a misplaced priority, as 98% of them have no factories, even pure water factory.
Consequently, any regime that lacks the political will to wage strident war against the endemic and pervasive corruption in the land; cannot achieve any meaningful result.
And for as long as President Jonathan or any other president that comes in 2015, condones corruption and continues with the inchoate and failed economic policy that government has no business in business, so long will it be a mirage to provide electricity, medi-care, first class education or create jobs.
Mr Osita Okechukwu
National Publicity Secretary
CNPP
