APC, PDP disagree over Jonathan’s performance

The All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party maintain different positions on the performance of the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. JESUSEGUN ALAGBE writes

The emergence of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as the 14th President of Nigeria was welcome by many people, who expected that the country’s fortune would change for the better.

Lofty dreams, ideas, promises and agendas were not lacking in his pre-election campaigns. The famous Transformation Agenda was developed and sold to Nigerians.

When Jonathan was inaugurated as the President, he cited anti-corruption, power and electoral reforms as the focus of his administration.

He also promised jobs, among other socio-economic benefits.

Three and half years into his administration, many Nigerians are of the view that the President’s policies are anti-people.

From the painful removal of fuel subsidy in 2011 to an astronomical increase in terrorism, many Nigerians’ hope of a better standard of living has since been dashed.

The major opposition party in the country, the All Progressives Congress, said the state of the country under Jonathan’s administration had become alarming.

The APC’s spokesperson, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said it was unfortunate that some of the values and ideals that Nigeria’s founding fathers laid had been eroded.

He said, “What we are witnessing today is quite sad. In 1993, Nigerians showed the world that religion does not matter in politics when they elected a Muslim President and a Muslim Vice-President to run this country before the election was annulled.

“In 1999, Nigerians again showed that neither religion nor ethnicity mattered when they elected President Olusegun Obasanjo even when he was rejected by his own ethnic group. Other ethnic groups in Nigeria voted for him, even when all the presidential candidates were Christians.

“However today, in less than four years of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, all these values have been eroded. At no time in the history of this country have we been divided along religious, ethnic and social lines.”

Mohammed said the state of the country is to be worried about. He identified disunity among many factors that are responsible for the country’s woes.

He said, “This is our major worry for this democracy. Can we survive another four years of this division, another four years of acrimony, of corruption, of insecurity, of incompetence, and unemployment?

“These are the issues and honestly, in the last four years, all that our founding fathers worked for have been split on the altar of who we elected. Most of the programmes that unite us such as the National Youth Service Corps have been so bastardised. Our forefathers tried to allow us to profit from the diversity of this country from the set of schemes such as NYSC, Unity Schools, etc.

“From such programmes, we have mixed with ourselves, some settling in places where they had never been before and marrying from there. Some formed long-life friendships when they met. Today, nobody wants to go outside his state and this is what makes it sad about this administration. The President has divided this country along ethnic, religious and social lines.”

However, Mohammed said even though President Jonathan has not been able to work together with the opposition, it would not relent in making Nigeria what it should be.

Nonetheless, the Peoples Democratic Party said that those who could not see the achievements of the President Jonathan’s administration are the enemies of the country.

The Lagos State spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party, Taofeek Gani, said those who could not see the achievements of the President were either against democracy or unpatriotic Nigerians.

Gani said what the opposition in Nigeria does is to see the negative sides of the President, but that the President had halways commended states where the PDP was not in power if they had done well.

He added, “In the states where we are not in power, the PDP has been magnanimous enough to commend them in areas where they have tried. This is how politics should be played. How can anyone who is a Nigerian say that the country is not advancing under the administration of President Jonathan when today the gnome of development is taking place? We have a government by the people and for the people.

“Even the opposition can attest to this fact. For instance, if there is any election in this country ever since the time of President Jonathan, even the opposition knows it is going to be free, fair and credible. If you also look at the area of infrastructure, for over 35 years the rail line was not working. Today the rail lines are working. You can travel from Lagos to Kano, from Port Harcourt to anywhere.

“Our airports are working fine. Today, our airspace has been categorised under ‘A’ which means any aircraft from Nigeria can fly to the United States directly. This is something that has never happened before. In the area of power, apart from the politics of monopoly and the bureaucracy in the sector, Nigeria’s power generation has improved.”

The PDP spokesperson said though the country had yet to reach the best state, things had since improved.

He added, “It has not got to the best stage yet, but we know that under President Goodluck Jonathan, power generation has increased from 800MW to 4,700MW, and there is the hope that we will attain 6,000MW before the end of 2015. So, why will anybody say Nigeria is not advancing? Obviously they are playing politics.

“Today, Nigeria is better off economically. We have surpassed the economy of South Africa. All these are the indices you will use to measure the performance of the President. An average Nigerian will not say Jonathan has not performed except they are envying him.”

But for a Lagos-based lawyer and social commentator, Jiti Ogunye, his expectations as a Nigerian from the President have yet to be met. He identified the loss of Nigerians’ lives to terrorism and corruption, among other issues, as some of the things that have plagued this administration.

He said, “The previous administrations of President Olusegun Obasanjo and the late President Musa Yar’Adua that preceded the current administration performed better. Democracy has been devalued under this current administration. Human lives have become cheap.

“Corruption has become the order of the day; unemployment has rapidly increased over the past four years. That is why the international highly coveted Mo Ibrahim prize for leadership has not been won in this part of the world for some years.”

However, Ogunye said there is no better alternative in the opposition party in this country. He stated that there is not so much difference in their ideologies.

He added, “Unfortunately, there is not so much better alternative in the opposition in this country because there is no difference in their ideology. Unlike in the past in Nigeria, the country’s opposition has yet to prove to Nigerians that they would not do worse if they are elected into power.”