On Sunday, January 19, 2014, one woke up and found our dear Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, dotting all the major newspapers with well laid out spread pages, challenging any Nigerian who doubts the excellent performance of his boss, President Goodluck Jonathan to a public debate. I don’t begrudge him, as one humbly offers oneself for the great debate.
To be candid, I was highly impressed with the effort he made to market his boss and his challenges generally. However, the truth is that, to whom much is given, much is expected. And much is given to President Jonathan; hence, much is expected from him.
Nigerians have not forgotten the very profound statement he made at the Eagle Square, where he humbly and sincerely narrated his peasant origin – how he went to school without shoes. That statement immediately endeared him to most Nigerians who saw him as one of them. Subsequently, it attracted a lot of votes for him.
Ordinary Nigerians actually saw him as one of them, but looking at the scheme of things, it is either he has forgotten his fellow countrymen or he decided to abandon them.
Speaking on the monumental corruption plaguing the country, he promised to fight it head on, saying it won’t be business as usual.
In the much touted Transformation Agenda, one has not seen any booklet, like the Green Book of the late Muammar Gadaffi of Libya that enumerated its content. Indeed, in one occasion, I asked Mr Maku of a copy he promised, but I never got one up till date.
In several fora, Mr President promised uninterrupted power supply, revival of the Ajaokuta steel plant, modernisation of railways, construction of refineries etc.
Although it can be stated that half of these promises were empty, there is no doubt that marginal progress was made in agriculture and basic road infrastructure. But that does not mean the economy is better than what we had in the last 20 years.
The country has not recorded any landmark achievement, as the privatisation of the power pector cannot be rated a major achievement. The Foreign Direct Investment which accrued could have been higher if the economic team actually meant business. Is the work done commensurate with the amount of money that has accrued to the federal government since the inception of this administration? YouWin and Sure-P as palliative measures cannot achieve more than their intendment, no matter the stuff of the propaganda.
The genesis of the crisis of confidence which this regime faces is that upon assumption of office, President Jonathan not only forgot the oath of office and social contract he swore to, he got hooked to the inchoate and nebulous economic policy of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but lost the people. The PDP, by all intents and purposes, believes in sharing the money while the private sector is left to drive the economy.
This economic policy is generally referred to as the Washington Consensus or Chicago School of Thought. It posits that government is the problem, not the solution. Accordingly, it is believed that the private sector should drive the process while the government is more or less consigned to administrative duties. This may be suitable for the developed world where the critical infrastructure have been built, not in Nigeria’s primitive economy, where 170 million people jostle for 3, 000 megawatts of electricity.
It is this economic policy that led to the failure of the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime. If not changed, it will also be the nemesis of the Jonathan administration. Why is this so?
The Jonathan administration is believed to have inherited over $10 billion in excess crude account from the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, collects 52 per cent from over N4 trillion from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and over N1trillion from the Customs Service annually. We did not mention LNG and other sources of fund. And since the government is not interested in doing good business larger chunk of the money is squandered.
The oil has never sold below $90 per barrel since the inception of the President Jonathan administration, yet no refinery nor petro-chemical plant has been erected anywhere in the country. He is waiting for the Dangotes and the Chinese.
Interestingly, Alhaji Dangote has exposed the truth, that with less than $4 billion, a 400,000-liter capacity refinery could be built. We recall that out of the $49.8 billion reported missing by the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Minister of Finance, after the reconciliation meeting, announced that $10 billion was not remitted to the Federation Account, which translates to the fact that the government has enough money to build new refineries.
If the truth must be told, President Jonathan would have achieved a lot for the people if he built a refinery in Bayelsa, petro-chemical plant at Koko, Mambilla hydro-power plant in Taraba, coal-fired plant in Enugu, Gombe, bitumen plant in Ondo, etc.
This would have spared Minsiter Maku the task of dishing out propaganda to fight the phobia of possible rejection in the 2015 presidential election. There is no doubt that there is panic and desperation on the probability of losing the 2015 presidential election, which would have been unnecessary if this regime had performed creditably.
We must stop campaigns of calumny in a desperate bid to score cheap political points against opponents. Such dangerous campaigns do not do the country any good.
Again, this administration claims to have revitalised the railway, but regrettably, the rail line from Kano to Lagos is the same old British gauge. It takes over 30 hours to arrive from Lagos to Kano.
Nigerians would have been very grateful to the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan if money was voted to truly construct modern rail lines from Kano to Lagos, Maiduguri to Port Harcourt and other intermediary rail lines.
The Minister of Information should understand that Nigerians are not blind; they are also very intelligent. They will express their opinion in 2015.
Okechukwu wrote from Freetown Street, Wuse II, Abuja - Daily Trust
Download National Dialogue Committee's Reports (in PDF)Nigerians have not forgotten the very profound statement he made at the Eagle Square, where he humbly and sincerely narrated his peasant origin – how he went to school without shoes. That statement immediately endeared him to most Nigerians who saw him as one of them. Subsequently, it attracted a lot of votes for him.
Ordinary Nigerians actually saw him as one of them, but looking at the scheme of things, it is either he has forgotten his fellow countrymen or he decided to abandon them.
Speaking on the monumental corruption plaguing the country, he promised to fight it head on, saying it won’t be business as usual.
In the much touted Transformation Agenda, one has not seen any booklet, like the Green Book of the late Muammar Gadaffi of Libya that enumerated its content. Indeed, in one occasion, I asked Mr Maku of a copy he promised, but I never got one up till date.
In several fora, Mr President promised uninterrupted power supply, revival of the Ajaokuta steel plant, modernisation of railways, construction of refineries etc.
Although it can be stated that half of these promises were empty, there is no doubt that marginal progress was made in agriculture and basic road infrastructure. But that does not mean the economy is better than what we had in the last 20 years.
The country has not recorded any landmark achievement, as the privatisation of the power pector cannot be rated a major achievement. The Foreign Direct Investment which accrued could have been higher if the economic team actually meant business. Is the work done commensurate with the amount of money that has accrued to the federal government since the inception of this administration? YouWin and Sure-P as palliative measures cannot achieve more than their intendment, no matter the stuff of the propaganda.
The genesis of the crisis of confidence which this regime faces is that upon assumption of office, President Jonathan not only forgot the oath of office and social contract he swore to, he got hooked to the inchoate and nebulous economic policy of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but lost the people. The PDP, by all intents and purposes, believes in sharing the money while the private sector is left to drive the economy.
This economic policy is generally referred to as the Washington Consensus or Chicago School of Thought. It posits that government is the problem, not the solution. Accordingly, it is believed that the private sector should drive the process while the government is more or less consigned to administrative duties. This may be suitable for the developed world where the critical infrastructure have been built, not in Nigeria’s primitive economy, where 170 million people jostle for 3, 000 megawatts of electricity.
It is this economic policy that led to the failure of the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime. If not changed, it will also be the nemesis of the Jonathan administration. Why is this so?
The Jonathan administration is believed to have inherited over $10 billion in excess crude account from the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, collects 52 per cent from over N4 trillion from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and over N1trillion from the Customs Service annually. We did not mention LNG and other sources of fund. And since the government is not interested in doing good business larger chunk of the money is squandered.
The oil has never sold below $90 per barrel since the inception of the President Jonathan administration, yet no refinery nor petro-chemical plant has been erected anywhere in the country. He is waiting for the Dangotes and the Chinese.
Interestingly, Alhaji Dangote has exposed the truth, that with less than $4 billion, a 400,000-liter capacity refinery could be built. We recall that out of the $49.8 billion reported missing by the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Minister of Finance, after the reconciliation meeting, announced that $10 billion was not remitted to the Federation Account, which translates to the fact that the government has enough money to build new refineries.
If the truth must be told, President Jonathan would have achieved a lot for the people if he built a refinery in Bayelsa, petro-chemical plant at Koko, Mambilla hydro-power plant in Taraba, coal-fired plant in Enugu, Gombe, bitumen plant in Ondo, etc.
This would have spared Minsiter Maku the task of dishing out propaganda to fight the phobia of possible rejection in the 2015 presidential election. There is no doubt that there is panic and desperation on the probability of losing the 2015 presidential election, which would have been unnecessary if this regime had performed creditably.
We must stop campaigns of calumny in a desperate bid to score cheap political points against opponents. Such dangerous campaigns do not do the country any good.
Again, this administration claims to have revitalised the railway, but regrettably, the rail line from Kano to Lagos is the same old British gauge. It takes over 30 hours to arrive from Lagos to Kano.
Nigerians would have been very grateful to the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan if money was voted to truly construct modern rail lines from Kano to Lagos, Maiduguri to Port Harcourt and other intermediary rail lines.
The Minister of Information should understand that Nigerians are not blind; they are also very intelligent. They will express their opinion in 2015.
Okechukwu wrote from Freetown Street, Wuse II, Abuja - Daily Trust
Get breaking news on BBM - add our PIN - 232FC0E9
Follow on Twitter to receive updates every hour
Don't miss the next news item - LIKE our Facebook page
No comments:
Post a Comment