Why Nigerians don’t know about my achievements —Jonathan

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, on Sunday, concurred that his numerous achievements are not celebrated at the grassroots due to inadequate and inefficient communication.
He was reacting to observations that many achievements of his administration being reeled out by members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) were new to the audience as well as everyday Nigerians.
The event was the president’s interactive forum with the organised private sector and leaders of professional bodies in Lagos.
The president, however, promised that more would be done in days ahead to connect Nigerians to giant strides his administration had made in all the sectors of the economy.
“We need to get new means of communicating. We may have to start going to the rural areas,” he said.
A leader of the private sector, Mr Oba Otudeko, actually charged the president and his men to invade the IT world to connect with the youth, adding that “though I am an analogue person, I recommend the IT word strongly. That is where it is happening now.”
Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, speaking at the event, assured the president that his company would continue with the refinery project, because he believed in the Nigerian project and the administration of Jonathan.
He charged the president to focus more on job creation for the youth, adding that it was dangerous for them to be hanging around without being gainfully engaged.
He called for the diversification of the economy, noting that the oil sector had become so unpredictable with the way prices crashed within days.
Reeling out the milestones attained in the economic sphere, Coordinating Minister of Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, noted that the transformation agenda of Jonathan-led administration was mainly about diversification.
She, however, warned Nigerians that hard times are ahead due to the crisis in the oil sector.
“It will be a tough year for Nigeria, I won’t lie to you. But Mr President had foreseen this over three years ago and we already have policies and measures to cushion this. We are just waiting for the price fall to get to the bottom, before we start applying the policies,” he said.
Speaking on the issue of corruption, Jonathan noted that even public execution in the past did not stop robbery, while insisting that jailing suspects and celebrating it on TV was not the way to stop corruption.
“Our idea is to prevent corruption through the building of strong institution. We stopped corruption in the fertiliser industry. We stopped it in Pension, in the payment of salaries, we stopped ghost workers by building strong instructions. We are doing something in the Aviation sector,” he said.
Speaking on the achievements of the administration in the finance sector, Okonjo-Iweala noted that 1.4 million jobs were provided annually in the last four years, while all that was needed was 1.8 million jobs per year.
She said with such minimal deficit of just 400,000 jobs per year, it was certain that Jonathan would surpass the yearly requirement if re-elected.
The minister also pointed out the reform in the ports, which she said had allowed for easier clearance of cargo, adding that “48 hour cargo clearance is possible and it is not just a dream. It is a dream that will become a reality by allowing him to continue in office.”
With the introduction of the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), she explained that those in the medium scale enterprise could now borrow for up to 10 years without the usual harassment of having to pay back in a year.
In her own short message, Minister of Petroleum, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, disclosed that over 30,000 jobs had been created in the last four years of Jonathan-led administration in the downstream sector, using the Nigerian content policy.
“It is sabotage that is killing us, but we have also reduced that significantly. It used to be about 200,000 barrel per day of oil theft, but that has reduced to about 60,000 daily now,” she said.
Minister of Agriculture, Akinwunmi Adesina, said it took the Jonathan administration 90 days to end 40 years of corruption in fertiliser distribution, adding that food importation had dropped from 1.3 trillion in 2009 to 624 billion now.
“We are first in the world. Today, we are exporting transparency in fertiliser distribution to the rest of the world. You can catch a thief in the dark by either using the gun or switch on the light. The Jonathan-led administration decided to switch on the light,” he said.
Minister of Power, Professor Pat Nebo, disclosed that anytime the administration was about overshooting 4,000 megawatts, vandals would step up their activities, noting that sabotage had been a major issue in the power sector.
He, however, said government had notched giant strides, unprecedented in the country.
Minister of Works, Mike Onomolenlen, reeled out roads constructed by the administration with graphic pictures of what they were before and what they now look like.
He disclosed that over 45,000km of roads had been done nationwide, including the Lagos-Ibadan and Benin-Ore road.ax