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| President Goodluck Jonathan |
•TUC: A lot still needs to be done
by: Onyebuchi Ezigbo ,
Damilola Oyedele and Adibe Emonyonu
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has said Nigerians do
not require a “marking scheme” to assess the President Goodluck Jonathan
administration or any administration at all, since the people know when a
government has impacted positively on their lives.
The party, which responded
Thursday to the mid-term review presented by Jonathan and his ministers
to mark Democracy Day, wondered what kind of yardstick anyone needed to know
that despite the seemingly impressive economic figures being reeled out from
the scorecard by the government, the average Nigerian is worse off today than
he or she was before the present administration assumed office.
But in another assessment of the administration, the Trade
Union Congress (TUC) said although progress had been made in Nigeria under
Jonathan, a lot still needed to be done.
In a statement issued by the ACN National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also reminded the president that it
was not the business of the opposition to spoon feed the administration on how
to govern, even though the party (ACN) has, time and again, gone out of its way
to proffer solutions to the problems facing the nation, out of sheer
patriotism.
“Needless to say that such suggestions from us and other
well-meaning groups and individuals have been so arrogantly ignored by the
administration,” it said.
ACN also wondered why the president was suddenly irritated
that Nigerians have not given his administration a pass mark, after about three
years in the saddle and two years since he was elected.
“Mr. President, Nigerians need no marking scheme to know
that the rate of unemployment went up under your watch to an unprecedented
23.9% by December 2011, according to figures given by the National Bureau of
Statistics. Today, the figure must be hovering above the 50% mark!
“Mr. President, Nigerians need no marking scheme to know
that under your watch, security of lives and property, as well as the welfare
of the citizens - the raison d'etre of any government - are at the lowest ebb.
“Mr. President, what marking scheme does one need to know
that despite the seemingly impressive economic figures being reeled out by your
administration, the average Nigerian is worse off today than he or she was
before you assumed office? What we are seeing is growth without development.
“The so-called 6.5% economic growth announced by your
Finance Minister is meaningful only on paper. How does that help the thousands
of university graduates who are scrambling to work as truck drivers?
“How does it make Lagos-Ibadan Expressway or the East-West
Road safer for Nigerians?
“Mr. President, what has been the impact for Nigerians of
the high foreign reserves figure and the stable exchange rate of the naira
reeled out by your Finance Minister?
“Is it not a cruel irony that as Mr. President was
luxuriating in phantom economic indices on the second anniversary of his
administration, Nigerians across the land could not even watch him on
television because the power situation has been exceptionally poor in recent
times?
“And in case Mr. President thinks it is only the opposition
and the media – his administration’s favourite whipping boys - that are scoring
his administration low, the Washington-based global advocacy and campaigning
organization, ONE, was listing Nigeria - under President Jonathan's watch - and
DR Congo among the ‘laggard countries’ pulling Africa back from reaching the
MDG goals by 2015?
“Surely, this global body did not use any ‘Jonathan-style
marking scheme’ to name Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi, Ghana and Ethiopia as the top
performing countries in Africa (on the MDGs), even when they are less endowed
than Nigeria,” ACN stated.
The party deplored the president’s resort to blaming
imaginary enemies of his administration for his token achievements in the face
of mounting challenges facing the country.
It urged him to shut his ears to praise-singers, especially
those from foreign lands who have never seen an African government, no matter
its governance record, that is unworthy of their association, as they hunt for
cheap funds from despotic governments across the continent to rehabilitate
themselves back home.
“Mr. President, it is never too late for you to put your
shoulder to the wheel, shun the political jobbers around you, reinvigorate your
cabinet by chasing away the deadwood there - though some of them come highly
recommended on paper - and giving Nigerians a more purposeful government.
“When that happens, Mr. President, you will not need to
waste valuable time on lecturing your much-sapped compatriots on how to assess
your administration, and you would have succeeded in rending those seemingly
implacable critics of yours in the media and the opposition jobless,” ACN said.
But in its assessment of the administration, TUC said
although progress had been made in Nigeria under Jonathan, a lot still needed
to be done.
Speaking on the scorecard of the current administration,
President General of the TUC, Comrade Peter Esele, said in spite of the
challenges, Nigerians must not give up in ensuring that democracy survives as
it remained the best form of government.
“We are not where we want to be or where we should be, but
we are definitely not where we used to be,” he said.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in a communique issued at
the end of its National Executive Council meeting in Abuja recently picked
holes in many claims of development by the government.
The communique signed by its acting General Secretary, Chris
Uyot, acknowledged that the economy had grown at a rate of seven per cent.
He said this however had resulted in the creation of just a
few jobs with several indicators putting unemployment rate at 60 per cent.
The congress also noted that power supply has again dropped
with unjustifiably high tariffs.
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