Leading voices from the North yesterday mocked President Goodluck Jonathan’s self appraisal in his 54th Nigeria’s Independence Day address in which he claimed to have performed well in his five years in office.
They said the President failed in as much as he shied away from dealing firmly with those that were slowing down the nation’s progress. Prof. Abdullahi, currently spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), said: “There is nothing for one to say than that there is no reason to celebrate Nigeria at 54″. According to him, “Those of us who are over 70 have a different view about what is progress and what is development. Those of us who saw independence and what happened at independence with our founding fathers, our leaders of those days, in the North, in the West and in the East and at the centre recorded far more progress with the limited resources they had than what we are witnessing today. The revenue of Nigeria between 1999 till date is far more than the revenue this country had from 1914 to 1999. Continue...
“Almost 90 years revenue is not equivalent to what we have accrued within the last 15 years. And we had steady power supply in those years. We had free medical services in hospitals. We had free education in most parts of the country, particularly in the Western Region and the North. And then, we could sleep with our doors opened and we could move freely from one village to the other and from one city to the other, no matter what time of the night it was, without fear of being robbed or killed. “So, I don’t know what is their yardstick for celebration. If they are talking about concrete buildings and so on, as their measure of progress, that is not my own measure of progress in socio-economic terms. “The ordinary Nigerians have nothing to celebrate. Those who are celebrating must be those who are looting our treasury. “Reacting to President Jonathan’s claim that he had done well in his five years of leading the country, the NEF spokesman said: “Do you expect him to score himself failed? But that is his own assessment and those praise singers around him. Ordinary Nigerians will tell him he has achieved nothing.” On its part, the Arewa Consultative Forum said Nigeria was in dire need of credible leadership to navigate it out of its current quagmire. The forum’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim, said in a statement that Nigeria had the potential to be one of the biggest economies in the world with the right leadership and urged all eligible Nigerians to fully participate in the imminent 2015 general elections by “ensuring that they register as voters and also vote for competent and credible candidates of their choice in all the elections.” In Dr. Junaid Mohammed’s view, Nigeria was not in “the right direction towards development.” He said: “We are only in the direction towards mayhem and confusion, poverty, corruption and irresponsible governance. Therefore, there is nothing to celebrate about our being 54. And those who go out of their way to loot our treasury to celebrate know within themselves that there is nothing to celebrate. “The only thing that Nigerians may want to celebrate is attaining the age of 54 and its survival. But just mere survival is not a human attribute; it is an attribute for animals. Only animals celebrate their survival when others are being killed. “A politician is assessed by the promises he made at the outset of coming to power or at the time he was canvassing for votes during election. But I remember vividly when he was canvassing for votes in 2011, he promised the following: That he was going to bring down drastically the level of poverty. He also promised to do something about infrastructure, particularly power.
“He also promised to lead the country justly and pave way for harmonious co-existence. He also promised to do something about corruption. Now, I can tell you and every Nigerian who has been around in this country will confirm that the life of the average Nigerian has gone worse, because from 2011 to date, corruption has been institutionalised.” Also speaking, prominent activist, Shehu Sani stated that the Jonathan administration had been able to appease only the yearnings of the people of South-South to produce the president of Nigeria. “But all that has happened over this case is that he ended up enriching a gang of militants and he has become so inept and incapable of prosecuting corruption and the nation has never been divided like they have under Goodluck Jonathan. And the worst of all, today we are faced with a serious problem of insurgency and people are being kidnapped. “The President has woefully failed politically and has woefully failed by his inability to stamp his feet and deal with some certain persons in his government who have been seen to be cog in the will of progress for the country and have also been giving his government a bad image”.
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