Jonathan's aide flaunts 10 lane Abuja Highway and other achievements of President Jonathan's administration

 The Special Assistant on New Media, Reno Omkri, took to twitter to share a photo of the 10 lane Abuja Highway completed by Jonathan administration, consequently, the  official twitter handle of PDP, @PdpNigeria, also showcased the achievements of the president. 
 

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Bishop Okah blasts Buhari: ‘Sit down, you’re too old’

Pastor of Flock of Christ Mission International, Warri, Delta State, Bishop Simeon Okah, has advised the 72-year-old All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) to sit down because he is too old.

Bishop, who gave four reasons why Nigerians should not vote for Buhari, said, “At his age, I have the desire and cry for the youth of Nigeria. Buhari will not communicate with these young ones. He will not feel what they feel, I prefer a younger person to him, who is educated.”



His words, “Now Buhari is saying he will fight insurgency, that he will use the army. When he was a general in the army and Head of State, he was not able to handle the army when they staged a coup. Is it not coup that sacked him?

“If he was a general and a commander- in -chief, why did that happen? Not now in a democracy, you know in a democracy, it is difficult when compared to military rule. So in military rule, he was not able to have a grip on the army, Buhari knows in his heart of heart that he cannot,” he added.

Okah asserted: “Thirdly, I cannot trust Buhari. How many times has he said that he would not come back after losing elections in the past, he came back the other day. How can I trust him? I will have difficulty to trust him.”

The cleric stated: “Buhari, whether he accepts it or not, he is religious extremist. If he thinks some of us have forgotten, the other day when he lost election, he said that if he loses election, he will make Nigeria ungovernable, today, North-East is ungovernable. Buhari has to make a confession and he needs to apologize to this country.”

The Bishop said, “I pity my brother, the professor and SAN, Yemi Osinbajo, a senior pastor at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, I don’t think he heard from God, He forgot how Buhari handled Pastor Tunde Bakare, go and sit with Bakare, some things Bakare cannot publicly say, how Buhari dumped him. Do you hear Bakare talk about Buhari. On these four points, I will personally mobilize the youths and the church against Buhari.”

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20 Key points from Charles Soludo's article, 'Buhari vs Jonathan: Beyond the Election'

NigerianEye published a very long article yesterday titled 'Buhari vs Jonathan, Beyond the elections'. The article was written by former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Charles Soludo, where he x-rayed the chances of Gen Buhari and President Jonathan in next month's general elections, the mistakes of the past, and most importantly the challenges that lie ahead.

Below is a summary of yesterday's article, pointing out 20 important points he raised.


1) Neither president Jonathan nor his major challenger, Gen. Muhammedu Buhari, has a well-thought programme to tackle the different challenges in the country, despite the promises made

“Let me admit that the two main parties talk around the major development challenges—corruption, insecurity, economy (unemployment/poverty, power, infrastructure, etc) health, education, etc. However, it is my considered view that none of them has any credible agenda to deal with the issues, especially within the context of the evolving global economy and Nigeria’s broken public finance,” he said.

2) 'Both parties (PDP and APC) are missing the golden opportunity to sensitize the citizenry about the enormous challenges ahead and hence mobilize them for the inevitable sacrifices they would be called upon to make soon. Each is promising an El-Dorado (after elections)'

3)'They (PDP and APC) are not telling us how much each of their promises will cost and where they will get the money. None talks about the broken or near bankrupt public finance and the strategy to fix it.'

4)He also accused the presidential candidates of APC and President Jonathan of promising Nigerians what they cannot deliver because of the reduction in the revenue accruing to the country as a result of the fall in oil price.

'I heard one of the politicians say that the problem of Nigeria was not money but the management of resources. This is half-truth. The problem is both. No matter how efficient a father (with a monthly salary of N50,000) is at managing the family resources, I cannot see how he could deliver on a promise to buy a brand new Peugeot 406 for each of his three children in a year. Even with all the loopholes and waste closed, with increased efficiency per dollar spent, there is still a binding budget constraint.'


5) 'I have tried to cost some of the promises by both the APC and the PDP, given alternative scenarios for public finance and the numbers don’t add up. Nigerians would be glad to know how both parties would fund their programmes. Do they intend to accentuate the huge public debt, or raise taxes on the soon to-be-beleaguered private businesses, or massively devalue the naira to rake in baskets of naira from the dwindling oil revenue, or embark on huge fiscal retrenchment with the sack of labour and abandonment of projects, and which areas of waste do they intend to close and how much do they estimate to rake in from them, etc?'


6) What Nigeria is going through now is a consequence of our deliberate wrong choices.

'We have always known that the unprecedented oil boom (in both price and quantity—despite oil theft) of the last six years is temporary but the government chose to treat it as a permanent shock.'
' I assumed office as Governor of CBN, the stock of foreign reserves was $10 billion. The average monthly oil price during my 60 months in office was $59, but foreign reserve reached the all-time peak of $62 billion (and despite paying $12 billion for external debt, and losing over $15 billion during the unprecedented global financial and economic crisis) I left behind $45 billion.

Recall also that our exchange rate continuously appreciated during this period and was at N117 to the dollar before the global crisis and we deliberately allowed it to depreciate in order to preserve our reserves. My calculation is that if the economy was better managed, our foreign reserves should have been between $102 –$118 billion and exchange rate around N112 before the fall in oil prices. As of now, the reserves should be around $90 billion and exchange rate no higher than N125 per dollar'

“As I write, the Naira exchange rate to the dollar is N210 at the parallel market. What a historic performance! Please save your breathe and save us the embarrassment.”

'So far, the Government’s response to the self-inflicted crisis is, at best, laughable. They blame external shocks as if we did not expect them and say nothing about the terrible policy choices they made'


7) This is the only government in our history where rapidly increasing government expenditure was associated with increasing poverty.

'The poverty incidence and unemployment are at all-time high levels. According to the NBS, poverty incidence grew to 69% in 2010 and projected to be 71% in 2011, with unemployment at 24%. 
This is the worst record in Nigeria’s history, and the paradox is that this happened during the unprecedented oil boom.'

'No other president earned up to 50% of the amount of resources the current government earned from oil and yet with very little outcomes; no other president had the rate of borrowing; none had significant forex earnings and yet did not add one penny to foreign reserves but losing international reserves at a time of boom; no other president had a depreciating exchange rate at a time of export boom; at no time in Nigeria’s history has poverty reached 71% (even under Abacha, it was 67 -70%); and under no other president did unemployment reach 24%.'
'

8) Jonathan's record on the economy is a clear ‘F’ grade.

'My advice to President Jonathan and his handlers is to stop wasting their time trying to campaign on his job record. Those who have decided to vote for him will not do so because he has taken Nigeria to the moon'

'As one reviews the laundry list of micro interventions the government calls its achievements, one wonders whether such list is all that the government could deliver with an unprecedented oil boom and an unprecedented public debt accumulation'

'If we appropriately adjust for oil income and debt, then this government is the worst in our history on the economy. All statistics are from the National Bureau of Statistics.'

'Despite presiding over the biggest oil boom in our history, it has not added one percentage point to the growth rate of GDP compared to the Obasanjo regime especially the 2003- 07 period. Obasanjo met GDP growth rate at 2% but averaged 7% within 2003- 07. The current government has been stuck at 6% despite an unprecedented oil boom.'


9) The government’s economic team is very weak, dominated by self-interested and self-conflicted group of traders and businessmen, and so-called economic team meetings have been nothing but showbiz time.


10) My thesis is that the Nigerian economy, if properly managed, should have been growing at an annual rate of about 12% given the oil boom, and poverty and unemployment should have fallen dramatically over the last five years. 

11) Private businesses will come under a heavy crunch soon. Having put economics on its head during the boom time, the Government now proposes to increase taxes during a prospective downturn and impose austerity measures.

'If oil prices remain between 40- 60 dollars over the next two years, the current policy regime guarantees that foreign reserves will continue the precipitous depletion with the attendant exchange rate depreciation, as well as a probable unsustainable escalation in debt accumulation, fiscal retrenchment or taxing the private sector with vengeance'


12) The poor choices made by the current government have mortgaged the future, and the next government would have little room to manoeuvre and would inevitably undertake drastic but painful structural adjustments. 
I worry about regime stability in the coming months, and I do not envy the next team.


13) The seeming crisis is not destiny; it is self-imposed

14) We expected that the next government after Obasanjo would take the economy to the next level. So far, we have had two great slogans: the 7-point agenda and currently, the transformation agenda. They remain empty slogans without content or direction.


15) Neither the APC nor the PDP has a credible programme for employment and poverty reduction.

'The APC promises to create 20,000 jobs per state in the first year, totalling a mere 720,000 jobs. This sounds like a quota system and for a country where the new entrants into the labour market per annum exceed two million. If it was intended as a joke, APC must please get serious. On the other hand, President Jonathan targets two million jobs per annum but his strategy for doing so is a Job Board— another committee of sort. Sorry, Mr. President, a Job Board is not a strategy. The principal job Nigerians hired you to do for them is to create jobs for them too. You cannot outsource that job, Sir. Creating 3 million jobs per annum under the unfolding crisis would task our creativity and audacity to the limits.'


16) I heard one politician argue that once we fix power, private sector would create jobs. Not necessarily! Well, this government claims to have added 1,700MW to the national grid and yet unemployment soars. Ask Greece, Spain, etc with power and infrastructure and yet with high unemployment.

'it is estimated that more than 60% of graduates of our educational system are unemployable. You can understand why many of us are amused when the government celebrates that it has established twelve more glorified secondary schools as universities'



17) None of the parties/candidates has any grand vision about African economic integration, led by Nigeria

'There is no programme on how to make the naira the de facto currency of ECOWAS or the international financial centre that can attract more than $100 billion per annum. Where is the strategy for orchestrating the revolutionary finance to power the economy during this downturn? For President Jonathan'


18) If Buhari wins, the honeymoon will be brief and the pressure will be immense to magically deliver a ‘new Nigeria’

'If he wins (Buhari), the honeymoon will be brief and the pressure will be immense to magically deliver a ‘new Nigeria’ with no corruption, no boko haram or insecurity, jobs for everyone, no poverty, infrastructure and power in abundance, etc. As a first point, Buhari and his team must realize that they do not yet have a coherent, credible agenda that is consistent with the fundamentals of the economy currently. The APC manifesto contains some good principles and wish-lists, but as a blue print for Nigeria’s security and prosperity, it is largely hollow. The numbers do not add up.

Thus, his first job is to present a credible development agenda to Nigerians.


19) If Jonathan wins, then God must have been magnanimous to give him a second chance to redeem himself

'Most people I know who support Jonathan do so either out of self-interest or fear of the unknown. As a friend summed it: the devil you know is better than the angel you do not know. One person assured me that we would see a ‘different Jonathan’ if he wins as he has been rattled by the harsh judgment of history on his presidency so far. I just pray that he is right'


20) Advice to president Jonathan if he wins.

'President Jonathan must know that it (transformation agenda) remains an empty slogan. His greatest challenge is how to save himself from the stranglehold of his largely provincial palace jesters who tell him he has done better than God, and seek out ‘enemies’ and friends who can help him write his name in history.'

'I take liberty to tell you this brutal truth: if you are not re-elected, there is little to remember your regime after the next few years.'

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Ghanaians Pull Down Jonathan, Buhari Billboards In Accra

The campaign billboards of two Nigerian presidential candidates erected in Ghana’s capital, Accra have been pulled down following an order by the country’s (Ghana) national security agency.

The billboards of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party featuring President Goodluck Jonathan, as well as those of the main opposition All Progressives Congress of Muhammadu Buhari, located on Accra roads, were pulled down over the weekend by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly.

The decision to pull down the billboards was said to have come amid fears by some Ghanaians that their country could be drawn indirectly into the politics of Nigeria, with security implications, especially with the Boko Haram terrorists wreaking havoc in Nigeria.

Following the order by the National Security, according to GhanaWeb, a security expert at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Dr. Kwesi Annin, had indicated that Ghana had been saved from a possible attack by the terrorist group, Boko Haram, by pulling down the billboards put up in some parts of Accra.

He was quoted to have said that political elite in the country could have been targeted by Boko Haram if the political campaign in Ghana was not stopped.

He said, “I think it is critical that the National Security and Accra Metropolitan Assembly have listened to the concerns and voices raised by ordinary citizens that these billboards and some level of active political engagement might pose potential threat in the future.”

He said the removal of the billboards should not only be about Boko Haram, but also about whether or not laws governing the country permit foreign political entities to campaign in Ghana.

Meanwhile, an international relations expert, Dr. Vladmir Antwi Danso, said Ghana had been saved from severing future relations with Nigeria.

He was reported to have explained that if there was the perception that Ghana was supporting one candidate over the other, then the relationship between Ghana and Nigeria after the elections would be marred.

“What if after the elections the scales change, then the relationship between our country and Nigeria will also have some hiccups,” Danso said.

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'Jonathan can't crush Boko Haram' - Buhari tells United States Secretary of State, John Kerry

The All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Maj.Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has listed the strategies that he would adopt to end insecurity in the country if elected President.

The methods, were unveiled by Buhari during his meeting with the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, in Lagos on Sunday.

The source, who was one of the APC members that also attended the meeting, said on Monday that the strategies included the elimination of corruption, transparency in the management of defence budgets and an overhaul of the nation’s security apparatuses.

He said that Buhari highlighted the plans when Kerry expressed concern about the spate of insecurity in the North-East.

The source added, “Kerry said the US was interested in someone that could curb the Boko Haram menace. He said the concern of President Barack Obama was that terrorism should not spread beyond the North-East as it seemed to be doing so gradually.

“Kerry asked what the strategy of the APC would be in fighting insecurity.”

One of our correspondents gathered that while responding, Buhari said since he knows that corruption and lack of political will are some of the problems militating against the war against insurgency, he would tackle them headlong if elected.

Buhari was said to have told Kerry that the Goodluck Jonathan administration had spent billions of dollars on defence and that a large portion of the money was diverted by those in power.

It was also learnt that the APC candidate informed the Secretary of State that the President had turned a blind eye to this.

Buhari was said to have also stated that there was something wrong with the intelligence-gathering mechanism of the military. He therefore promised that he would revamp the security apparatuses of the government.

According to our source, the APC candidate said “that Boko Haram members were not ghosts but that they were gaining ground because the security agencies had been compromised.”

He said that the former Head of State also promised that transparency would be his watchword in the disbursement of defence budgets.

It was gathered that Buhari “promised to ensure that every kobo spent on security would be accounted for as this would ensure that our soldiers get the appropriate equipment and have their morale boosted.”

He was also said to have told Kerry that the Jonathan government once scuttled a hearing by the National Assembly on defence spending, an act that clearly showed that it was not ready to promote transparency in the management of the nation’s affairs.

“Buhari said when the National Assembly set up a hearing with the heads of security agencies to know how the defence budgets were being spent, the Presidency scuttled it because it was obvious that the money for equipment was not being spent judiciously. He said by such an act, the Jonathan government was not encouraging transparency in the way and manner money meant for security was being spent.”

The PUNCH gathered that APC leaders like the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun; Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, who were also at the meeting, urged the US to impress it upon the Jonathan government to ensure that next month’s elections were not postponed.

Kerry was said to have expressed worry at the pre-election violence in the country but the APC leaders told him that they had nothing to do with it.

The APC Presidential Campaign Organisation has however welcomed the call by the US for free, fair and peaceful elections in Nigeria.

The organisation, in a statement by its Director, Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said it fully identified with Washington’s appeal to political parties to ensure credible polls.

According to the statement, the Jonathan administration and all responsible politicians should support the objectives of free, fair and peaceful polls as advocated by the US government.

The statement read in part, “He(Kerry) explained that the US and other members of the international community should not leave the Jonathan administration to its devices or whims and caprices, adding that the government must be held to these commitments to avoid any hanky-panky during the elections.

“On the US threat to deny visa to politicians that engage in electoral violence and malpractices, the APC Campaign organisation said it fully endorsed the measure to serve as a deterrent and give credibility to Nigeria’s democracy and electoral system.”

I can’t fight corruption by jailing people, Jonathan insists

Meanwhile, Jonathan has insisted that he will not fight corruption by jailing people.

He, however, stated that he would build a system that would block people’s direct access to funds.

The President said this at a corporate forum titled, ‘An Evening with Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan’ in Lagos on Sunday.

He said even if five million Nigerians were thrown into jail for corruption, graft would still continue if the system was porous.

He said, “People always say government is not fighting corruption but our position is very clear. We are fighting corruption and our position is that fighting corruption is not all about jailing people and showing them on television sets.

“In this country, we never had armed robbery until the civil war when small arms were being used. Initially, armed robbers were being shot in public and later in secret. But it did not stop armed robbery; so our commitment is in the British law system that states that it is better for nine criminals to go free than for one innocent person to suffer undue punishment. In that case, the concept of beyond reasonable doubt is always difficult to prove in corrupt cases and that is why they even accuse the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) of going for plea bargain.

“In the area of arrest, the EFCC has prosecuted more people and has secured more convictions than before but even if you prosecute 10 million Nigerians and convict five million, it will not stop corruption. Yes, you are fighting corruption which must continue but the most important thing is to block those avenues that corruption can occur.”

The President also promised to bring the fight against insurgency to an end if re-elected.

Earlier, many of his key ministers had spoken about the administration’s achievements.

For instance, the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said the recent rebasing of the GDP showed that the Jonathan administration had actually diversified the economy better than its predecessors.

Okonjo-Iweala, however, warned that there would be tough days ahead but maintained that the diversification of the economy would cushion the drop in the price of crude oil.

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, said there had been giant strides in the oil sector but lamented that pipeline vandalism was affecting both oil production and revenue.

She said over 60,000 barrels of crude were still being lost to the act daily.

Also speaking, the Chairman, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, said the economy should be diversified such that oil would constitute only about 40 per cent of the nation’s revenue.

Dangote, who called on the government to ensure job creation, said it was unfortunate that within 90 days the price of oil went from $110 per barrel to less than $50.

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