Former President Olusegun Obasanjo
KEY
predecessors of President Goodluck Jonathan in office, ex-President
Olusegun Obasanjo; and ex-dictators, retired Generals Muhammadu Buhari,
Ibrahim Babangida, and Abdusalami Abubakar (retd.), as well as the
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, on Wednesday
shunned the Democracy Day event of the Federal Government.
While all former heads of government
were reportedly invited to the event where Jonathan rendered an account
of his mid-term performance, only Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Gen. Yakubu
Gowon (retd.) and Chief Ernest Shonekan attended.
Gowon ruled as military head of state
between 1966 and 1976; Shagari from 1979 to 1983; while Shonekan spent
barely 99 days in office as head of the Interim National Government
foisted on the country by Babangida after the annulment of the June 12,
1993 election won by the late businessman, MKO Abiola.
Rather than be in Abuja, Obasanjo chose
to attend the First Jigawa State Investment Forum in Dutse, where he
showered praises on Governor Sule Lamido for being a brilliant performer
in whom he (Obasanjo) was well pleased to have helped to office.
“You can help someone to find a job but
you can’t help the person to do the job. In this case, we found a job
for Sule Lamido and Sule Lamido was ready, willing, able and competent
to do the job,” he reportedly said at the event.
Obasanjo is believed to have facilitated
the coming of Jonathan to the Presidency in 2007 but the two have
reportedly become estranged.
Buhari, now one of the arrowheads of the
coalition to unseat the Peoples Democratic Party in 2015 and the
Jonathan administration, had in recent past exchanged hot words on the
state of the nation.
Babangida contested the PDP Presidential
ticket with Jonathan in 2011 and he is generally seen not as a fan of
the administration.
Tambuwal was represented at the event by his deputy, Emeka Ihedioha, who gave no reason for the Speaker’s absence.
Analysts on Wednesday believed that
attendance and non-attendance at the Democracy Day celebration was “all
part of the 2015 politics.”
Meanwhile, Jonathan, while presenting
his scorecard for his second year in office, asked Nigerians who are
fond of criticising his government to ensure they first develop their
marking scheme before assessing his administration.
Before the President formally presented
the report of his two years in office, Vice- President Namadi Sambo;
the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Pius Anyim; Minister
of National Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman; and the Minister of Finance,
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had taken turns to present the achievements of
the administration in all sectors for the past two years.
“I plead with those who want to write
and assess us to prepare marking scheme, compare us with previous
governments and so on and so forth. Develop your marking scheme and mark
us,” Jonathan said.
Jonathan said while assessing his
government, he had discovered that a number of comments of his critics
were “based on heartbeats and not any visible criteria.”
“A number of comments about the performance of this administration are based on the heartbeat of people,” he said.
He specifically referred to an
assessment done by an unnamed newspaper which scored the Minister of
National Planning and the Minister of Trade and Investment an average in
terms of performance.
Jonathan said contrary to that
assessment, the performances of the two ministers remained the best
among the three ministers that had so far been in charge of those
ministries under his leadership.
On the Ministry of Trade and Investment,
the President said because of the hard work of Dr. Olusegun Aganga,
foreign investors had been investing heavily in the country despite the
security challenges facing the nation and that until Usman came on
board, the Ministry of National Planning had remained relatively not in
existence.
Sambo had earlier in his welcome remarks
said all members of the Jonathan administration were united in their
aspiration to transform Nigeria to a nation that would be respected
worldwide.
He said the Democracy Day was not all
about a public holiday but a day to look inwards and give account of
stewardship, adding that was why the administration was using the
opportunity to give account of its actions to the nation that gave them
the mandate to serve.
Sambo urged all Nigerians to join hands
to build a nation that would fulfil the promise of the past and work for
the good of the present and the future generation.
He said constitutional and moral burdens were on all of them in government to uphold democratic tenets.
He said, “To whom much is given, much is
expected. We are grateful to the nation for the mandate we received
from the freest and fairest election in recent time. The transformation
agenda is decided on those things that should be done to reposition the
country. In the last two years, we have pursued a resolute course to
widen the political space.
“Our public institutions are being
rebuilt. The National Assembly is very vibrant, the judiciary is truly
independent. There is a general onsensus that democracy and government
in Nigeria are getting better. We have laid a foundation of change in
the last two years.
“In the face of unprecedented security
challenges, the challenges call for caution from all of us. Nobody
should make political capital on the issue. We seek your support and
honest counsel in the areas we can improve upon. A bright future beckons
on this land and its people. We assure generations unborn of a nation
that will meet their needs.”
Anyim said the mid-term report presented by the President provided verifiable achievements of his administration.
He said the administration had protected the rights of citizens and the rule of law in its two years of existence.
He scored the administration high in the
expansion of civic space, entrenchment of checks and balances,
sanitisation of electoral process, federal character in appointments and
anti-corruption fight, among others.
Okonjo-Iweala, on her part, said the
administration’s transformation agenda had been tailored towards
addressing some of the nation’s problems, including insufficient jobs,
rising debt, high recurrent expenditure and falling reserves, among
others.
She said in its two years, the
administration had made the economy strong, exchange rate stable, and
reduced inflation to 9.1 per cent from 12.4 per cent in May 2011.
The minister said the Federal
Government had started retiring its past debts and changed waiver and
tariff policies from focusing on individuals alone to the entire sector.
She added that the government hired 50
forensic auditors to probe the fraud in the fuel subsidy regime, adding
that sanity had so far been restored to the system.
She said following the audit, N14bn had
been recovered out of the N234bn diverted funds while oil marketers had
been reduced to 32, making it easier for government to monitor them.
“The contributory pension scheme is
sound and it is being reformed to prevent fraud. Nigeria’s credit rating
has improved. International investors are investing more in Nigeria.
Our banks are strong and the stock market is also strong with stock
exchange index rising to 71 per cent,” she said.
Okonjo-Iweala said the administration
had done well in the areas of rail rehabilitation, inland ports
construction and the overhauling of airports.
The Founder/President, Rainbow PUSH
Coalition, Rev. Jesse Jackson, observed that leadership was not just
about winning elections but about transforming the people.
He urged Nigeria to continue to deepen its democracy because the nation mattered to the international community.
He urged Nigerian leaders and followers to dream big about the nation, saying their resources must unite and not divide them.
“Nigeria must deepen democracy. Nigeria
matters. In peacekeeping around the world, Nigeria matters. Dream, keep
dreaming big. Dream Nigeria. Dream of one Nigeria,” he said.
Others who attended included wife of the
President, Patience; wife of the Vice- President, Amina; former Chief
of General Staff, Gen. Oladipo Diya (retd.); President of the Senate,
David Mark; Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Mukhtar; and Deputy
President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu.
Others were the Chairman, Board of
Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Tony Anenih; the party’s
national chairman, Dr. Bamanga Tukur; former CJN, Justice Alfa Begore
(retd.); elder statesman, Chief J.P. Clark; members of the National
Assembly, former state governors, including Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala
(Oyo); Sam Egwu (Ebonyi); Segun Oni (Ekiti); and members of the Federal
Executive Council, among others.
PUNCH
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