The Presidency, yesterday, reviewed its performance in the outgoing year and gave
itself a pass mark, saying that it recorded unprecedented feat despite
distractions from the opposition.
However, the opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) pooh-poohed the
Presidency’s claims, saying the citizenry are worse off on account of the
ruling Peoples Democratic Party’s alleged bad rule.
Dismissing the Presidency’s claim, Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the
APC, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, said all the indices of a failed state are present in
Nigeria.
The presidency boasted that during the year, major policies were made and key
projects executed for the good of Nigerians.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin
Okupe, gave the presidential score card in a statement made available to
Vanguard last night in Abuja.
Okupe noted that contrary to impressions being created by vocal leaders of
the opposition, Nigeria, under President Goodluck Jonathan has moved
significantly forward in many sectors than it was in 2011.
He said that the transformation which had taken place in the economy,
transportation, agriculture, power and other critical sectors were the routes
which all developed nations had taken before now but which unfortunately had
not been taken by Nigeria before now.
According to Dr Okupe: “It is an incontrovertible fact that Nigeria under Jonathan
has reduced its food imports by about 40 per cent and increased its local
production of rice, cassava, sorghum, cotton and cocoa in percentages ranging
from 25 to 56 in the last two years.
“For the first time since independence, the Nigerian agricultural sector is
attracting unprecedented Foreign Direct Investment. Over the past two
years, the sector has attracted $ 4 billion in private sector executed letters
of commitment to invest in agricultural value chains, from food crops, to
export crops, fisheries and livestock.
“The number of private sector seed companies grew from 10 to 70 within one
year. Over $ 7 billion of investments from Nigerian businesses have been made
to develop new fertilizer manufacturing plants, which will make Nigeria the largest
producer and exporter of fertilizer in Africa. It is also noteworthy that
agricultural lending as a share of total bank lending has risen from two per
cent to six per cent in two years.
“On the power sector reforms initiated by President Goodluck Jonathan in
2010, Okupe explained that the major component of the reform which is the
privatization of the generation and distribution power infrastructure was
successfully accomplished in 2013 thus putting Nigeria on a sure path of steady
power supply in a no distant future.”
Okupe explained that with the completion of this process and the 10 NIPP
projects, Nigeria would for the first time in history move away from vertically
integrated state-owned and very poorly managed electricity industry to a modern
private sector-led fully regulated market with the right incentives capable of
attracting accelerated new investments to kick start the re-industrialization
of Nigeria.
He also said that the Jonathan administration brought about the recovery of
the Nigerian stock exchange, which he said was made possible by a combination
of sound fiscal and monetary policies as well as a transparent conduct of state
affairs in a manner which has rekindled investors’ confidence in the Nigerian
market.
Okupe said those who always seek to use the security challenges in some
parts of Northern Nigeria as the only barometer to measure President Jonathan’s
performance were not being fair to the President, considering the fact that the
war on insurgency and terrorism had never been a quick fix anywhere in the
world.
While reminding the public that bombings and killings by insurgents happened
in Kano, Kogi, Niger, Yobe, Borno,Sokoto, Adamawa and the Federal Capital
Territory in 2011 and 2012, the Presidential aide noted that the activities of
the terrorists had been largely contained and restricted to one or two states
in 2013.
“Yes, we are not where we hope to be but it will be sheer mischief to insist
that we are where we were or as some wickedly say, we are worse than we were.
Definitely, their position is not based on facts and so should be ignored by
Nigerians” he stated.
Okupe reiterated the determination of President Jonathan to remain steadfast
in his pursuit of accelerated economic growth and stability, peace and
development of all parts of Nigeria.
He also promised that the Federal Government would consolidate on the growth
recorded in the outgoing year by completing all ongoing projects as well as
initiating new programmes and projects especially in sectors capable of
creating jobs for Nigerians.
Vanguard
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