Continued from last week Tuesday
Ironically, Dele accorded Mr. President due respect, but proceeded to declare:
"This is not the way to govern a country as big and well-endowed as Nigeria in this modern time. Nigerians are too brilliant and sophisticated to be led like citizens of a banana republic. It is true that Nigerians always appear docile and timid, but no ruthless dictator has ever succeeded in enslaving us perpetually. Sooner than later something would give and the trousers would burst at the seams.
"I will be very happy if President Jonathan can turn a new leaf and manage to turn Nigeria around for good. Most Nigerians are tired of politicians in general. To many Nigerians all politicians are one and the same. The mistrust has become very pungent. Our people have written us off and sincerely we have not done much to deserve any better verdict from them...
"I see so much creativity and innovation from ordinary Nigerians on a regular basis. I encounter surprising passion, fervour and patriotism from our compatriots wherever I go. These are the Nigerians that a sincere reformist government would nurture, encourage and partner with to take Nigeria to the place it should be in the comity of nations".
It was President Jonathan who endeared himself to the audience by humorously declaring: "That is the beauty of democracy"!!
"I assure you all that we shall not allow corruption to overwhelm our nation. You know that the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Abdul Azeez Musa, has been removed. It was a purely administrative matter. I can confirm that I have directed the Head of Service of the Federation, Alhaji BukarGoni Aji, to write to all permanent secretaries, directors and civil servants to stop exhibition of ostentatious lifestyle or be sacked."
The president's hammer on social exhibitionism by the nation's top civil servants abroad and the directive to security agencies and anti-graft commissions to keep them on their radars did not escape the press. The extravagant lifestyles of some ministers and public servants are common place. Security checks on them have confirmed this new trend. Expensive parties are known to have been held in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, South Africa, Ghana, The Gambia and Ireland. Some cabinet members were also alleged to have sprayed dollars at such parties.
The late President UmaruYar'Adua had at a FEC meeting in 2009, taken exception to how a minister allegedly spent about N125 million on his 25th wedding anniversary. Recently, Euromonitor International established that "Nigeria is among the fastest-growing countries in the world for champagne consumption, spending an estimated $59 million in 2012 on bubbly. That number is up from $49 million in 2011, and the firm forecasts that the country will spend some $105 million on fizz in 2017. Analysts say oil wealth, hiphop, movie stars and an elite obsessed with status symbols have driven demand."
Another fundamental issue that received attention at the conference was the President's performance record in the last two years. Here Dr. Rueben Abati and Dr. Doyin Okupe, both menders of Jonathan's public affairs, reeled out statistics to prove their boss had performed excellently well. They named the administration's inherited five major challenges in the power sector as low generation capacity; comatose NIPP projects; poor and inadequate gas supply and non-alignment of gas infrastructure with the location of the NIPP projects; poor and dilapidated transmission infrastructure, and non-implementation of the privatization exercise in the sector. They said of the five, only the transmission and distribution challenge had not been sufficiently overcome. Some of the transmission projects completed are those in Ganmo, Sapele, Katanpe, Mando, Kubotso, Alaoji, Ikeja West, Oworonsoki, Ojo, New Haven, Ajaokuta, Abuja and Ihovbor. The President's men also deposed that the nation has attained a peak power generation of 4,517MW and hopeful that by the end of the year this will cross the 10,000MW threshold.
The administration was scored high in the agricultural sector where giant progress was said to have been made in rice, cotton and cassava production. Farmers nationwide were said to have been assisted to access loans with single digit interest rates. In the aviation industry, the administration was said to have rehabilitated over 50 percent of the nation's airports; and that plans were underway to assist indigenous airlines acquire new planes to end the era of avoidable crashes in the country. The moribund rail transportation was said to have been brought back to life.
A success story of road infrastructure provisioning was painted with many major critical road projects in the country rehabilitated or in the process of rehabilitation. The feat included finalizing the process of constructing the Second Niger Bridge and the East West Road.
A robust picture of the economy was painted with microeconomic stability said to have been achieved; a surplus of over $9 billion in the excess crude oil account; foreign reserve standing at over $48 billion; and a Sovereign Wealth Fund of $1 billion. They said the World Bank projected growth rate for the country this year is 6.5 percent, the highest in the sub region.
By the time matters were drawing to a close at Magdalene College, Cambridge University, Jonathan was a different man!
Concluded
Bashorun Randle (OFR, FCA), jkrandleintuk@ gmail.com, is chairman & CEO, JK Randle Professional Services, Lagos
National Mirror