Pledges to make Nigerians dream again
Drama, excitement of his inauguration
Babangida, Buhari absent at ceremony
29 world leaders honour new President
"LET us work together; let us build together; let us bequeath a greater Nigeria to the generations to come." This was President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan's clarion call on Nigerians yesterday as he took the oath of office and allegiance as the country's fourth Executive President.
Before Jonathan were Second Republic President Shehu Shagari, President Olusegun Obasanjo, the late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, under whom Jonathan served as Vice President. The late Nnamdi Azikiwe, who was Nigeria's President in the First Republic, held the office on ceremonial capacity.
Amidst colourful displays by the military and school children, Jonathan took the oath of office and allegiance as President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigerian Armed Forces at 12.57p.m.
The ceremony started at 8.40 a.m. when the combined military/police marched into the arena followed by the parade of six guards. The parade consists of three guards from the Army and one each from the Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Air Force, and the Nigeria Police.
By 9.00 a.m., the National Colour and Regimental Services (Army, Navy and Air Force) colours marched into the arena. The ceremony, held at the Eagle Square, Three Arms Zone Abuja was witnessed by an array of foreign and local dignitaries including 29 presidents and other representatives of foreign governments.
The former Nigerian leaders who attended the event included Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari, Chief Ernest Shonekan and Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar. Two former Heads of State including the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and his successor in office, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, were absent at the event.
• 9.20 a.m.: Chief of Defence Staff, Service Chiefs and Inspector General of Police arrived. They marched into the presidential pavilion and with the band playing, they received the general salute.
• 9.40 a.m.: Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mr. Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu arrived.
• 9.50 a.m.: Senate President, Speaker of House of Representatives and other members of the National Assembly arrived.
• 9.56 a.m.: Vice President Namadi Sambo arrived, with his wife. He walked to the pavilion to receive first stanza of the National Anthem.
• 10.35 a.m.: Former President and Heads of State including Obasanjo, Shagari, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Ernest Shonekan, Gen. Gowon, Jerry Rawlings (Ghana) and Dr. Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia) arrived at the event.
• 11.00 a.m.: Mounted troops filed into the arena. But they stopped short of the Presidential Pavilion. And slowly, the limousine carrying President Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo came in. At exactly 11.04am, President Jonathan's limousine stopped in front of the Pavilion. He stepped out and walked to the Presidential dais. President Jonathan adorned his highest national honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) while Vice President Sambo wore his Grand Commander of the Order on the Niger (GCON) award. With the national and regimental service colours (flags) lowered, the National Anthem was played as all military and paramilitary personnel saluted.
Prayers were offered by the Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Primate of Anglican Communion (Nigeria) and the Imam of the Abuja National Mosque, Ustaz Musa Mohammed.
With the prayer session over, Jonathan inspected the parade mounted by the six guards with the Commander, Guards Brigade, Brig.-Gen. Emmanuel Atewe, the parade commander on board the Jeep, which had the insignia of the National Coat of Arms. The parade Jeep rode round the Eagle Square in the course of the inspection as the President acknowledged cheers and applause from the crowd as he waved at them.
Moving to his seat at the presidential pavilion where other top dignitaries were already seated, the Guard Commander and Sub-Guard Commanders took position, preparatory to take off of the march past. At 11.31 a.m., it commenced as the parade marched to the presidential dais to show their "unfettered loyalty to the office and person of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces."
The parade then moved into formations before commencing the horizontal conventional parade in slow and quick march.
It was followed immediately by the Nigerian Army (silent) Drill Squad, who marched to show their special skills in performing without orders or music but having everything done in perfect synchronism.
At 12.15 p.m., 1,015 children trooped into the Square to perform the callisthenics. This ended at 12.40 p.m.
By 12.45 p.m., the swearing in process started as the Registrar of the Supreme Court mounted the presidential dais and asked the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu to proceed to the podium and administer the oath of office and allegiance to the Vice President and President. He then invited Sambo to the dais. By 12.40, Sambo was administered the oath. By 12.52 p.m., it was over and the fresh Vice President proceeded to sign the oath documents.
By 12.54 p.m., the Registrar invited President Jonathan to take his turn. A minute later, the President's voice echoed all over the arena: "I Goodluck Ebele Jonathan solemnly swear..." at 12.57 p.m., it was over as the President signed the oath documents.
It was then the turn for President Jonathan to be presented with his instrument of office as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, which is the Nigerian Coat of Arms.
The "solemn and revered" purely military ceremony started with the Commander, Brigade of Guards receiving it and handing it over to the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyin Petinrin, who marched up the presidential dais to hand it over to the President.
To show the significance of the Coat of Arms, it was carefully placed into a presidential limousine and guarded by armed troops. With armed escorts, it was escorted out of the arena.
The second part of the presentation of the instrument of office then resumed as the national and regimental (Defence) colours (flags) directly in front of the dais were lowered, signifying the end of the former term of office.
The flags were neatly folded and with a sword, it was presented to the President through the Chief of Defence Staff. Correspondingly, Jonathan presented another fresh national and regimental (Defence) colours to the Chief of Defence Staff, who handed it over to be hoisted back by the flag bearers. With the band playing, the flags were positioned back to their positions, signifying the commencement of a fresh term in office. That was at 1.18 p.m. and as this was going on, two Nigerian Air Force (NAF) jets - L-39 (Cobra) and the Alpha jets flew past. Earlier, the ABT (Ab Initio Trainer aircraft - Air Beetle -) and the Augusta helicopter had conducted its aerial display.
The President then performed his first official ceremony in his fresh term by conducting an inspection of the parade a second time.
By 1.33 p.m., Jonathan delivered his inaugural speech.
In his inauguration speech, Jonathan gave the new direction of his administration, which he summed up thus: "Join me now as we begin the journey of transforming Nigeria. I will continue to fight for your future, because I am one of you;
• I will continue to fight, for improved medical care for all our citizens;
• I will continue to fight for all citizens to have access to first class education.
• I will continue to fight for electricity to be available to all our citizens;
• I will continue to fight for an efficient and affordable public transport system for all our people; and
• I will continue to fight for jobs to be created through productive partnerships."
Jonathan thanked Nigerians for the trust and confidence, they demonstrated through the power of their vote by electing him at the April 16 presidential polls.
He described the Vice President Namadi Sambo as his brother and friend and acknowledged his wife, Patience, for a strong pillar of support.
He did not leave out his late boss (Yar'Adua) as he said:
"I cannot but pay tribute to our late President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, with whom we won the presidential election four years ago, when I contested as his running mate. May God bless his soul."
The President also stated that "a new dawn for Africa" has come with his swearing-in, stating that Nigerian will lead the fight for the democratisation in the continent.
He extolled Nigerians for enduring "all manner of inconveniences just to secure their voters card in order to exercise their rights to choose those that will govern them."
The President admonished Nigerians to "fix your gaze towards the horizon. Look ahead and you will see a bright future that we can secure with unity and collective sacrifice. Join me now as we begin the journey of transforming Nigeria.
"You have entrusted me with your mandate and I will never let you down. I know your pains because I have been there, look beyond the hardship you have endured and see a new beginning, a new direction, a new spirit. Nigerians I want you to start to dream again, what you see in your dreams we can achieve together. I call upon all the presidential candidates who contested with me to join hands with us as we begin the transformation of our country. Let us work together. Let us build together, let us bequeath a greater Nigeria to the generation to come."
He noted that "Nigeria is not just an only land of promise but it shall be a country where positive change shall continue to take place for the good of our people. The time for lamentation is over, this is the era for transformation. This is the time but Nigeria can only be transformed if we all play out parts with commitment and sincerity. Cynicism and skepticism will not help our journey to greatness. Let us believe in a new Nigeria, let us work to build a great country we will all be proud of, this is our hour."
The new Nigeria is possible, he said, because he represents "the sheer exasperation of all our people to force a united Nigeria, the land of justice, opportunity and plenty. Countless are the people that are truly committed with noble ideals that cannot be denied the realization of their vision. I assure you that this dream of Nigeria that is so deeply felt by millions will indeed come to reality. A decade ago it would have been a mere thinking that a citizen from a minority group will galvanise national support on an unprecedented scale, to discard ancient prejudices and win the people's mandate as president of our beloved country."
He lamented that despite that the 2011 polls were free, fair, and transparent, there was unrest in some parts of the country where 10 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and others died. "These great men and women paid a civil sacrifice in the service of our father land. They are heroes of our democracy."
He said this generation must give "hope to the hopeless, strength to the weak and protection to the defenceless," adding that as leaders, "the transformation we have pledged will be achieved in all critical sectors by harnessing the creative energies of our people, men and women. We must grow the economy, create jobs and generate enduring happiness for our teeming population.
"The Nigeria of our dreams must be built on hard work and not on shortcuts. Let me salute the Nigerian workers who build our communities, cities and country; they deserve fair rewards and also to the women that raise our children and the rural dwellers that grow our food. The moment is right, the signs are heart-warming, we are ready to take off on a part of sustained growth and economic development."
On the economy, Jonathan said there would be appropriate policy support for the real sector of the economy so that small and medium enterprises can thrive.
"A robust private sector is vital in providing jobs for our rapidly expanding population, but this must be a collaborative effort. We must form technical and financial partnership with global businesses and organisations, we live in an age where no country can survive on its own, countries depend on each other for economic well-being, Nigeria is no different.
"Returns on investment in Nigeria remains among the highest in the world, we will continue to welcome sustainable investments in our country. We will put programmes and policies that will benefit both local and foreign businesses but we must emphasise mutual benefits and win-win relationships. The overall concrete reforms in the banking and financial sectors are therefore designed to support the main sector of the economy. To drive our overall economic vision, the power sector reform is at the heart of our industrialisation, we call on all stakeholders to cooperate with my administration to ensure the success of the reforms. Over the next four years, our attention will focus on rebuilding our infrastructure to create greater access to quality education and improved healthcare delivery. We will pay special attention to agriculture to enable it play its role in of ensuring food security and massive job creation for our teeming population."
However, most journalists who were properly accredited were almost barred from the Eagle Square, venue of the presidential inauguration.
It took the intervention of the Minister of Information and Communications, Mr. Labaran Maku, before the journalists, most of whom were from the private media organizations, were allowed into the venue after about 30 minutes of argument.
The journalists arrived at the venue alongside other Nigerians who came to witness the epoch-making event but were singled out by the security operatives and asked to wait for clearance.
Source: Jonathan's hand now on the plough... (http://ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49647:jonathans-hand-now-on-the-plough&catid=1:national&Itemid=559)