"The days promises were made, definitely comes and emerged in a broad day light leaving the promisor in shyness." ~ Hausa proverb
Saturday 16th April, 2011 was a memorable joy for the Jonathanians (core Jonathan supporters) when Gudluck Ebele Jonathan was declared President elect and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but a day to remember for many who lost their loved ones and properties to the post-election violence that erupted after declaring Jonathan's victory, which was widely viewed unfair.
It is imperative to note here that many Jonathan's die hard supporters overwhelmingly voted him not for his credibility or track records, nor for any of his core values but purely based on sentiments about personalities, religion and ethnicity which Jonathan conscientiously nurtured to his hindmost advantage.
As a nation in a state of comatose like ours, i think growing our democracy to achieve a situation whereby leaders are voted on the basis of merit, integrity, track record and morality will be the only way to progress but not sentiments.
President Jonathan is about rounding up his four years tenure with only some few months to go as the number one citizen of the most populous black country on earth. It is quintessential at this contingency to reflect rearmost and assess the journey so far, bisect his campaign promises, scrutinate his encompassments and miscues at full-time.
It is also expedient to scale that while campaigning, the captain piloting the transformation train made voluminous amphibological promises that were not easy to measure because in essence, they were just broad sweeping statement, with no targets neither direction. The aim here was to make it difficult for Nigerians to measure his performance or easily detect his fiasco, due to the fuzzy nature of the promises.
Let me tell you this for free. The Presidential vuvuzelas and his table members has forgotten to remind him of his numerous promises, instead they are ramified in praise singing and blaming others for the sinful failures of their boss, they are all products of an evil system benefiting from the paste-up of ethnic division, corruption and impunity.
With much reverence, let's now reflect posterior to the promises made by President Jonathan during his 2011 campaign and assay his efforts in fulfilling those promises.
President Jonathan is yet to recall most of his campaign promises not to think of delivering on them, his promise of building an airport in every state most be in the bin and even if built, would airports in every state benefit our local economies? Who are the passengers to sustain these airports, the people living in squalor or who? In a nation where 2/3 of it citizens lives below the poverty level, won't it be nice to renew the dilapidated road networks than building airports in all the states with no planes?
The all embarrassing phenomena called rail transport in Nigeria has been generating a lot of noise, the recent transformation in Nigeria's rail sector is deceptive and fly-by-night. You expect me to applaud a transformation that brought Locomotives at a price higher than that of modern bullet trains? Well knowing there's no company on earth that manufacture locomotives, they are outdated and unused. What the transformation agents did was to go round the world in search of scrap locomotives, refurbished them and brought them to Nigeria as new trains at a miraculous price while the rest of the funds goes to their offshore accounts. Haven't you wondered how Jonathan's trains rides slowly like those in the 70's? A train ride from Ilorin- Lagos takes almost 19 hours while a bus ride on the same route would be about 4 hours, and you called this transformation? Transcommotion indeed.
In Uyo, he promised to build coastal roads and rail from Lagos to Calabar, in Awka he promised to construct all major roads which link Anambra with its neighbors and complete the Onitsha Inland Port. He equally promised to provide potable water to Onitsha and Nnewi cities and tackle erosion in the South-East; in Dutse, Jonathan promised to establish airports in all the states without airports, with Jigawa as his starting point. He also promised to establish a secretariat for ALL Federal government's agencies and parastatals in Ebonyi. All this promises has been blown away by the winds.
President Jonathan promised to complete and dualized Enugu-Abakaliki road within one year of his Presidency. Years after, the Ebonyi state government have to bear the N6.8billion contract sum for the road having been tired of waiting for President Jonathan. The Lagos- Jebba rail project, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Road, Abuja-Lokoja road among other roads are all neglected promises of Jonathan's administration.
Has Mr forgotten the promise he made to construct a new rail line from Kaura Namoda to Illela in Sokoto state? He promised to dredge the River Niger; build a dry port; complete the Second Niger Bridge; rehabilitate all the main roads into Abia and tackle the erosion crisis. Work on the 2nd Niger bridge has commenced but has been stopped few days after takeoff.
On the issue of power supply, Jonathan promised that Nigerians would no longer talk of generators and that he would end the ebolatic power shortages in his one term of office. Astonishingly, it only remains some eight months for Jonathan to vacate office and Nigerians are still battling to own generators, the 4,000MW inherited by Jonathan has consistently dropped below 2,000MW. In fact, the Presidency and PHCN also have generators as major source of power supply, while the government-funded PHCN serves as stand-by, and Nigerians spends trillions of Naira yearly to run diesel generators.
The petroleum industry is yet another measure of Jonathan's failure to deliver on most of his campaign promises. Jonathan promised that all our existing refineries will be rehabilitated by March 2013 and three new ones to be built by 2014 that can refine 1m bpd. And here we are, the existing refineries are completely neglected and none is working to full capacity not to mention of building new ones. Nigeria produced about 2.55m bpd in 2011, it reduced to about 2.52m bpd in 2012, then to 1.89m bpd in 2013 and now to about 1.2m bpd all under Jonathan's stewardship. Instead, Nigerians have seen a hike in fuel prices from N65 in 2007 to N141 in 2012 and N97 after a protest by Nigerians. We are still waiting for the Petrochemical plant Jonathan promised to build in order to create jobs.
Interestingly, a poor son of a canoe maker is now governing a government that has no sympathy for the poor. I did expect Jonathan to atleast if not anything fight poverty that forced him went to school without shoes, but he has now forgotten those days and decided not to take a revenge against poverty. Mr President has done nothing to alleviate poverty, his vuvuzelas has failed to remind him of his promise to the Plateau people to launch a straight fight against poverty. According to a recent survey by the United Nation (UN), over 100m Nigerians lives below the poverty line of $1 per day but we are hearing of a purported 2% decrease in poverty which is very shameful for any responsible government.
Under Jonathan's tyranny, unemployment in Nigeria has grown from about 21% to an estimated 38.7% with little or no jobs for the youths and unemployed. He has only succeeded in worsening the terrible condition of joblessness within our youths. What happens to the promise he made to create 3m jobs annually?
President Jonathan promised to curtail kidnapping in Aba and Enugu, he promised to stamp fulani heardsmen from murdering innocent citizens in Benue and Taraba, he also promised the people of Zamfara that his government will flush out those behind killings by unknown gunmen but today, all these criminals are having a field day slaughtering and murdering Nigerians in a free reign with impunity. As you all know, terrorist activities are on the increasing without any serious efforts by the government to halt the ugly situation, bomb blast has became part of our daily lives and has no way out unless to wait for our killers to come knocking.
The President is himself scared to visit some part of the country for fear of terrorists attacks but he keeps parading that all is well, he seems to be undisturbed by the spates of attacks on Nigerians killing thousands and annihilating properties worth billions. Whenever terrorists struck, Mr President will be seen attending parties and political rallies without any sign of sadness in his face.
Neither us nor anyone in the administration of President Jonathan has enjoyed relative peace and stability since swearing in of Jonathan as head of state, there have been countless promises by the president to tackle the ugly menace of insecurity ravaging the once most peaceful nation: Few minutes after the October 1, 2010 multiple bomb blasts at the Eagle Square in Abuja, President Jonathan assured Nigerians that the perpetrators of the act will be brought to justice. He said, "These are terrorists. We know them, we know their sponsors, we are on their trail and by God's grace, some of them will face the law."
Again, President Jonathan assured Nigerians that the perpetrators will be brought to book after another bomb went off at the Police headquarters. He said, "There shall be no sacred cows. All, no matter how remotely connected to these incidents, must be brought to justice. They must be made to pay. No one, and we repeat, no one, can make this nation ungovernable."
He promised that an era of transformation will not waver in that commitment nor allow any force hamper that resolve to bring about those positive changes that the common man in Nigeria desires and has patiently waited for.
President Jonathan promised the people of Benue state a five-year plan to revolutionize agriculture and establish industries in the country as well as complete the Otukpo irrigation project, he also assured that the Jada irrigation project and Kafin Zaki dam in Taraba, Adamawa and Bauchi would be pursued to boost agriculture and industrial development; In Lokoja on February 21, he promised to explore the agricultural potential of the state to boost food security; in Ilorin, also on Feb 21, he promised to grant loans to farmers and ensure the agricultural transformation of Kwara State and in Jos on February 17, he promised to build more dams and complete ongoing ones in order to boost irrigation farming in Plateau; he also promised to encourage the establishment of more agricultural research institutes. None of these promises have been fulfilled.
The transformer continued to pour in promises: In Osogbo on March 2, he promised to complete the Lagos-Jebba rail project right away and to complete the Ife-Ijesa dam; at the Northern Economic Summit, Kaduna, on March 19, Jonathan promised to spend N350 billion in building small dams across the North in the next four years to stimulate “massive irrigational farms”; in Benue, he promised that the Benue Bridge projects will be worked on in the next four years; also in Kwara State, President Jonathan pledged that the Jebba-Mokwa road and Jebba Bridge would be given adequate attention to ease transportation; in Sokoto, he promised to rehabilitate the abandoned Shagari irrigation project and fight the menace of desertification in the country. We are still waiting, Nigerians are waiting.
Education is given less or no priority by the present day leadership despite under the watch of Ph.D holder, president Jonathan in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, promised an aggregate review of the nation’s education policy but all we got was a year long strike by University and Polytechnic lecturers for Jonathan's inability to provide a conducive atmosphere for tertiary education to prosper. No need of further argument here, you are all living witnesses of the terrible conditions of our education system.
President Jonathan promised to “create jobs” so sa to strengthen the nation's economy. He pledged to refocus on the solid mineral development and launch “a straight fight” against poverty; to create wealth by improving power and water supply; on February 24, Mr. President pledged to rehabilitate all ailing industries in Aba and make Aba the hub aircraft production in Nigeria; in Asaba, he revealed that “The NNPC is developing a new programme that will absorb about 5,000 youths in the state” and promised to unveil a five-year development plan; in Ondo, he promised the exploitation of the vast bitumen deposits; in Katsina, he promised to enhance the living standard of Nigerians through implementation of people-oriented programmes and in Kano, he pledged to encourage the development of small and medium scale enterprises; during the one-man presidential debate on March 31 in Abuja, he promised to expand and develop the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry to provide about one million jobs.
In Lagos on February 28, Jonathan promised to partner with Lagos State in the interest of its continuous growth and the nation’s economic buoyancy. “We have taken this period to study what we are going to do and by your mandate in May 29, we will hit the ground running,” he said. On Feb 21 in Ilorin, he promised to tackle poverty and revitalize ailing industries; in Abuja on March 21 at a meeting with leaders of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, he promised to build car manufacturing or assembly plants. All this promises are not only unfulfilled, but forgotten by Mr President.
Amazingly, President Jonathan's dubious promises weren't focused on health and the failed promisor didn't regards healthcare as part of his transformation, making few promises on health; On the 25th of Feb 2011 in Abakaliki, he promised the South East geo-political zone that his administration will give much priority in healthcare delivery. The current strike action by Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) says it all, President Jonathan has woefully failed to deliver the services needed for the nation's healthcare sector.
The vague and bulky nature of Jonathan's campaign promises made it almost impossible to list them all at once, these are just a few of them and many yet to be compiled.
A successful and great first term always deserves another but i don't think a failed first term deserve a second chance. I see no reason to warrant the return of Jonathan as Nigeria's President come 2015, Nigerians must realize the fact that he is yet to deliver 10% of his campaign promises and if he can't deliver them in his first term, what's the possibility of him to fulfill them if given a second chance? Having already began making new promises for his re-election bid. "It is only the fool’s sheep that break loose twice."
Although, i wasn't surprise to witnessed Jonathan's leadership failures as he were a product of the most corrupt political platform that houses criminals whom only specialized in looting national resources with impunity, it has always been predicted that "when the chameleon brings forth a child, is not that child expected to dance?" President Jonathan is only acting the scripts of his political party but nothing more.
How long must feverish birds trouble in silence before their keeper? When will Jonathan realize the trauma and calamities he plunged Nigeria into? Nigerians are dying in their numbers, poverty is ravaging the entire citizenry, unemployment on the increase, nothing seem to be alright in Nigeria but yet, some co-devils benefiting from the rascalities of this current regime are up drumming support for their uncharismatic paymaster.
The Jonathanians should know that the "sky is falling is not the problem of one person." Their efforts to return Jonathan just to continue duping Nigerians off their wealth isn't only uncalled for, the nemesis of failed leadership must surely affect all and sundry either directly or indirectly. Dividing Nigeria along ethno religious boundaries for political purposes will have a huge dangerous effect on their lives now or in the near future, the violence that will erupt as a result won't only affect the common man but Nigerians as a whole irrespective of class, religion, tribe and gender.
What Nigerians need to do to salvage their future from destruction come 2015 is very simple, vote Jonathan and his devilish PDP out of the system and see how Nigeria must change from bad to good.
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