The Special Assistant to President Jonathan on
New Media, Reno Omokri writes on why he believes
the president will win in 2015. Read below and tell
us what you think...
My dear brothers and sisters, a number of
you have asked me, particularly on Social
Media, why I think President Goodluck
Jonathan deserves your vote. I will use this
space to answer that question headlong and
unequivocally, because I believe with every
fiber of my being that reelecting President
Jonathan is the best course of action that
Nigerians can take if we do not want to go
back to the old ways in which the
government dictated to us rather than
related to us.
Everything about the emergence of President
Jonathan as the candidate of the PDP shows his
party and it's candidate as the only truly national
candidate. The National Convention in the Federal
Capital Territory, which is known as the 'Center of
Unity' was auspicious and befitting as the PDP is
the only political party that projects one united
and indivisible Nigeria.
Nigerians can take pride in the PDP and its pan
Nigerian credentials. The party does not have
regional bases. The whole nation is its base.
The ruling has a unique ability to unite as a party
that goes on to unite Nigeria as a nation.
The PDP is the largest party in Africa and under
this banner, we have grown our economy to the
point where it is now the largest economy in
Africa proving that as the PDP grows stronger,
Nigeria grows stronger.
And with all due respect, the choice between the
PDP's candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan and
the opposition's candidate, General Muhammadu
Buhari is clear.
Lagosians who are today escaping Lagos traffic
via the air conditioned Goodluck train must be
under no illusion that this service just appeared
from nowhere. No. It came about via a visionary
long term plan whose ultimate goal when fully
implanted will see a Lagos-Ibadan High Speed
metro line that will enable people live in Ibadan
and work in Lagos. The contract was signed in
August 2012 for $1.5 billion and the management
of the Chinese Firm CCECC has mobilized to site.
The project itself, being part of the Interstate
Rail Project, has been listed by KPMG as one of
the world's top 100 infrastructure projects!
This is a fulfillment of the idea that Alhaji Lateef
Kayode Jakande had way back in 1982-3 but which
was delayed when the military thought they had
murdered that idea by canceling the project. But
that project has been given new life today by the
President Goodluck Jonathan administration
because as Thomas Sankara said "you cannot kill
ideas".
Some people erroneously think that President
Jonathan will not do well in the 2015 election in
Katsina State, but the people of Katsina will vote
for President Jonathan because he built the only
Federal University in Katsina state as well as the
only 6 Almajiri schools in that state.
Before the
ascension of the President to power, Katsina and
11 other states had no Federal Universities.!
The 2015 election is about records. The President
has his record and the opposition have theirs.
The days of selling a candidate based on his
ethnicity, region and religion must go forever.
2015 must be about issues, records and ideas!
I, Reno Omokri, am proud to say that President
Jonathan has never publicly or privately called for
violence or bloodshed.
President Jonathan's has bequeathed a good
Human Right Record to Nigeria. No political
Prisoners exist in Nigeria. No one is imprisoned for
their views under President Jonathan.
What is the
opposition's Human Right record?
When President Jonathan took office in 2010, it
used to take an average of 7-8 hours to go from
Benin to Lagos. Today, after the reconstruction.
(Not repair) of the Benin-Ore road, that same
journey can be done in 3 hours and the President
sent the Coordinating Minister for the Economy,
Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to undertake the
journey and verify the Estimated Travel Time on
that road.
Some people say the opposition is coming to fight
corruption and I ask them if they have seen the
latest Corruption Perception Index released by
Transparency International 2 weeks ago?
Under President Jonathan, Nigeria progressed 8
points upward in the scale proving that the
President is tackling corruption headlong.
The major progress Nigeria made in the 2014
Corruption Perception Index released by
Transparency International are the result of the
clinical surgical incision made by President
Jonathan at the root of corruption in Nigeria.
Gone are the show trials that glorify style over
substance with media prosecutions that do not
lead to convictions. Under Jonathan, Nigeria has
had more corruption convictions than at any other
time and Transparency International noticed.
Remember that the Fertilizer Procurement and
Distribution sub sector of the Agricultural sector
was a veritable channel of corruption.
Billions of
dollars went into private pockets as middlemen
inflated costs and supplied adulterated products
to farmers. But under President Jonathan's
watch, 14 million farmers were registered by the
Ministry of Agriculture who connected them
directly to the product through an e-wallet
system by which the Agriculture ministry send
texts to farmers to go and pick up their fertilizer
and seeds direct from their locality.
What greater anti corruption credential can you
have than to weed out 50,000 ghost workers from
the Federal Civil service saving Nigeria almost 350
billion Naira per annum?
As I speak to you, the Abuja-Kaduna Rail project
has been completed, under budget and under the
time frame for which this administration promised
which is as a result of the new efficiency of the
Federal Civil Service which, through the Federal
Ministry of Works, had been able to supervise the
contractors efficiently because no kickbacks
exchanged hands.
My brothers and sisters, as I unveil my candidate
to you, I am confident not only that he will win
the 2015 Presidential elections based on his
record, I will further call on you and other well
meaning Nigerians, that If you value human life,
please urge INEC to make candidates take an
oath not to incite violence when they lose in 2015.
I sometimes wonder if the opposition think that
President Jonathan is a time traveller. Why do I
say so? When the opposition says Nigeria's problem
is Jonathan perhaps they should explain why we
had problems when some of them where in power.
Is it that President Jonathan travelled back into
the past to create the problems they faced?
They say that President Jonathan has not achieved
anything.
In that case is it that President Jonathan bribed
the UN to say that Nigeria's average Life
Expectancy rose from 47 to 52 years under his
administration, or he bribed the International
Monetary Fund, IMF, to promote Nigeria to a
Middle Income Nation in 2013 from a Low Income
Nation before that? Or he bribed KPMG to list
our interstate High Speed Rail project as one of
the world's top 100 infrastructure projects? Did
he compromise the International Food Policy
Research Institute to say that hunger has reduced
in Nigeria under Jonathan from 16% to 14.1%?
I am not saying that Nigeria's problems are all
solved. How could they be? It took us 50 years to
get to the point we were before President
Jonathan became president in 2010.
Surely it will
take us more than four years to get out of the
problems we faced for half a century.
But one thing I can say is that we are making
progress under President Jonathan. Elections are
now free and fair and we have bade farewell to
do or die elections.
People can say what they like and be assured of
freedom of speech and freedom after the
speech.
The era of politically motivated assassinations are
gone.
Our railways have been revived, our major
highways have either been revived or are in a
state of being revived.
All those 12 states that did not have universities
prior to Jonathan's ascension now have
universities.
In today's Nigeria, you cannot name a state in
Nigeria where Jonathan has not built either a
brand new university, a secondary school, a
hospital or a new road!
President Jonathan knows that a mind is a terrible
thing to waste thus Jonathan built 150 schools for
Almajiri. And then some say that he has only
scratched the surface. My response to them is
that if previous administrations had likewise
scratched the surface, we won't have 12 million
children out of the formal education system in
Nigeria!
President Jonathan is building schools in every
state because if disadvantaged kids had schools in
the 80s they would not have grown up into adults
that believe that books are haram!
Those regions that did not have international
airports before Jonathan now have.
Today, Hyundai, Kia and Nissan have opened up
vehicle manufacturing/assembly plants in Nigeria
even as the government, most especially the
Presidency, is patronizing Innoson cars as official
cars.
Nigerians want stability in their leader. You won't
marry a person who jumps from relationship to
relationship, so why support a Presidential aspirant
who jumps from party to party?
From 1999 till today, President Goodluck Jonathan
has remained in one party come rain come shine.
Who in the opposition can make such a claim?
Nigerians want to know what a candidate will do
for them. They do not want to listen to
candidates bicker like motor park touts. Even
those that do not support the President or the
PDP have at least heard of the Transformation
Agenda. Have you heard of the opposition's
agenda?
As elections approach, expect more panic attacks
from a party that spent its time insulting and
criticizing the President instead of selling its
ideas to Nigerians.
They say that they will form a parallel government
if they lose in 2015. Under Jonathan, elections
held in Edo, Anambra, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun. Which
of them were rigged? Why is APC rejecting 2015
elections in 2014?
My brother and sisters, never allow those who
swore that they were determined to make some
parts of Nigeria "ungovernable" shake you and
turn your focus from the verifiable progress
Nigeria is making under President Goodluck
Jonathan. I can assure that just as he said when
he declared his interest to contest the 2015
Presidential elections, under President Jonathan's
leadership, Nigeria "will never go back to the old
ways"!
Reno Omokri
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