Your Assessment of Jonathan is Untrue, Misleading, Presidency Tells Obasanjo

 Ex- President Olusegun Obasanjo

Says administration is better than any in Nigeria’s history

Yoruba group, Kashamu warn former president to stop attacks on Jonathan

Chuks Okocha  in Abuja , Shola  Oyeyipo in Lagos  and Sheriff Balogun in Abeokuta

The presidency on Sunday debunked the statement credited to former President Olusegun Obasanjo that the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan was under-performing, stating that the claims of under-performance were untrue and misleading.

It also claimed that Jonathan has performed better than Obasanjo when the latter was president.
The former president had at an event over the weekend rated the Jonathan administration “below average.”

But the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, in a statement he personally signed said: “We aver that Chief Obasanjo’s comments are untrue, misleading and clearly do not tally with the facts on the ground.

“We therefore wish to assert without equivocation that in terms of performance and achievements, no administration since 1960 when Nigeria gained independence from Britain, has done as much as that of President Jonathan. Every discerning and unbiased Nigerian will definitely attest to this fact as the evidence stare all of us in the face.

“We will show here that contrary to Chief Obasanjo’s position, the federal government under President Jonathan has performed excellently given the prevailing circumstances and resources available. An assessment of key sectors of national life under the Jonathan administration will definitely controvert Obasanjo’s argument that President Jonathan has not performed well. We will prove this by looking at the performance of the following sectors under President Jonathan,” Okupe said,

According to Okupe, in the sector by sector assessment of the president’s scorecard in the power sector: “Before President Jonathan came on board as president of this country in 2010, Nigeria faced serious challenges with generation, distribution and transmission of power. Nigeria had challenges with both generation of power and the installed capacity to ensure effective power supply. As a matter of fact, the total amount of power generated nationwide stood at 2,550 megawatts; today it is over 4,000 megawatts.”

In terms of installed capacity, he said, “there has been remarkable improvement. In 2011, our installed capacity to generate electricity stood at 5,900MWby December 2013 it had increased to 6,953MW. This impressive achievement was due to the completion of all the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) plants, which for reasons only he can explain, Chief Obasanjo had abandoned during his tenure.
On agriculture, the president’s aide said that since President Jonathan launched his transformation agenda in the agricultural sector, it has provided EMPLOYMENT for over 70 per cent of the population and has recorded unprecedented growth resulting from a number of reforms and innovations.

Accordingly, Okupe said: “The revolution the Jonathan administration has engineered has not only empowered millions of farmers in the country but has equally saved Nigeria billions of naira and dollars, which in times past had been lost to fertilizers racketeers and food importation.  Nigeria’s food production has expanded by 21 million metric tonnes; three million farm jobs have been created and more importantly, our import of food has declined by 38 per cent from N1.1trillion to N635 billion in 2013.

Other impressive achievements by the Jonathan administration in the agricultural sector, he said include: Ending 40 years of corruption in the fertilizer sector. The old system of government direct procurement and distribution of fertilizer were manifestly corrupt and led to annual incidence of “fertilizer scam” where less than 11 per cent of farmers received these fertilizer. Over N776 billion ($4.8 billion) was estimated to have been lost to corruption or an average of N26 billion ($162.5million) annually. The system displaced the private sector and Nigerian farmers lost dignity.
On the transport sector, the presidency said in the statement that as with other critical sectors of the Nigerian economy, the transportation sector had received remarkable boost under the Jonathan administration.

On aviation, he said that the was in its death throes under previous administrations including Obasanjo’s but which the Jonathan administration has given a new lease of life is the aviation sector.
Also, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Chairman, Organisation and Mobilisation Committee of the party in the South-west, Mr. Buruji Kashamu, has faulted Obasanjo’s comment that Jonathan has performed below average.

He also described Obasanjo’s comment as “self-serving, unjustifiable and totally unwarranted”, saying contrary to Obasanjo’s claims, Jonathan has performed above average and deserves a second term.
In a statement he issued yesterday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, Kashamu said it was most ridiculous for the former president to publicly denigrate his successors just to score cheap political points, adding that, “If this is how he wants to regain his lost political relevance in the South-west, then it would be counterproductive.”

The statement read, “My attention has been drawn to yet another outburst and unwarranted attack by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo on the person and office of President  Jonathan wherein the former claimed that President Jonathan has performed below average.

“It is utterly nauseating how he catches on the slightest opportunity to publicly cast aspersion on the President Jonathan, with the intent of inciting the people against the President and swaying public opinion against him. If this occasional outburst is how he wants to regain his lost political relevance in the Southw-west, then it would be counterproductive. We thank God that since he turned his back on the PDP, the party has been repositioned and we have been winning elections fair and square.

After all, the Yoruba would say “T’eyan ba dagba, o ma yogun ja ni (an aged person stops going to the battle field),” Kashamu said.

The party chieftain said the wave of insurgency being witnessed in the North-eastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Gombe  started under Obasanjo.

He noted that Obasanjo should hSimilarly, a Yoruba group, Oodua Development Initiative (ODI), has advised Obasanjo to desist from castigating Jonathan over his leadership style.

The patron of the group, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, who said the former president was vindictive against President Jonathan, said Obasanjo lacked the moral right to cast aspersion on the incumbent administration, since he had his opportunity to rule the country recently.

“He (Obasanjo) should keep quiet. He should shut his mouth until one day Nigerians will call him to account his stewardship to the nation.”

Odumakin, who is also the National Publicity Secretary of pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, said Obasanjo was only taking advantage of the current situation in the country to gain political relevance.

“There is no doubt that by now Nigerian citizens are familiar with the fact that Chief Obasanjo’s comment and opinions are usually products of malice, vengeance vendetta. It is not in the character of Chief Obasanjo to hold objective and patriotic opinion,” he opined.

While he admitted that Nigeria was currently going through a situation that requires concerted efforts to bring about the urgently need change, Odumakin insisted that Obasanjo did not fare better while he was at the helm of affairs.

“Obasanjo cannot be the conscience of the nation. He cannot be a social crusader or point fingers when we know he has antecedents and what are his scorecards.

“For eight year, president Obasanjo despite huge financial commitment to the power sector, he was unable to go beyond 2,000 megawatts, whereas, in less than four years, the President Jonathan administration has reached 5000 megawatts. Who then as performed below average, asked Odumakin who reeled out other low points of the Obasanjo administration.

Source: ThisDayLive