Why Jonathan Will Win in 2015 - By Reno Omokri
Why Jonathan Will Win in 2015 - By Reno Omokri
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.
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
