Doyin Okupe Is Right, Jonathan Has Performed More Than Any Leader In Nigeria’s History(1)

Jonathan

When I look at the unprecedented achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan in less than four years, I wonder what he would have accomplished if those that promised to “make the country ungovernable” had not kept to their avowal.

Of course not many of Nigeria’s elite are happy that Jonathan has achieved so much despite the insurgency they had wished that it would cripple his administration. Among those who had wished that Jonathan fail is the former president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who in several statements and open letters had not hidden the fact that he does not want President Jonathan to enjoy the constitutional right of second term which Obasanjo did everything under the sun including allegedly prostrating before his estranged vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in 2003 to have.

Obasanjo’s latest intervention is to say that the Jonathan administration has performed below average. Nothing could be further from the truth. And as the senior special assistant to the president, Dr Doyin Okupe rightly pointed out, the facts don’t lie and that fact is that based on verifiable evidence on ground no president had achieved what this president has achieved in less than four years in the history of this country.

In his intervention entitled “ Jonathan’s Administration Has Performed More Than Any Other Government In Nigeria’s History”, Dr Doyin Okupe highlighted Jonathan’s achievements in power, agriculture, transportation, aviation, roads, industrialisation and education sectors among others.

I am particularly amazed on what Jonathan has achieved in the education sector. Apart from building hundreds of almajiri schools for street children in the northern parts of the country, he is the only president in history of this country to build 14 federal universities in less than four years. Any student of economic geography or economics who understands the growth pole theory would know that a university is a Growth Centre. Wherever a university is established it becomes a growth centre that has multiplier effect on the immediate and distant economies. Each of these universities would create not fewer than 5,000 jobs (academic and non-academic). The presence of 5,000 mouths to feed and house would led to increases in housing provision by the locals and simultaneously increase  agricultural productivity with the enlarged population of the university community. Small scale businesses like bookstores, chemists, pharmacists, restaurants, barbing and beauty saloons and other sundry businesses would thrive. Now if you multiply the 5000 jobs created in each university by 14 universities you realised that Jonathan has created over 70,000 jobs following the establishment of these universities. Yet some people without shame would open their mouths to say that no jobs have been created by this government.

Anytime I pass through Kubwa expressway and cross the rail line linking Abuja and Kaduna I am reminded how this president has not only transformed the hitherto comatose railways system but is also building new rail routes like the one between Abuja and Kaduna. When the rail line linking Abuja and Kaduna becomes operational Kaduna residents can live in their beloved Kaduna and work in Abuja thereby avoiding the high cost of accommodation in the Federal Capital Territory. Similarly when the ones linking Lokoja with the FCT becomes operational, residents of the Kogi State capital can work in Abuja from their homes in Lokoja. All over the country the rails are being utilised.

 This Christmas with fanfare the governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will announce that his government would provide free train ride for Osun indigenes to travel home for the yuletide season, but in their hypocrisy both Aregbesola and loquacious APC would not give credit to the man who revitalised the rail system for which they provide ‘free ride’ for indigenes of Osun. In Lagos one of APC states rail transport has become a stable in their transport network and this was only possible because of Jonathan. It is no surprise that the rail sector has created over one million jobs directly and indirectly. If you doubt it let me remind you that there are thousands of Nigerians laying the rail tracts all over the country and not spirits.

In the power sector, Obasanjo administration spent several billions of dollars with nothing to show for it. Even the power sector reform under Obasanjo was ridden with corruption with some top leaders of that government associated with some of the power companies. However under Jonathan the power sector was reformed in a most transparent way and the president has not been linked whatsoever with any of the power companies that operate in the country.

According to Okupe by 2010 Nigeria was generating only 2550 megawatts while today the country is generating over 4000 megawatts of electricity.

“ In terms of installed capacity there has been remarkable improvement. In our installed capacity to generate electricity stood at 5,900 MW by 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.

“ The moribund state-run power corporation was successfully privatised by the Jonathan administration in a process highly rated and commended by the World Bank and other multilateral agencies for its high level of transparency and professionalism. This was a very critical programme in solving our power problems which other administrations could not achieve for decades. Today, Nigeria is a recipient of billion-dollar foreign investment in the power sector which is the much needed elixir for a stable, sufficient and efficient power system. This feat cannot be an evidence of a below-average performance as painted by Chief Obasanjo,” Doyin Okupe noted. (To Be Continued).