KEY predecessors of President Goodluck
Jonathan in office, ex-President Olusegun
Obasanjo; and ex-dictators, retired Generals
Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida,
and Abdusalami Abubakar (retd.), as well as
the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Aminu Tambuwal, on Wednesday shunned
the Democracy Day event of the Federal
Government.
While all former heads of government were
reportedly invited to the event where Jonathan
rendered an account of his mid-term performance,
only Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Gen. Yakubu Gowon
(retd.) and Chief Ernest Shonekan attended.
Gowon ruled as military head of state between 1966
and 1976; Shagari from 1979 to 1983; while
Shonekan spent barely 99 days in office as head of
the Interim National Government foisted on the
country by Babangida after the annulment of the
June 12, 1993 election won by the late
businessman, MKO Abiola.
Rather than be in Abuja, Obasanjo chose to attend
the First Jigawa State Investment Forum in Dutse,
where he showered praises on Governor Sule
Lamido for being a brilliant performer in whom he
(Obasanjo) was well pleased to have helped to
office.
"You can help someone to find a job but you can't
help the person to do the job. In this case, we found
a job for Sule Lamido and Sule Lamido was ready,
willing, able and competent to do the job," he
reportedly said at the event.
Obasanjo is believed to have facilitated the coming
of Jonathan to the Presidency in 2007 but the two
have reportedly become estranged.
Buhari, now one of the arrowheads of the coalition
to unseat the Peoples Democratic Party in 2015 and
the Jonathan administration, had in recent past
exchanged hot words on the state of the nation.
Babangida contested the PDP Presidential ticket
with Jonathan in 2011 and he is generally seen not
as a fan of the administration.
Tambuwal was represented at the event by his
deputy, Emeka Ihedioha, who gave no reason for
the Speaker's absence.
Analysts on Wednesday believed that attendance
and non-attendance at the Democracy Day
celebration was "all part of the 2015 politics."
Meanwhile, Jonathan, while presenting his
scorecard for his second year in office, asked
Nigerians who are fond of criticising his
government to ensure they first develop their
marking scheme before assessing his
administration.
Before the President formally presented the report
of his two years in office, Vice- President Namadi
Sambo; the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation, Pius Anyim; Minister of National
Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman; and the
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had
taken turns to present the achievements of the
administration in all sectors for the past two years.
"I plead with those who want to write and assess us
to prepare marking scheme, compare us with
previous governments and so on and so forth.
Develop your marking scheme and mark us,"
Jonathan said.
Jonathan said while assessing his government, he
had discovered that a number of comments of his
critics were "based on heartbeats and not any
visible criteria."
"A number of comments about the performance of
this administration are based on the heartbeat of
people," he said.
He specifically referred to an assessment done by
an unnamed newspaper which scored the Minister
of National Planning and the Minister of Trade and
Investment an average in terms of performance.
Jonathan said contrary to that assessment, the
performances of the two ministers remained the
best among the three ministers that had so far been
in charge of those ministries under his leadership.
On the Ministry of Trade and Investment, the
President said because of the hard work of Dr.
Olusegun Aganga, foreign investors had been
investing heavily in the country despite the security
challenges facing the nation and that until Usman
came on board, the Ministry of National Planning
had remained relatively not in existence.
Sambo had earlier in his welcome remarks said all
members of the Jonathan administration were
united in their aspiration to transform Nigeria to a
nation that would be respected worldwide.
He said the Democracy Day was not all about a
public holiday but a day to look inwards and give
account of stewardship, adding that was why the
administration was using the opportunity to give
account of its actions to the nation that gave them
the mandate to serve.
Sambo urged all Nigerians to join hands to build a
nation that would fulfil the promise of the past and
work for the good of the present and the future
generation.
He said constitutional and moral burdens were on
all of them in government to uphold democratic
tenets.
He said, "To whom much is given, much is
expected. We are grateful to the nation for the
mandate we received from the freest and fairest
election in recent time. The transformation agenda
is decided on those things that should be done to
reposition the country. In the last two years, we
have pursued a resolute course to widen the
political space.
"Our public institutions are being rebuilt. The
National Assembly is very vibrant, the judiciary is
truly independent. There is a general onsensus that
democracy and government in Nigeria are getting
better. We have laid a foundation of change in the
last two years.
"In the face of unprecedented security challenges,
the challenges call for caution from all of us.
Nobody should make political capital on the issue.
We seek your support and honest counsel in the
areas we can improve upon. A bright future
beckons on this land and its people. We assure
generations unborn of a nation that will meet their
needs."
Anyim said the mid-term report presented by the
President provided verifiable achievements of his
administration.
He said the administration had protected the rights
of citizens and the rule of law in its two years of
existence.
He scored the administration high in the expansion
of civic space, entrenchment of checks and
balances, sanitisation of electoral process, federal
character in appointments and anti-corruption
fight, among others.
Okonjo-Iweala, on her part, said the
administration's transformation agenda had been
tailored towards addressing some of the nation's
problems, including insufficient jobs, rising debt,
high recurrent expenditure and falling reserves,
among others.
She said in its two years, the administration had
made the economy strong, exchange rate stable,
and reduced inflation to 9.1 per cent from 12.4 per
cent in May 2011.
The minister said the Federal Government had
started retiring its past debts and changed waiver
and tariff policies from focusing on individuals
alone to the entire sector.
She added that the government hired 50 forensic
auditors to probe the fraud in the fuel subsidy
regime, adding that sanity had so far been restored
to the system.
She said following the audit, N14bn had been
recovered out of the N234bn diverted funds while
oil marketers had been reduced to 32, making it
easier for government to monitor them.
"The contributory pension scheme is sound and it is
being reformed to prevent fraud. Nigeria's credit
rating has improved. International investors are
investing more in Nigeria. Our banks are strong and
the stock market is also strong with stock exchange
index rising to 71 per cent," she said.
Okonjo-Iweala said the administration had done
well in the areas of rail rehabilitation, inland ports
construction and the overhauling of airports.
The Founder/President, Rainbow PUSH Coalition,
Rev. Jesse Jackson, observed that leadership was
not just about winning elections but about
transforming the people.
He urged Nigeria to continue to deepen its
democracy because the nation mattered to the
international community.
He urged Nigerian leaders and followers to dream
big about the nation, saying their resources must
unite and not divide them.
"Nigeria must deepen democracy. Nigeria matters.
In peacekeeping around the world, Nigeria matters.
Dream, keep dreaming big. Dream Nigeria. Dream
of one Nigeria," he said.
Others who attended included wife of the President,
Patience; wife of the Vice- President, Amina;
former Chief of General Staff, Gen. Oladipo Diya
(retd.); President of the Senate, David Mark; Chief
Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Mukhtar; and
Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu.
Others were the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the
Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Tony Anenih; the
party's national chairman, Dr. Bamanga Tukur;
former CJN, Justice Alfa Begore (retd.); elder
statesman, Chief J.P. Clark; members of the
National Assembly, former state governors,
including Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala (Oyo); Sam
Egwu (Ebonyi); Segun Oni (Ekiti); and members of
the Federal Executive Council, among others.
