BREAKING DOWN THE GEJ 100 DAYS DOCUMENT

The 100 days document of the GEJ administration has been released on the Internet and on Social Media for all to see. whilst it is expected that many will appreciate the work of this administration in the last 100 days in the light of the “hostilities” it has had to contend with, it will be most naïve for anyone to assume that it will not be without strong criticism from those who abinitio have refused to embrace the reality of the paradigm shift in leadership
of the Nation. The release of the document has elicited various responses ranging from misunderstanding of the issues therein to outright animosity for a government that is perceived to be “inactive”. One of the common trends in the voices of dissent against the
document was an argument that the facts on paper did not translate to equitable access to the dividends of democracy for the average Nigerian. I beg to differ, though far be it from me to embark on a point by point analysis of all the achievements listed on the agenda, because I doubt I have the capacity to do that, but I would like to breakdown some of them to what they translate to in real terms for the average Nigerian who is a direct beneficiary of democratic dividends.

* Some people have said that inflation has not really gone down, and even point to the increased price of sardines as an indicator, what they fail to understand, is that sardines are not produced in Nigeria and the Federal Government's fiscal and monetary policies have bearing only on those goods produced in Nigeria and on the value of the Naira. More so, the prices of kerosene and cement have thankfully gone down, dietary staples like bread and garri have remained relatively stable, the price of made in Nigeria beverages have also remained stable and in some cases witnessed reductions. School fees and other educational fees have not increased in the least and fuel prices have been stable and the availability of the product in the last 100 days is worthy of commendation. These are all products that are used by the vast majority of Nigerians. All these are validations of the reduction in inflation over the past 100 days to a single digit rate of 9.4%.

* Some people have criticized the rationale behind the launch of the satellites, what they are unaware of, is that the reason NIMET was able to give advance warning to the Oyo state government on the 24th of July 2011 about the impending flood was because of satellite technology. In addition other intrinsic benefits like the expansion of internet bandwidth would serve to up the ante of the Nigerian’s pursuit of ICT knowledge that would place him in good stead to compete on the international stage.

* It irked me to see some comments bordering on Mr. President’s failure to live up to his constitutional responsibility of guaranteeing lives and property because of the terrorist acts that have occurred under his watch. I beg to differ as I believe every patriotic Nigerian should, because the constitutional responsibility has not been breached since the President is taking every possible action to prevent these acts of terror and the fact that they occurred is not due to any inaction on the part of the President sad as it may sound, it is an incontrovertible fact that no government, no matter how well intentioned can stop terror 100% of the time especially where those behind the acts are willing to give up their lives in perpetrating their nefarious activities. All that can be done in such circumstances is to put machinery in motion to curb and ultimately deal with the menace and bring perpetrators to justice. For example, it is documented fact, that between 1971 and 2011, there have been close to a 100 acts of terror in the United Kingdom beginning from the 12th January, 1971 bombing in front of the home of Robert Carr, a minister in the government of Prime Minister Edward Heath's government to the 7th July 2005 London Bus Bombings perpetuated by Al-Qaeda that resulted in the deaths of 52 people. The acts were visited on the United Kingdom by terrorists but the people and even the opposition parties did not allow these acts to divide them nor polarize the polity they rather rallied around their government and in one voice condemned these attacks and refused to let them dictate the political direction of the United Kingdom.

And this is what we need to do in Nigeria because these acts of terror seem to be orchestrated for the purposes of manipulating the political landscape and create chaos for anarchy to reign. I should think rather than scream blue murder, Nigerians should be united in giving Kudos and encouragement to our security services for the breakthroughs in fighting the scourge of terrorism; it is on good report that government is doing all it can to ensure the safety of its people and frankly I think that commitment from government should suffice, because it would be foolhardy of any to expect government to divulge details of its “Intel reports” to the public. I love to point out the simple fact of what happened in the US where apparent evidence of the war against terror was seen in the recurrent aerial onslaughts and deployment of US troops to the Middle East, but we all woke up one morning to see the outcome of the “Situation Room”.

Certain comments about the absence of “workings” on Mr President’s part are in my opinion totally unjustifiable and unfair. We recall that on assumption of office on May 6th, 2010 he promised action on Electoral Reform, Energy Security and Education.

* Within a month, he had appointed Professor Jega as chairman of INEC. Within three months he had been able to successfully amend the Electoral Act which his predecessors had found an uphill task.

* On Energy Security, Mr President revived the NIPP ensuring that priority projects like the Papalanto and Sapele power plants were funded. He also launched the Roadmap to Power Reforms in August 2010.

* In the Education, Mr President succeeded in dousing the tension in the education sector that was threatening to lead to a strike by acceding to the demands of labour unions in that sector.

All these he did within the first three months of assumption of power. If this isn’t prompt action, then I wonder what is?.

THE SALAMI AFFAIR:

Though I am not a legal egghead and many may argue that I lack the competence to speak on such matters, but speak I must because I have the benefit of being surrounded by sound legal brawlers as friends, who I daresay have ensured every angle of the issue has been given it fair share in the spotlight to enable one make an objective summation of the matter.

I believe very strongly that with the Salami Affair, what Nigerians have to remember is that the vacancy in the office of the President of the Court of Appeal was something that was urgent. It was an issue affecting the survival of the judiciary and the vacancy had to be filled quickly so that the very important work that that institution handles does not suffer. I am very certain that had the President not acted as swiftly as he did, those now politicizing the matter would have accused him of tardiness on that same issue.

Another issue I would like to touch on because of comments it has elicited, is that of Mr President’s intervention on cement. So many people have argued that it failed, but have refused to see it for what it was, “a swift action that produced swift results”. From the beginning, it was not designed to be a permanent solution but rather a temporary measure while the plans for long term measures are consolidated. The long term measures which include funding for the real sector and the incorporation of captains of industry into the administration's Economic Management Team that include Aliko Dangote, the single largest manufacturer of cement in Nigeria and entrepreneur par excellence; an act initself is an indication that there is a commitment to straighten out the “cement issue”.

On the issue of power supply, it is a documented fact that until the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999, there had been no investments in the power sector. Now the investments that the Obasanjo administration made were halted due to now notorious facts. It was this administration that resumed those investments. Now too, it is a fact that investments in the power sector take between 4-6 years minimum to come on stream. So anybody that is expecting a miraculous improvement in power is not being realistic. By virtue of the launch of the Roadmap to Power Sector reforms, there will be improvements in the power sector and there are already improvements, but those improvements will be gradual. Nigeria is producing power at her highest level ever at 4000MWs, but even that is still not enough. I am sure the government is committed to doing more with the four turbines at Papalanto and Sapele soon to come on stream and add over 500MWs to the National Grid.

But even beyond that is the fact that the privatization of that sector is gradually becoming a reality. News publications a while back advertised invitations for tenders to bid with the BPE to buy the Nation’s power plants and as we have seen in other nations of the world, there is bound to be an improvement in electricity generation once the private sector comes in.

IN SIMPLE TERMS, ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT ROME WAS NOT BUILT IN A DAY. AND WE AS NIGERIANS SHOULD REMAIN UNITED AND RALLY AROUND OUR PRESIDENT AS WE EMBARK ON THE JOURNEY OF NATION BUILDING