Those following this column would have noticed that I
have in the past few weeks written extensively on the
2015 general elections, particularly the presidential
polls, the two dominant political parties that will slug
it out for the soul of Aso Rock and the emergence of
the two foremost presidential candidates, President
Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) of All
Progressives Congress (APC). Today, I will zero in on
why I think that President Goodluck Jonathan is
highly favoured to win the February 14 presidential
polls over Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.
For a start, President Jonathan has made modest
achievements in the past four years under the peculiar
circumstance he found himself. I shall return to the
achievements later in the article. Although, the Boko
Haram menace predates Jonathan’s regime, no
Nigerian is in doubt that it has intensified since
Jonathan overwhelmingly won the 2011 presidential
poll, which also was greeted with violence and killings
in some parts of the North. Before Jonathan made
public his intention to contest the 2015 presidential
poll and after that the sect’s murderous attacks have
continued unabated.
Besides the bombings and killings of innocent
Nigerians for no just cause, some self-appointed
Northern elders have derided Jonathan’s presidency
and his right to contest the 2015 polls based on the
erroneous impression that after the death of former
President Umaru Yar’Adua, a northerner would have
succeeded him according to their myopic
interpretation of PDP zoning formula. Despite the fact
that most Northerners understood the imperative of
Jonathan’s presidency and his right to run for a
second term as provided in the 1999 Constitution,
these elements still think otherwise.
Now that Jonathan has emerged the PDP presidential
candidate for the 2015 poll, such campaign of diatribe
might have considerably eased. If what happened at
the weekend’s fund raising of the PDP is anything to
go by, there is no doubt that President Goodluck
Jonathan, apart from being the PDP presidential flag
bearer, is also a pan-Nigerian presidential candidate.
In Jonathan, all Nigerians are united and speak with
one voice.
All Nigerians from all tribes and the six geo-political
zones gathered in Abuja and donated hugely to his
campaign fund that totaled billions of naira. The
various endorsements by civil society groups from all
parts of the country prior to Jonathan’s declaration to
contest the 2015 polls show that Nigerians want
another four years of Jonathan transformation
contrary to what the opposition has been
orchestrating.
There are so many reasons why I think that Jonathan
is highly favoured to coast home to victory on
February 14 and here are some of them that space
could permit. Jonathan did not inter with the freedom
of individuals and that of the press. He allowed
Nigerians to hold contrary views opposed to his. He
did not interfere with the freedom of the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) in their conduct
of elections. Opposition parties won elections in PDP
states and Jonathan congratulated the winners.
Jonathan did not interfere with the rulings of the
courts. He did not use the security agents against
anybody including antagonistic governors. Despite
abuses by some Nigerians, Jonathan did not invoke
his powers on them in retaliation. Under Jonathan’s
watch, no Nigerian went on exile and there was no
political assassination; there was no state-sponsored
impeachment. Jonathan is calm in spite of all
provocations. He listens to Nigerians. Under his
administration, the pump price of petrol has remained
the same.
He handled workers’ strike with maturity and reason.
He restored peace in the nation’s universities and
pumped huge sums of money (N200 billion) to revamp
them. He built 12 new federal universities, 9 in the
North and 3 in the South to ensure that all states in
the country has a federal university and open more
access to university education to our teeming youths.
The polytechnics and colleges of education were not
left out the funding largesse. The president also
boosted access to education through the Almajiri
Education Programme.
The pragmatic education programme is one of
Jonathan’s administration initiatives to improve
access to education and reduce the number of out-of-
school children in Nigeria. Its major aim is to
integrate the traditional Tsangaya and Quranic School
into the formal education system. Jonathan has done
much in road infrastructure. Some of his completed 32
roads include section 1 of the dualization of the
Ibadan-Ilorin road (Oyo), Vorn-Manchok road
(Plateau), dualization of Section 1 of Onitsha-Owerri
road and Onitsha eastern Bypass, rehabilitation of
Funtua-Gusau-Sokoto road, Shagamu-Ore-Benin
road and the Aiyegunle-Akoko-Edo road (Ondo/Edo
states).
Nigerian airports under Jonathan have been
remodeled. They now look like others in other parts of
the world. This is evident at Lagos, Abuja, Kano,
Enugu and Port Harcourt airports. The railways have
received some revamping under Jonathan’s
administration. Nigerians now commute daily in
trains across the country with modern coaches.
Nigeria has made modest achievements in industrial
revolution under Jonathan. Besides the rebasing of
the nation’s economy that place us first in Africa with
South Africa taking a second position, Unilever Plc
invested $200 million in Nigeria, while Procter &
Gamble opened $300 million new plant this year in
Agbara , Ogun State. In the area of cement
manufacturing, our local production grew from two
million metric tones in 2002 to 28.5 metric tones in
2013. It is also expected that it will reach 39 million
metric tones by the end of this year. The cement
industry has attracted $8 billion in local and foreign
investments and supports about 1.6 million jobs.
After a successful power privatization, the country
now generates over 4000 megawatts (MW) of
electricity from less 2000 mw in 2010.
This is why there has been tremendous improvement
in power supply. The only problem here lack of
prepaid metres, excessive estimate billings or ‘crazy
bills.’ The power sector needs to be put more on
track. The agricultural sector has witnessed great
transformation under Jonathan. We have witnessed
new agricultural policies targeted at increasing
domestic food production and growing private sector
participation in the sector. Nigeria is now the highest
producer of cassava. Something is being done to
increase our production of rice. There is the need to
still tap our agricultural potentials. Nigeria’s future
will depend more on agriculture than oil.
If Jonathan could achieve these much under the
prevailing insurgency, he would have done more if
there was no terrorism in the country. All the money
expended to fight the terrorists would have been
channeled to national development. With these and
other achievements of Jonathan not mentioned, he
will definitely be voted into power by Nigerians in the
presidential poll.


http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=97150

good analysis

GEJ till 2019.

No to Buhari, because he is not used to people been critical of him or his policies, hence his penchant for gaging the press. I pity Nairalanders who think GMB is an alternative, because be prepared to do without social media if Buhari ever becomes Nigeria's president, God forbid. GEJ till Buhari stops being an hypocrite.

okiezman:

Besides the bombings and killings of innocent
Nigerians for no just cause, some self-appointed
Northern elders have derided Jonathan’s presidency
and his right to contest the 2015 polls based on the
erroneous impression that after the death of former
President Umaru Yar’Adua, a northerner would have
succeeded him according to their myopic
interpretation of PDP zoning formula.

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=97150

Anybody who knows the quality of journalists Nigeria used to have in the past, would feel like shedding tears seeing how the noble pen profession is now being so badly tarnished by all sorts of unscrupulous pretenders, semi-illiterates and bare-faced bigots who know next to nothing about the cardinal principles of journalism, talk less of feeling any sense of professional responsibility.

You do not even need to be a professional journalist to know that this charlatan, Robert Obioha, represents all what is wrong with our journalism today:

1. Only a crassly prejudiced, pathetically uncritical, mentally lazy or barefacedly mischievous 'journalist' would continue to regurgitate the old lies that it was some northern leaders that are killing, maiming and displacing thousands of their people, and disrupting the economic and social life of their region so badly, just in order to make the government of GEJ 'look bad' and make the country 'ungovernable' for him!

2. When more and more enlightened and unbiased observers started to CRITICALLY question those lies, have we not seen how THE SAME PEOPLE who started the lies in the first place began to shift their FALSE NARRATIVE by re-directing their false accusation to BUHARI, then to APC, TINUBU, LIE Mohammed, El-Rufai and other opposition figures as being the sponsors of BH?

3. If Obioha were not such a PATHETIC PRETENDER calling himself 'journalist'; if he is not such a morally bankrupt charlatan blinded by bigotry, he would have known that the question many intelligent and unbiased journalists and observers have been asking, and continue to ask is, WHO ACTUALLY BENEFITS, POLITICALLY and OTHERWISE, from the continued, systematic widespread destruction of the North?

4. Does Obioha think Nigerians have forgotten how the president he supports came out publicly and tried most CYNICALLY to REAP A POLITICAL BENEFIT from the FIRST bomb blast in Nigeria, by IMMEDIATELY but FALSELY and DECEITFULLY blaming it on some Northern leaders?

Jo-nathan is the best.

(sing to the tune of Ebenezer Obey's "Teju foam is the best)

May God bless President GEJ. Victory is Sure. We shall overcome in Jesus name, Amen!