A MUST READ FOR ALL BUHARIMANIACS BY FEMI ARIBISALA.
Goodluck Jonathan Was An Exceptional President
I walked into the east wing of The Palms shopping mall in Lekki, Lagos
(popularly referred to as Shoprite) only to be buttoned-holed by a man trying to
sell me a Honda Civic parked inside the hall. His sales pitch was that it was the
first totally assembled Honda in Nigeria; built completely to Nigerian
specifications. For example, unlike the classic Honda, the Nigeria model has a
high clearance, being mindful of the potholes in Nigerian roads.
I had no intention of buying a new car, least of all a Honda Accord.
Nevertheless, I could not fail to recognise that what he was touting is one of
the many achievements of the Jonathan administration. In spite of the Buhari
administration’s daily vilification of Jonathan, the achievements of his
government continue to speak for themselves.
Jonathan put in place a policy that provided zero import-duty for completely
knocked down vehicles, while discouraging the importation of already assembled
cars-old or brand new-by the imposition of heavy import-duties. This propelled
car manufacturers to set up assembly-plants in Nigeria that provide jobs for
craftsmen, technicians, technologists, engineers, and other professionals across
the value chain. The government also made it a policy to patronise locally-
made and assembled cars.
The outcome is that local car-assembly is back in Nigeria; literally rising from
the dead. Big auto giants, including Peugeot, Nissan Volkswagen, Kia, Hyundai
and apparently Honda, now either assemble or entirely manufacture their cars,
SUVs, trucks and buses at various locations in Nigeria. In addition, Nigeria now
has an indigenous car-manufacturing company, Innoson, which is not only
selling locally but already dabbling in exports.
Limits of denigration
These days, the most discernible policy of the new APC government is to attack
everything Jonathan. However, propaganda can only mask the truth in the
short-term. It cannot destroy the truth on the medium to long-term. No matter
what APC traducers say, the fact remains that Goodluck Jonathan was an
exceptional president by Nigerian standards.
Now is the time to re-affirm this and invite a more dispassionate reappraisal of
the facts, away from the lies and fabrications of the election campaign. It can
no longer be argued today that anyone defending Jonathan is a PDP contractor,
a favourite line of defence of Buharimaniacs. Neither can Jonathan defenders be
accused any longer of wanting to replace Reuben Abati as the president’s
spokesman.
“You can do nothing against the truth but for the truth.” No matter what the
APC continues to broadcast about the Jonathan administration, the truth
cannot be silenced.
Fashola’s gaffe
After six months of stasis, Buhari finally unfurled his ministers in the most anti-
climatic fashion. These long-awaited saints and angels turned out to be mostly
Santa Claus.
Babatunde Fashola, former governor of Lagos State, is now the minister of
Power, Works and Housing. At his maiden news conference, tagged
grandiloquently: “Setting the Agenda for Delivering Change,” the same Fashola
who spent the election campaign running down the Jonathan administration
shocked his audience by revealing that, rather than embark on new road
construction projects in 2016, he would only endeavour to build on Jonathan’s
achievements.
When I heard this, I felt Fashola should have been given a query by APC Central
for undermining the party’s official propaganda. It would appear that Fashola
had yet to receive the memo that everything Jonathan is to be rubbished. On
the contrary, he betrayed APC by praising Jonathan. He even acknowledged
(wonders will never cease) that Jonathan constructed more roads than any
other president in the history of Nigeria.
Surely, Fashola deserves to be summarily dismissed from his new post for this
impolitic admission.
Wittingly or unwittingly, Fashola gave the lie to APC propaganda that
Jonathan’s years were wasted years. If Jonathan was as incompetent as the
APC would have us believe, why could the party not launch its own superior
nationwide road-building plan, as Buhari had promised in the heady days of the
2015 election campaign? Why rely on allegedly sub-standard PDP foundations?
Similarly, rather than jettison Jonathan’s power-sector reforms that APC
derided volubly during the campaign, Fashola revealed that the government will
be continuing with them. Jonathan completed 10 power-plants in Nigeria within
three years – the first and highest of such record by any Nigerian president
living or dead.
The APC had accused Jonathan of awarding the power projects to PDP cronies
and financiers who are incompetent and ddeficient. But rather than revoke those
contracts, Fashola preached continuity. He also admitted that Jonathan‘s
transformation in the power sector was above 50 percent, and that his job
would be to build on this achievement.
Jonathan’s transformation agenda
Transport Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, also had the same assessment of
Jonathan’s achievements with regard to rail transportation. He pledged to
complete all ongoing rail-restoration projects around the country started by
Jonathan, as well as extend them to all parts of the country.
Jonathan inaugurated the Lagos-Kano rail line and the Port Harcourt-Enugu
mass transit train. He also embarked on the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt-
Maiduguri rail line. Furthermore, Jonathan’s projects include the Abuja-Kaduna
fast train line; the 322km Lagos-Benin City line; 500km Benin-Abakiliki line;
673km Benin-Obudu Cattle Ranch line; 615km Lagos-Abuja high speed line;
520km Zaria-Birnin-Koni line; 533km Ega nyi-Otukpo and the Ega nyi-Abuja
line.
Thanks to Jonathan, five million Nigerians are now carried by rail, relative to
the one million before he came. An estimated 700,000 passengers are projected
to ride the Abuja Light Rail (ALR) on a daily basis. Only recently, KPMG listed
Nigeria’s high speed rail project proposed by the Jonathan administration as
one of the global top 100 world-class infrastructure. The rail is expected to
connect Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Warri, Bauchi, Abuja and Port Harcourt, at a cost
of $13 billion.
For his part, Audu Ogbeh, the new Minister of Agriculture and Rural
Development, did not even pretend to have an alternative to Jonathan’s
Transformation Agenda. Speaking at the launching of the Anchor Borrowers
Programme in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State, Ogbeh commended Jonathan’s
achievements in agriculture, while also praising his ministerial predecessor for
the innovations he introduced.
Thanks to Jonathan, agriculture now accounts for 22 percent of Nigeria’s GDP,
more than oil and gas, which only account for 15.9 percent. Under Jonathan,
Nigeria recorded a more than 50 percent reduction in food imports, from an
import bill of N1.4 trillion to less than N700 billion. With the innovation of dry
season rice-farming, Nigeria reached 60 percent self-sufficiency in rice
production and became, according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of
the United Nations (FAO), the largest producer of cassava in the world.
Anti-corruption hypocrisy
Rather than hit the ground running, the in-coming Buhari administration has
spent the last six months on a campaign against Jonathan and his men, as if it
is still shopping for Nigerian votes. This campaign has become a substitute for
policy, leading to the conclusion that the APC never really expected to win the
election and therefore does not know what to do now it has been declared the
winner. What the party did during the election campaign was to present pie-in-
the-sky policies that were never intended to be implemented but were primarily
designed to harvest votes.
This accounts for the government’s current embarrassment with its own party
manifesto and the denial of its campaign promises. It has even led to APC
legislators being constrained to vote against their own policy – the payment of
N5000 monthly to the 25 million poorest Nigerians. In six months, the much-
touted change of the APC has turned out to be counterfeit. What we have
instead is a constant barrage of media trials pertaining to the alleged corruption
of the Jonathan administration.
This anti-corruption crusade is clearly not addressed at curtailing corruption. Its
primary objective is to kill and bury the PDP. Not even the most ardent
supporters of Jonathan would insist that there was not rampant corruption
under the PDP. What is unacceptable is the present government’s pretence that
corruption in Nigeria is restricted to the PDP when, as a matter of fact, the APC
is just as corrupt, if not even more because of its blatant hypocrisy.
The government’s anti-corruption crusade is already without legitimacy because
it is unashamedly partial and selective. Allegations made against APC office-
holders are procedurally ignored by the government’s anti-corruption
watchdogs. Some of the APC chieftains accused of corruption have even been
rewarded with major ministerial portfolios. Others have been nominated as APC
candidates in governorship elections.
PDP members are labelled corrupt until they declare for the APC; then they
automatically become saints. We are meant to believe that while the PDP used
government funds to buy favours and votes during the election campaign, APC
managed to spend massively to dislodge the PDP from power without doing the
same. The truth of the matter is that corruption is not the exclusive preserve of
any party or persons. Corruption is endemic to the Nigerian political system.
Selective maligning of members of the former government will not rid Nigeria of
corruption. Neither will allegations of corruption hurriedly put together for the
sake of public consumption, which are then thrown out by the courts.
Corruption has to be addressed systemically and structurally. But to date, there
is little evidence that the government’s anti-corruption intentions go beyond the
witch-hunting of the Jonathan administration.
Jonathan’s legacies
To the extent that the present administration can be said to have any policies
after six months in office, they are all legacies of the Jonathan administration.
The TSA is from Jonathan. The turn-around maintenance of our refineries is
from Jonathan. The re-equipping of our military is from Jonathan. The
improvement in electricity is a Jonathan legacy. On the other hand, the major
policies enunciated in the APC election manifesto remain essentially pipe-
dreams.
In spite of APC propaganda, Jonathan’s men keep matching on. Dr. Akinwunmi
Adesina, Jonathan’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development is now
President of the Africa Development Bank (AfDB). Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
Jonathan’s Minister of Finance, and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, is
now a Senior Adviser at Lazzard, a prestigious 167 year-old global investment
firm. Arunma Otteh, Jonathan’s Director-General of the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), is now a Vice-President at the World Bank.
To paraphrase Marc Antony of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “The evil that men
do lives after them; the good is oft interrèd with their bones. So let it be with
Jonathan. The noble APC hath told you Jonathan was clueless. If it were so, it
was a grievous fault, and grievously hath Jonathan answered it.”

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I challenge any buharimaniac to point out any lie or falsehood in this submission. If none, just move on to the next topic and comment.

Mathematical:
Ok..how much you sef collect.. dasuki Don dash you 2k to subscribe.. see yarn..

It's a beautiful piece I came across and thought to share... These are not just statement of facts but facts, I'm sure you didn't read this piece through to have made this childish remarks. Grow up!

CaptRewa:
It's a beautiful piece I came across and thought to share... These are not just statement of facts but facts, I'm sure you didn't read this piece through to have made this childish remarks. Grow up!

Leave them. We are yet to see one concrete achievement that has been recorded by the APC administration, other than inter-party wranglings and witch-hunting exercises...

I've long decided that Aribisala is not worth wasting one's time on.

He has lost relevance and I don't think I need to read his articles.