From President Goodluck Jonathan
yesterday came a damning verdict on his
generation. We have failed, he said, urging
the youth to vote for young people.
Jonathan spoke in Lagos at the opening of
the People’s Democratic Party (PDP’s)
campaign ahead of next month’s general
elections.
He said: “I do not want to address old people
like me because we have failed completely.
We are spent already.”
An angry and agitated Dr. Jonathan, who
was sarcastic in most of his over 30 minutes
speech, told the youth that the election was
their opportunity to vote for their relevance.
The President addressed insecurity,
unemployment and corruption, stating the
steps his government had taken in
addressing them. He promised that the
recommendations of the National Conference
will be sent to the Eighth National Assembly
for passage — if he is re-elected.
Flaunting his party’s governorship
candidates, Jonathan, who said he was
addressing Nigerians who will be voting for
the first time and young people, boasted that
his party had provided the youth an
opportunity by fielding young candidates.
Jonathan attacked past leaders, saying they
never bought any equipment for the military.
Jonathan also attacked those who said the
militant group, Movement for the
Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND),
disowned him, adding that he has no
business with a group whose leader (Henry
Okah) is in a South African prison, for killing
many Nigerians.
According to the President, Okah, the
mastermind of the October 1, 2010 bomb
blast in Abuja, was hired to assassinate him
but his mission was uncovered by security
agencies. He was not surprised such a group
was not supporting him.
Jonathan boosted that it was under his
administration that people understood the
importance of voter cards, insisting that prior
to 2011, elections were never really held as
politicians were imposed through rigging and
malpractices.
He said he had “directed” the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) to
ensure that irregularities in the Permanent
Voter Cards (PVCs) distribution are
corrected so that no eligible Nigerian is
disenfranchised.
The President said: “I do not want to address
old people like me because we have failed
completely. We are spent already. Listen to
what I will say because I am going to
address political gatherings in 37 places.
Whatever I say, when you go back home, ask
your aunts or uncles who are 60 years and
above to confirm the things I mentioned.
“This election is about the young people. It is
either you vote for the young people to be
relevant in this country or you vote for you to
be irrelevant. Those of you who are voting for
the first time should vote for a Nigerian youth
to be important and relevant in this country.
“We have just introduced our governorship
candidates and you can see that many of
them are within your age bracket. Which
other party will give the youth that
opportunity?
“Those who say they want to take over
power from PDP have been telling a lot of
lies. They have hired people from all over the
world.
“Do you want to vote for people who want to
take you back to the old days? Nigeria is for
the youths. It is not for old people like us.
“They talk about insecurity. That they will
fight insecurity and we ask, are our Armed
Forces weak? Ask the man telling you who
are about 23-year-old that when he was
Head of Government, if he bought one rifle for
the Nigerian soldier?
“These people did not buy anything for the
Nigerian soldiers. Ask them what they did
with the defence budget throughout the whole
time they were in government; no equipment
was bought for the armed forces.
“Nobody equips the Armed Forces overnight.
They are built over the years. Even if we
spend $10 billion today, it cannot
immediately equip the Army, Navy and Air
Force because their capacities are built over
the years. It takes a period of time.
“They refused to build the capacity,
instigated crisis and now they are telling us
they will fight insecurity. Ask them these
questions and they will answer. I will
disclose more as we progress.”
On corruption, which his administration has
been criticised for condoning, Jonathan said:
“They say that the government is corrupt and
not fighting corruption, but only yesterday
(Wednesday) I addressed the corruption
agencies (sic) to give Nigerians breakdown
of their activities in the past 15 years.
“To fight corruption, you must take measures
to establish firm institutions. You don’t just
go into the street and arrest somebody and
lock him up or show him on television and
say you are fighting corruption.
“If they succeeded in fighting corruption in
their time, corruption would not have been
with us today. If they had put in place
structures and embraced modern
technologies to manage resources, we would
not have been talking about corruption
today.
“Why some civil servants did not receive
their salaries in December is because of a
software that processes salaries and does
not allow money meant for salaries to be
diverted for something else.
“Sometimes, some ministries and agencies
divert funds to pay some kinds of
allowances; so, what the system does is to
shut down once anyone tries to divert money
meant for salaries. That is why those
departments of government were shut down
and some people could not get their salary.
That is how to fight corruption.
“In the past, fertiliser which is an area where
the federal and state governments spent
billions of Naira, had less than 10 percent of
the fertilizer going to the farmers. Sometimes
the 10 percent was even adulterated while
the money ended up in the pockets of few
persons. But today, there is no corruption in
the fertilizer industry again.
“We assembled some young Nigerians that
have attributes and developed what we call
the Electronic Wallet, through which farmers
get their fertilisers directly and no one cheats
the government anymore. Is that not the way
to stop corruption?
“If someone tells you the best way to stop
corruption is to arrest your uncle or father
and show him on television, it will not stop
corruption. It will even encourage
corruption. We are shooting armed robbers
but armed robbery is still with us. Has that
stopped armed robbery?
“We must set up institutions to prevent
people from even touching the money and
that is what we have been doing and we are
succeeding. Since we came to power,
Nigerians no longer sleep overnight at fuel
stations, while those who hoard fuel benefit.
“Since we came on board, have you had to
bribe somebody to get fuel? Have you
suffered to get fuel? Is that the kind of
country you want to go back to?
“They say the military is corrupt. When this
insecurity crisis came up, we had nothing.
So, to get weapons very quickly, we used
some vendors to purchase, but now, what we
do is government to government. Any
procurement for the Armed Forces is done at
government levels and so, there is nothing
like corruption. Is that not the way to fight
corruption?
“We are reducing corruption. I will not go
further on this because the heads of the
agencies will address Nigerians for you to
appreciate what we are doing.”
Jonathan defended his administration’s
style, saying: “They said the government is
weak and has no plan…I came in with
Yar’Adua (late Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua) and
he advocated for due process. So, I stand by
due process. Any country that does not obey
the rule of law is a jungle. They said we do
not plan and our economy is now the biggest
in Africa. Without plan can we achieve it?
“Our trains were not moving for many years
but now most of them are moving. Can we
achieve that without planning? We have been
able to conclude the privatisation of the
power sector and our generating capacity is
almost doubled. Can you do that without
planning?
“The government feels that Nigerians are
very dynamic people. Very creative and
industrious but most of them do not have
money. Having in mind that we are almost
200 million people and we cannot carry
everybody at once, we came up with the
You-Win concept to give grants to young
Nigerians to manufacture things and in the
next few years, they will be exporting their
products.
“Can you do that without planning? And they
say we have no plans for the country. They
should come and tell us the plan they have
for Nigeria.
“I believe that the young Nigerians, not
people like me because we are finished. My
generation has failed. We did not take
Nigeria to the moon. Look at what countries
that we were at par at Independence are
doing now? For us to get to the moon, it
takes a special candidate.”
On his achievement in the education sector,
Jonathan said he created 12 Federal
universities – one in each of the states that
had non – adding that he built Almajiri
schools to give dropouts in the North the
opportunity to be educated.
“They say we have no plans but we
produced Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF).
Other countries have it. It is to enable
countries reserve a little of the money that
comes into the country so that every income
is not squandered.
“In addition to the SWF, there are some
stolen money that are returned from time to
time. They have been getting these stolen
money before and no one knows how they
spent the money. The ones that are coming
in within this period we have not even started
spending.
“We agreed with the states on how to spend
it. We agreed that because we have security
challenges, 50 percent of the money be
channeled to security since the money was
primarily for security reasons and were
siphoned through security means; 25 percent
for development and 25 percent for future
generation.
“That is a decision we have taken even
before we start spending the money. They
should come and tell you what they used our
money for…
The government has been widely denounced
for not providing jobs for the youth. Jonathan
said: “So far, we have created a number of
jobs but we are not there yet. I have set up
two presidential committees on job creation
headed by the Vice President and made up of
people in government and those in the
private sector. The board is working very
hard to ensure that at least two million jobs
are created every year.
“Only two days ago, somebody stood in Port
Harcourt and said he was going to catch
corrupt people and put them in Kirikiri. The
same mouth he used to say he was not going
to probe anybody. Contradictory statements;
can you trust such people? Are they not
deceiving you?
“All what they want to use power for is to
lock up and imprison their enemies. I do not
have any enemy to fight. I have no enemies
to fight. My interest is Nigeria’s interest and
for young Nigerians to develop. Not to fight
enemies.
“We must stop corruption but I will not do
that by catching people and putting them in
confinement or killing them. I think we have
advanced beyond that stage.”
He also spoke on women, saying:
“Somebody told Nigerian women he will give
them position in his government. Ask him
when he was Head of State, how many
women were in his cabinet? Not a single one.
So, Nigerian women should either cast their
votes to go back to the kitchen and remain
there or vote to liberate themselves.”
On MEND, he said: “I read in the newspaper
that MEND has dumped Jonathan. I am from
the Niger Delta, the leader of MEND is one
Okah who is in South African prison. South
Africa is not Nigeria else people would have
said the President influenced it.
“Okah is a South African prison because
October 1, 2010, when we were to celebrate
our Golden Independence, he was procured
by some Nigerians to assassinate me and
Okah bombed Abuja. Their plan was to
assassinate me but intelligence investigation
from South African Intelligence and Nigeria
Intelligence systems robbed him in while
planning to assassinate me.
“He is now in jail in South Africa and they
say ‘MEND dumps Jonathan’. Will Okah that
wanted to assassinate Jonathan support
Jonathan? And I am told that Okah is
supporting some people. I am told that Okah,
in a South African prison for killing Nigerians,
is supporting some people. Count me out.”
Other leaders of the party and governors
spoke at the rally.
Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko has
described President Jonathan as the most
criticised, abused and insulted leader in this
country.
Mimiko, who is the Southwest Co-ordinator
of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
Presidential Campaign Committee said in
spite of the unwarranted attacks, “Nigerians
across the country can feel the impact of his
administration in agriculture, power,
education, and resuscitation of rail system.
Chairman, PDP National Campaign
Committee, Senator Ahmadu Ali stirred
controversy when he said: “PDP is the agent
of change. We fought for democracy when
others fled the country. We have remained in
power for 16 consecutive years stressing
that that is the more reason why Nigerians
should vote for PDP in February.”
To the Chairman of PDP Governors Forum,
Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State,
belives Nigeria will be better under Jonathan
if re-elected on February 14. His re-election,
he said, would enable him consolidate on his
achievements.
Akpabio said: “We cannot afford to hand-
over power to those who will send us to
prison. Jonathan is a democrat, Nigerians
should let him continue in office”.
PDP leader in Lagos State, Chief Bode
George described next month general
elections as a decisive one. He advised
Lagosians to vote for PDP at least for a
change.
Vice President Namadi Sambo thanked the
people of Lagos for hosting the take-off of the
party’s national campaign. He thanked the
youths for supporting the transformation
agenda of Mr President adding that the PDP
administration will introduce more poverty
alleviation programmes if re-elected.
Senate President David Mark noted that the
PDP-controlled Federal Government has
impacted positively on the lives of Nigerians
through improved power supply, job creation,
infrastructure development, and revitalization
of the education sector.
The highlight of the event was the
presentation of flags to President Jonathan
as PDP presidential candidate and all
governorship candidates.
Lagos PDP governorship candidate Mr Jimi
Agbaje, said they would work for the party’s
success at the poll.
It seems the presentation of flags has
foreclosed reconciliation or addressing
petitions written by aggrieved governorship
aspirants in states like Oyo, Ogun, Adamawa,
Akwa Ibom and Sokoto.
At the rally were Governors Aliyu Babangida
(Niger), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Gabriel
Suswam (Benue) Ibrahim Dakwambo
(Gombe) and Idris Wada (Kogi). Former
governors in attendance include Ali Modu
Sheriff (Borno), Mahmoud Shinkafi (Zamfara)
and Peter Obi (Anambra).
Others are Senators James Manager and
Hosea Agboola’ Hon. Muraina Ajibola, Chief
Shuaib Oyedokun, Chief Abiola Ogundokun,
Chief Bayo Dayo, Chief Tom Ikimi, former
Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro,
Minister of Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan,
Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim
Shekarau, Hajiyya Bola Shagaya and Mrs
Olukemi Mimiko.




Source: http://thenationonlineng.net/
new/jonathan-weve-failed/

Even a five years old kid knows he had failed Nigerians

after reading this, I still see no reason why I should vote for him. if this is all he can offer (veiled attacks on every government before his) then he really is clueless as they say.