This is not a campaign for or against Mr. Jonathan, but I thought it wise to put this piece together in order to equitably examine the failures and successes of his presidency since his rise to power in 2010. Most times, all we get to hear in media are blames and criticisms of the government, all the while ignoring its landmark achievements and successes; something which I think is really unfair. Here, I will list and comment on 8 of his administration’s worst failures and 11 of its best accomplishments.

Failures:

1. The Chibok Girls: No singular issue has generated as much criticisms and heat for President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan within and outside Nigeria as his administration’s apparent inability to rescue the abducted Chibok girls who have been missing for nearly 10 calendar months. Despite concerted efforts by various civil rights organizations and world leaders to pressurize the federal government to mobilize resources in ensuring that the schoolgirls are rescued, very little has been achieved. In a recent campaign rally in the besieged Maiduguri, the president blamed some “external forces” for his administration’s inability to rescue the girls.

2. Perceived Corruption: There is no gainsaying that the present administration is perceived as corrupt by many Nigerians and international observers, though it would do everyone a world of good if I chip in here that no Nigerian administration – at least since the oil boom – has been perceived as corruption-free during its tenure. Many stakeholders and social commentators have pointed to the fact that no top official has ever been prosecuted during the present administration – a pointer to its laissez-faire attitude to fighting corruption. In the same vein, corruption has also been muted in some quarters as one of the reasons that the Nigerian military has so far been unable to defeat the Boko Haram insurgents.

3. Power: The power situation in most parts of the country has failed to improve despite numerous assurances by the federal government that it will. In 2014, Nigeria generated a peak electricity output of about 4000 MW, a paltry figure when put side by side with the country’s socioeconomic indices, including population, natural resources and human capital.

4. Insecurity in Northern Nigeria: There is virtually no day that Nigerians do not wake up to the news of one heinous act of terrorism or another in the northern part of the country. As a matter of fact, it has become such a routine occurrence that many Nigerians are no longer perturbed. Due to the frequency, the attacks have simply – and sadly – been stripped of any shock value whatsoever.

5. Neglect of Some Regions: Despite being the real power base of the Jonathan administration, the South East region of the country has seen very little by way of federal government presence and development since the administration’s inception. Dozens of abandoned federal projects litter the zone, ranging from the disgraceful Onitsha-Enugu expressway to the make-believe Second Niger Bridge and from the non-functional Onitsha River Port to the abandoned Enugu coal mines. The federal government has also failed to attract major foreign investments to this particular region, relegating it to what some analysts refer to “the economic backwaters of southern Nigeria” and “the sick man of Nigeria.” Other regions also crying out due to alleged neglect are the northeastern and north-central regions.

6. High Youth Unemployment: Though the current administration deserves some commendations for a host of programs it has embarked upon that are geared towards employment generation, such as the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), the Youth Enterprise With Innovation in Nigeria (YOUWIN) and some employment projects in the ICT industry, millions of Nigerian youths still roam the cities jobless.

7. Grassroots Economy: Despite some remarkable achievements in the country’s macroeconomic indices, the “ordinary” Nigerians are yet to feel the impact. It all sounds like a boring lecture in astrophysics to them, those economic jargon. Millions of Nigerians still live below the poverty line and their lives are yet to be significantly and positively affected by the economic growth.

8. Elitism: Many Nigerians are of the opinion that the president runs an administration that is disconnected from and inaccessible to the average Nigerians. There is very little by way of communication with the masses. Most Nigerians complain that they do not hear from their government as often as they would have loved to and they’ve accused the government of only reaching out to them during electioneering. They complain of an abandonment by the president who they say has surrounded himself with elite politicians who had long lost touch with the reality in the country.

Achievements:

1. Economic Reforms: The Goodluck Jonathan Administration deserves great commendations for the feats and successes it has recorded thus far in the national economy goes, the current global oil crisis notwithstanding. Since the inception of his administration in 2010, the Nigerian economy has consistently grown at an annual rate of nearly 7%. The highlight of this was the rebasing of the national GDP in 2014 which saw the Nigerian economy leapfrog the South African economy as Africa’s number one economy, something his immediate predecessors were not able to do. Yes, GDP growth does not equal economic development, but it gives Nigeria a superior standing in international negotiations and roundtables as Africa's largest economy.

2. Vibrant Democracy: Never in the course of Nigeria’s history have Nigerians had it so good when it comes to democracy. The democracy, for once in the country’s chequered history, is vibrant. Under the Jonathan administration, freedom of speech is a given, strong rival opposition parties have risen from the dust and elections are now unpredictable and tightly contested, unlike in the past when the winners were already known several weeks before the first vote was cast.

3. Railway Sector Reforms: Thanks to the Goodluck Jonathan administration, Nigerian trains are back on Nigerian tracks for the first time in decades, traversing the length and breadth of the country from Lagos to Kano and from Enugu to Port Harcourt. According to the Vice President in a campaign speech in Nasarawa state on the 27th of January, 3,500km of railway tracks have been either rehabilitated or built from the scratch countrywide in this administration.

4. Aviation Sector Reforms: Since 2010, several airports across the country have either been remodelled, upgraded to international status or completely built from the scratch. This was spearheaded by former aviation minister, Princess Stella Oduah.

5. Education Sector Reforms: The federal government of Nigeria deserves a lot more commendations than it is currently getting for its giant strides in the education sector. The establishment of nine new federal universities, the formation of the Almajiri system of education in northern Nigeria and the enrolment of out-of-school children in southern Nigeria (both of which ordinarily and constitutionally should be within the purview of state governments) and the computerization of the tertiary matriculation examinations are just a few of the giant strides the present government has made in the education sector within the past 5 years.

6. Ebola: This is one of the very notable achievements of the presidency that are often overlooked and rarely talked about in the media. While the whole world lampooned Nigeria for letting the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease into its territory, not a word was uttered when the country was declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization. The president and the entire health sector of the country led by the former minister of health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, deserves the unreserved commendations of all Nigerians for sparing us a catastrophic pandemic that has sadly claimed nearly 5,000 lives in other West African countries.

7. Agricultural Sector Reforms: Agriculture has been given a major boost and made a priority in Nigeria since Goodluck Jonathan came into power. Food importation has been reduced by over 40% as of 2013, while the country has become the world’s largest producer of cassava, a staple food that is also used in the manufacture of alcoholic beverages and flour-based snacks. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Nigeria produced at least 45 million metric tonnes of cassava in 2014. Before the current presidency, Nigeria was losing nearly ₦400 billion on a yearly basis due to Nigeria's unenviable status as the world's second largest importer of rice. But since the president assumed office, Nigeria has risen to become a net producer of rice, employing tens of thousands of people and ensuring a stable supply of the crop in the process.

8. ICT Revolution: Nigeria has become the nexus of the ICT sector in Africa (overtaking Kenya to occupy the top spot) under the Jonathan presidency. It was the president who created the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology in the year 2011 and since then the ICT sector in Africa’s largest economy has grown in leaps and bounds, creating jobs for tens of thousands of erstwhile jobless tech-savvy youths as a result.

9. Banking Sector Reforms: The in cashless policy is one of the major banking sector reforms undertaken by the present administration. It brought the Nigerian banking system into the 21st century by transforming it from an analogue-based banking system to a digital-based banking system.

10. Gender Parity in Politics: Though total gender parity is yet to be achieved, Nigerian women have never had it so good. Women empowerment has been at the forefront of the present administration’s policies. Under the present dispensation, women have been elevated to prominent positions more times than at any other term since the amalgamation of the Southern and Northern Protectorates in 1914. Women, including, but not limited to, two-time finance minister and ex-World Bank Managing Director, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; ex-aviation minister, Stella Oduah; former Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Arunma Oteh; first female Chief Justice of Nigeria, Miriam Aloma Mukhtar; and Nigeria’s first female petroleum minister and the first female OPEC president, Diezani Alison-Madueke have all climbed to the pinnacle of their respective fields under his watch.

11. Sports: The recent huge setbacks in Nigerian football notwithstanding, the sports sector has been one of the leading lights of this federal government. Nigeria has won the African Cup of Nations, the African Women’s Championship, the Under-17 World Cup, 11 Commonwealth Games gold medals and several other continental and international laurels under the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan administration.

Follow him on Twitter @ChineduRylan

Source = LinkedIn Pulse

In your no 3 & 6 of his "failures" he performed better than previous presidents

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSJGLXOF80o

[size=15pt]Nigeria Is Ruled By A Mad Man[/size]

More good than bad. He passed, more reasons its gej all the way

I commend the writer of this piece because it is balanced one, in summary what you have just told us is that we are moving forward. Imagine a Nigeria without Boko-Haram this government would have done more. But I personally this the government have also tried in the area of youth empowerment. I see a better Nigeria with Goodluck president .

Nelly21:
In your no 3 & 6 of his "failures" he performed better than previous presidents

That he performed better than previous presidents does not mean that he performed well.

Op, there is nothing "perceived" about the cooruption in his government. His government is corrupt. Period

As far as rectifying his "failures" goes, the best he can offer is a fart

Good

Aviation[/size], that one is for the rich, the poor man needs good roads not the photoshoped that every government both present and past have been displaying.
Agriculture[size=8pt], we only hear about that on Tv and campaigners mouth, to me i think the effect of much praised agricultural revolution is not being felt around, we are still major importers of rice despite the noise by both federal government and Lagos state government. even the situation of food production still remain the same, the price did not change to also reflect improvement in production.

Railway sector[/size], Thumb up for him, after Obj tried it and swept it under carpet, Yaradua also made an attempt but failed b4 he died, Gej finally tried it and it is working however i think we deserve better railway than this. all the same half bread is better than non provided the half bread is not poisonous. kudos to him

Education sector[size=8pt], my brother unless we re deceiving our selves, their is no improvement in our eduction sector while you sited almajeri school i see that as a failed political move. we have a school similar to that already existing the north, we even have nomadic school that moves along with fulanis. what i expected government to do was to strengthen existing education structures that works for similar situation and move to stop the menace once and for all.


ICT REVOLUTION[/size], We are just deceiving our selves in that aspect, Kenya has taking ICT to the next level in Africa infact an ICT city is under construction while Ghana has follow suit. many African ICT expert in diaspora are either moving to Kenya or they re setting up their office in Kenya. if you doubt that, a quick check on google will show you.

Sport[size=8pt], don't make me laugh, we always win some thing every four years if not women it will be youth or Olympic.

All in all, the only genuine achievement i see on your list is railway, he has finally broken the jinx in raiway we are waiting for the person that will break it in power, diversification of our economy, mineral resource exploration, corruption, employment, improvements in infrastructural facilities, education improvement[size=8pt][/size] etc.

please don't get me wrong, i don't campaign for anybody, if Nigerians feels gej will do all this for them goodluck to them, however if they feels it is Buhari or any other person better luck to them also. i just feel we should stop deceiving our selves, but we should demand what we want from our leaders irrespective of their political affiliates.

hahn:
Op, there is nothing "perceived" about the cooruption in his government. His government is corrupt. Period

As far as rectifying his "failures" goes, the best he can offer is a fart

Do you have any proof that he is corrupt or do you just go along with what you hear in the biased media?

Tylan:
Do you have any proof that he is corrupt or do you just go along with what you hear in the biased media?

my brother can we just stop deceiving our selves for once?

$20 billion and the audit report comes to mind.
stella odua and the presidents actions.
stealing is not corruption comes to mind.
Subsidy money from 300 million to 2 trillion.
lot and lots of it.


you and i know that no government has been corruption free in Nigeria since Independence. The level and area of corruption may be different but No government is a saint except one one we all know.

You're right @ Tylan

Flye:


my brother can we just stop deceiving our selves for once?

$20 billion and the audit report comes to mind.
stella odua and the presidents actions.
stealing is not corruption comes to mind.
Subsidy money from 300 million to 2 trillion.
lot and lots of it.


you and i know that no government has been corruption free in Nigeria since Independence. The level and area of corruption may be different but No government is a saint except one one we all know.

Corruption cannot be stopped in one day. It's a gradual process that requires patience and commitment.

Tylan:
Corruption cannot be stopped in one day. It's a gradual process that requires patience and commitment.

But the commitment is what is lacking, Nigerians have been patience for long and they have being waiting for a saviour only for all office holders to betray them year in year on.