WHERE two or three Nigerians
are gathered, you can be sure
we are busy running down our
country.


Nigerians like to bad-mouth
Nigeria. This has played well
into the narrative of the APC,
which has used the social
media to promote a false and
prejudicial perspective of
Nigeria under the Goodluck
Jonathan administration.
It is necessary to set the
records straight. While the
current PDP government is not
without its shortcomings,
there can be no doubt that it
has achieved a lot in the last
five years. Indeed, it is
arguable that no government
in the modern history of
Nigeria has been as successful
in transforming Nigeria for the
better as the administration of
Goodluck Jonathan.

Economic milestones under
GEJ
Thanks to Goodluck Jonathan,
Nigeria has been growing at
an average of between 6 and 7
per cent a year. As a matter of
fact, CNN Money projects that,
after China and Qatar, Nigeria
will be the fastest growing
economy in the world in 2015.
Under Jonathan, Nigeria has
emerged as by far the largest
economy in Africa. When
Jonathan became president in
2010, Nigeria’s GDP was $369:
today, it is $510.
Nigeria is now the 23rd largest
economy in the world; which
means we have overtaken
such European countries as
Austria and Belgium. It is not
surprising therefore that, in
2012, President Barack Obama
of the United States declared
that Jonathan’s Nigeria is “the
world’s next economic giant.”
Under Jonathan, the UNCTAD
has ranked Nigeria as the
number one country for
foreign investments in Africa.
According to the U.N., Nigeria
now has the fourth highest
rate of returns on investments
in the world. It is a testament
to Goodluck Jonathan’s adroit
management of the economy
that the richest African is now
a Nigerian. In 2010, when
Jonathan came to power, Aliko
Dangote was worth $2.1
billion. This grew under
Jonathan to $25 billion.
Jonathan has also gone a long
way to diversify the Nigerian
economy. Under his
stewardship, the non-oil
sector has grown at a
tremendous rate of up to 8
percent a year. Thanks to
Jonathan, agriculture now
accounts for 22% of Nigeria’s
GDP, more than oil and gas
which only account for 15.9%.
Visionary GEJ gave a 3 billion
naira grant to Nollywood in
2014; cementing Nigeria firmly
as the third largest producer
of films in the world. As a
matter of fact, Nollywood now
accounts for 1.4% of Nigeria’s
GDP.

Transformation of agriculture
Agriculture has been
remarkably transformed from
subsistence to commercial
farming under Jonathan’s
administration. Prior to
Jonathan’s presidency, we had
a food import bill of 1.4 trillion
naira. This has gone down by
more than 50% to less than
700 billion. With the
innovation of dry-season rice-
farming, Nigeria has reached
60% self-sufficiency in rice
production. Indeed, we now
expect to be completely self-
sufficient by the end of this
year.
With continuity in government,
Nigeria should soon become
self-sufficient in food
production. According to the
Food and Agricultural
Organisation of the United
Nations, Nigeria is already the
largest producer of cassava in
the world, thanks to
Jonathan’s policies. It is
significant that Northern
farmers donated 5 billion
naira worth of yams to
Buhari’s presidential election
campaign. They would not
have been able to do this if it
were not for Goodluck
Jonathan’s transformation of
agriculture.

Through the innovative
electronic-wallet system of the
Jonathan administration, 10.5
million Nigerian farmers were
given cell-phones at a cost of
over 60 billion naira. This gives
them direct access to the
government for fertilizer,
chemicals and seedlings.

The
Jonathan government has also
built six strategically-located
perishable cargo airports in
close proximity to the nation’s
food-baskets in Ilorin, Jalingo,
Jos, Lagos, Makurdi and Yola.

Anti-corruption
APC propaganda deceives
Nigerians into believing that
the Jonathan government
condones corruption.
However, there are far more
reliable determinants of
Nigeria’s level of corruption
than APC talking-points.
Transparency International
publishes annually an
internationally-recognised
corruption index of most of
the countries in the world.
According to Transparency,
Nigeria has become
increasingly less corrupt under
Goodluck Jonathan. In 2001,
Nigeria was the 2nd most
corrupt country after
Bangladesh. By 2010, it had
become the 43rd most corrupt
country. By 2014 still, our
position had improved to 38th.
No government in Nigeria has
been as successful in tackling
corruption structurally as that
of Goodluck Jonathan.
Jonathan fought the
petroleum subsidy scam by
identifying 370 billion naira of
fraudulent claims. Between
1980 and 2010, 776 billion
naira was lost to corrupt
fertilizer racketeering in
Nigeria. This came to an end
in one fell swoop under
Jonathan. Fertilizer
distribution to farmers was
dramatically sanitized by the
e-payment system. Today, the
corrupt fertilizer middlemen
have all disappeared. By also
instituting e-payment systems
in the civil-service, over 60,000
ghost-workers were removed
from the salary register;
saving over 200 billion naira.
Jonathan has also sanitized
the Nigerian banking system.
He introduced the
Government Integrated
Financial Management System
(GIFMS) which reduced
physical movement of cash
and curbed corruption and
money-laundering. Under
Jonathan, dinosaur bank
Managing Directors who had
largely privatized the banking
system were removed and a
considerable amount of
indigent loans recovered.
Jonathan also stabilized the
banking system by launching
the Asset Management
Company of Nigeria (AMCOM)
which mopped up trillions of
naira of bad loans and re-
established confidence in the
Nigerian economy.

Employment creation
One of the major challenges
encountered by the Jonathan
administration has been in the
area of youth employment.
Nigeria is a young country,
throwing up some 1.8 million
job-seekers into the
employment market every
year. The government has
achieved more in this area
than most people seem to
realise. For example, in 2013,
the Jonathan administration
created 1.6 million jobs.
The establishment of such
innovative programs like
Nagropreneurs and Youth
Enterprise with Innovation in
Nigeria (YOUWIN) has gone a
long way to empower Nigerian
youth farmers and
entrepreneurs with grants,
training and mentorship.
Jonathan has instituted
internship schemes to
enhance the capacity of
university graduates to secure
gainful employment.
Government innovation has
also led to a number of
Community Service Schemes
(CSS) under the Subsidy
Reinvestment and
Empowerment Program
(SURE-P).

A 220 billion naira Micro,
Small and Medium Enterprises
Development Fund has been
instituted to empower
graduates and other young
people to own their own
businesses. The government
has also been promoting
access to capital for SMEs with
government bank guarantees
and micro-finance. The
National Industrial Revolution
Plan (NIRP), and the National
Enterprise Development
Program (NEDEP) are all
expected to generate millions
of jobs to accommodate
Nigeria’s teeming job-seekers.

Manufacturing
One of the unsung success
stories of the Jonathan
administration has been in the
area of manufacturing. All
indications point to the revival
of the industrial sectors and
the Small- and Medium-scale
Enterprises under Goodluck
Jonathan. FBN Capital, a
leading financial services
group, confirms there has
been “a dramatic increase in
manufacturing growth” in
Nigeria under Goodluck
Jonathan.
Indeed, under his
administration, the
manufacturing sector has
been the major driver of
economic growth in Nigeria.
The sector has been growing
faster than tele-
communications and oil and
gas. For example, it grew from
14% in 2012 to 22% in 2013.
Jonathan reactivated the
textile industry with an
investment of 150 billion
naira. In 2014, Olam Rice
Farm, the biggest rice
processing mill in Africa, was
commissioned in Rukubi,
Nasarawa State. Nigeria is
now self-sufficient in cement
and is, in fact, a net exporter.
Jonathan energized private
sector-led industrialization by
launching the National
Industrial Revolution Plan
(NIRP), a scheme which
strengthened over 500
manufacturing industries.
An industrial revolution has
been re-ignited with the
revival of automobile
assembling plants in Nigeria
under Goodluck Jonathan.
Nigeria has now become a
major destination for
multinational investment in
car manufacturing. Under GEJ,
big auto giants, such as
Peugeot, Nissan and Hyundai,
now assemble or manufacture
their cars, SUVs, trucks and
buses in Nigeria. Innoson
Vehicle Manufacturing
Company, our flagship
indigenous auto-maker, began
the sale of made-in-Nigeria
cars and SUVs within the
framework of the Jonathan
administration.

Healthier Nigerians
In 2010, when Jonathan
became acting president,
Nigerian life expectancy was
47 years. Today, it is 54 years;
an improvement of 7 years.
Under Jonathan, adroit
application of SURE-P funds
has reduced the maternal
mortality ratio in Nigeria by
26%.
Thanks to Jonathan, Nigeria
has become Guinea Worm
free; a disease previously
affecting 800,000 Nigerians
yearly. For the past nine
months, Nigeria has become
free of the scourge of polio.
Under Jonathan, Nigeria has
also remained Ebola free.
Billionaire philanthropist Bill
Gates notes that: “The
infrastructure Nigeria has built
to fight polio actually made it
easier for them to swiftly
contain Ebola.”

Advancement of education
Under Jonathan, Nigeria’s
education budget has more
than doubled. There has been
a 10 million increase in school
enrolment, with every
Nigerian child now having the
opportunity to go to school.
There has also been a 75%
increase in O Level credit
passes in Maths and English in
Nigeria since Goodluck
Jonathan came to power.
Jonathan established 14 new
federal universities; an
unprecedented feat in Nigeria.
There is now a federal
university in every state of the
federation. Jonathan also built
150 Almajiri Schools in 13
states in the North; something
Northern rulers like Buhari
failed to do. The kidnapping of
the Chibok girls itself reflects
the annoyance of the Boko
Haram that, under Jonathan,
many Northern girls are now
going to school.

Development of infrastructure
At the inception of the
Jonathan administration, only
5,000 kilometers of federal
roads in Nigeria were
motorable. However, in five
years, the administration has
built over 20,000 kilometers of
roads. It has rehabilitated 22
airports nationwide. 5 new
international airport terminals
have been built in Lagos, Kano,
Port Harcourt, Abuja and
Enugu. Akanu Ibiam airport in
Enugu has been upgraded to
international status.
3,500 kilometers of rail lines
have been constructed. You
can now travel today by rail
from Lagos to Kano; Enugu to
Port-Harcourt to Makurdi, to
Jos, to Bauchi and Gombe.
Before Jonathan, only I million
passengers were carried by
rail. This has now grown to 5
million. Recently, KPMG
proclaimed Nigeria’s proposed
high speed rail project as one
of the global top 100 world-
class infrastructures, expected
to connect major cities at a
cost of $13 billion.
These achievements and more
show conclusively that
Jonathan deserves a second-
term in office. He should be
supported by all well-meaning
Nigerians.

Op-ed pieces and
contributions are the opinions
of the writers only

Which administration in the history of this country ever achieved a feat like this in a four year period?

Source: ynaija.com/femi-aribisala-101-cogent-reasons-jonathan-must-re-elected/?utm_source=Y!&utm_medium=twitter

I have regularly read Aribisala's musings, I must say he is a well lettered fellow, though I have major disagreements with him regarding his biblical analysis. However unlike biblical analysis, in politics. every individual is entitled to his opinion and should be free to air them without fear or intimidation.

That said, I consider Aribisala's points as plausible and valid unfortunately Nigeria is such a country whose citizens are bizzarely hardwired to scratch only the surface when it comes to being informed and searching out knowledge.
I have always maintained that GEJ isn't the best Nigeria can offer her citizens, GMB isn't better either. Unfortunately we've to make a choice between these two evils, the power lies in your thumb

He's d only soul dat can save nigerians from hardship. Sai Jonathan!