₦airaland Forum

Louis Ebodaghe was based in the United States until a few years ago, when he returned to Nigeria to join politics in a bid to contribute his own quota to the development of his fatherland. A medical laboratory scientist by profession, Ebodaghe believes Nigeria is well endowed to be a world power if its potentials are properly harnessed. He is not contesting the forth coming general election, but he has floated an organisation, Nigeria Prosperity Project, to, among other things, educate Nigerians on their rights and privileges under a democratic dispensation. Ebodaghe tells Vincent Obia that President Goodluck Jonathan has performed well enough to earn re-election. Excerpts:

You have been around for a while now, what is your assessment of the political situation in Nigeria ahead of the next general election, particularly, in terms of the preparedness of the electorate?
The atmosphere is charged and Nigerians are enthusiastic about the elections. However, there is also apparent apprehension in the air, with preparation by INEC and the security agencies, and so forth. Based on all the relevant information so far, it appears that there would be no need for much anxiety. People are eagerly waiting for the opportunity to exercise their constitutional right to vote. In this regard, I would like to encourage all those that are registered and are yet to pick up their permanent voter cards to do so as soon as possible. This administration had requested INEC to extend the period of this exercise. This is remarkable and commendable because all eligible voters will have the opportunity to do so. For the avoidance of doubt, adherence to the rule of law is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength and faith in our democracy. Rain, not thunder, grows flowers. I think the present administration has not deviated on that focus. In a topical Nigerian scenario, there are two types of voters: “The educated voter” and “The non-educated voter”.

Could you expatiate on that categorisation?
The ratio of educated voters to the non-educated voters in Nigeria is estimated at approximately 90/10. The educated/non-educated refers to the basis on which voters will make decisions in this context.  Non-educated voters will make decisions based on the following: political party, religion and tribe.


Under this premise, the educated voter will make decisions based on the factors such as the economy, education, health, and general quality of life issues, etc., but will also question what impact the government or opposition will have on him or her.
Two eminent Nigerians are vying for the office of president. The choice is clear, that is why I expect Nigerians to rise above mundane issues in this election. It will not be based on religion, political party, or ethnicity, but based on record of achievement and focused leadership. President Jonathan of the PDP and General Buhari of APC are the major contestants. I believe that Jonathan is in a better stead based on his record of accomplishments. Buhari is an elder statesman who worked for the most corrupt leader in the history of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha and he once publicly declared that Abacha never squandered public funds. We all know better today.  His only democratic credential is that he toppled an elected democratic government in 1983.

Most Nigerians seem to be dissatisfied with the PDP-led federal government. How can you change this mindset ahead of the polls?
Let us not dismiss the achievements of this government on mere sentiments. Let us look at the facts on ground. For example the local content law, which has empowered Nigerian oil professionals and 30 per cent of oilfield services revenue, now goes to companies owned by Nigerians. This is projected to hit 50 per cent in 2015. For the first time in the history of this country, Nigerians quit the major oil service companies like Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, Halliburton and joined companies owned by Nigerians and get better conditions of service. Engineering plants and companies that were hitherto dormant have bounced back. Interestingly, our local content law has been copied by Ghana, Brazil, and Angola.


Besides, the initiatives of the government have resulted in the following: Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) oil production has increased by over 300 per cent under this administration and, currently, produces more oil than most countries in Africa. SEPLAT, a company created due to the government’s policies, now employs over 5,000 workers and produces over 70,000 barrels of oil per day.

But Nigerians believe that the government has done little to improve on the economy.
That cannot be correct. We have surpassed South Africa and our economy is now the largest in Africa and the 26th largest in the world. GDP growth is at 7%per annum for the past six years, the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to a recent World Bank data, the Foreign Direct Investment in the first six months of 2014 stood at $9.7 billion. The moribund automotive industry has been revived. Cars are currently being assembled in Nigeria after over 20 years. Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Peugeot, Stallion motors and Innonson motors and several others, now assemble/manufacture cars and trucks in Nigeria. Food importation has been reduced by over 45 per cent as at the end of 2014. Food sufficiency through the growth of the agricultural sector is the ultimate goal. Before 2012, there was only one world class rice mill in the country, but between 2012 and 2014, over 18 world class rice mills have been established across the country. A sugar backward integration policy is now in place that will see Nigeria become self-sufficient in sugar production between five to 10 years. Cassava, apart from being used to partly supplement hitherto imported wheat for bread making, is now being exported to countries like China.


The railway system once moribund has been resuscitated and the Lagos-Kano line carries 14,000 passengers on a regular basis, with work ongoing on other lines. The policies of this administration are highly commendable as we have witnessed an increase in the number of passengers conveyed by rail, which stood at 1,285,000 in 2009, to well over 4,000, 000 in 2013. Projections for 2014 was for over 5,000,000. This growth is expected to be surpassed in 2015 and beyond as the development of standard gauge under Public Private Partnership (PPP) is implemented over the next five to seven years, covering a total distance of approximately 8,139 kilometres, in line with the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIMP) document.

What would you say for the power sector?
Accepted, we are not where we should be in electricity supply, but we are not where we used to be, as a lot has been achieved. Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) was unbundled; 10 new power plants for power generation and distribution have been established. These include Geregu 1 and 2 located in Kogi State and the gas plants in Gbarain, Bayelsa State. A number of dams are also in the northern part of Nigeria, with a good example being the Zungeru Dam in Niger State. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, power generation, currently at about 4,500 MW, is expected to exceed 5000MW by the end of January 2015. However, recent vandalising of power generating infrastructure may upset this target. It is expected that appropriate measures would be put in place to mitigate this wanton behaviour. I, therefore, encourage Nigerians, especially, those in the affected regions to be more vigilant and support the efforts of this administration to achieve optimal power supply.

What is your assessment of the state of infrastructure in the country?
At the inception of Jonathan’s government, less than 15 per cent of the federal roads were motorable. Today, the number has increased to more than 65 per cent. It now takes three hours to travel from Lagos to Benin and the road is in the best shape it has ever been in the past 20 years. Passengers slept on that road before Goodluck came into power. The East/West road is about 70 per cent complete and this road has been on the drawing board for the past 30 years. The second Niger Bridge that was commissioned last year is a reality. Last week, the president took a working tour of the project. Upon completion, the bridge will improve the East/West access corridor for increased commerce, job creation as well as be a boom to the local economy of the region.

What is your take on the allegation that the government is handling corruption with kid gloves?
Let us look at the facts on ground: the Transparency International (TI) 2014 report shows that Nigeria is making significant progress in its rating, as it attained one of the best ratings since 2003. Also the rating by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based research and advisory organisation on illicit funds transfer and corruption, shows that between 2003 and 2012, the average amount of illicit money transfers from Nigeria averaged $15.7 billion yearly, while between 2012 and 2014, it dropped to an average of $7.9 billion yearly. These were due to measures taken by this government, which includes e-payments for all government financial transactions, cashless policy, electronic payment systems for all government workers salaries,  eliminating ghost workers and diversion of funds, e-wallet for fertiliser distribution to farmers and the implementation of a single treasury account to track federal government  finances 24/7, etc.

Unemployment in Nigeria is worrisome. What is the way out?
The government has made certain policies and taken actions, which are geared towards massive job creation and expects rightly that in the coming years estimates of two million jobs will be created annually. The policies and measures taken include Agricultural Transformation Agenda, where agriculture is now being transformed from rural activity into businesses with involvement of the private sector through the sustained programme of exploiting the full value chain in all agricultural produce.


Rice growing, harvesting for paddy rice, to full processing in world class rice mills to international standards and marketing is now happening in Nigeria. From only one rice mill in the country two years ago to over 18 mills currently operational with associated rice farms. Last year, the president inaugurated the 105,000 metric tones Integrated Rice Mill in Nasarawa State. What does this mean? It is a commitment to reduce the dependency on food importation. It is also to encourage and boost local productive capacity. This initiative will largely impact the economy of the local communities through job creation efforts, especially, for youths and women. With large commercial farms, the area will equally attract funding for infrastructural development. Thousands of people are engaged in this value chain alone and this has been repeated for cassava. For grains, storage silos are being built across the country for strategic storage and reserve purposes. Backward integration policy for sugar is in place and being pursued vigorously. Sugar plantation, processing and marketing will all be carried out within the country instead of imports.


On industrialisation, specific policies have been drawn up with clear actions that will lead to industrial awakening in the country. The gas monetisation projects such as the over $26 billion gas revolution industrial city to be sited in Ogidingben  in Delta State is expected to be launched soon, where world class fertiliser, petrochemical, methanol and other gas based industrial plants are to be built and expected to create over a million direct and indirect jobs throughout when fully operational.


It is important to note that learning from past mistakes, all these initiatives are designed by the government to be private sector driven, which means that 95 per cent of the funding will come from the private sector. The new auto policy, which has seen car and truck assembly plants being set up in the country in the last one year, is expected to create millions of jobs simply because this is one industry that employs directly and indirectly very large amount of labour. Furthermore, production line attendants, car battery manufacturers, car accessories manufacturers, seat belt manufacturers, manufacturers of components of the vehicle/truck assembly plants like bolts and nuts, cables tires, rims etc., will witness an increase. All these are expected to run into hundreds of thousands of jobs.  Power generation transmission and distribution with the transparent conclusion of the sale of gencos, and discos, and government clearing up all legacy issues in the industry and the successful completion of some of the major pipelines to feed the gas plants, generation and distribution capacity is climbing steadily and is expected to hit 5000MW very soon. With the start of construction of private power plants like the Azura plant in Benin and the expected private sector led service delivery in this sector, hundreds of thousands of jobs are expected to be created yearly also

FOLLOWING speculations in some quarters that President Goodluck Jonathan did not complete his doctorate degree programme at the University of Port Harcourt, the institution has come out in his defence.

But the Uniport Deputy Registrar (Information), Dr. William Wodi, explained that apart from acquiring his first degree in the institution, Jonathan also got his Masters and Ph.D in the same institution.

Wodi, in a statement sent to SUNDAY PUNCH via electronic mail, described the rumour about the President’s educational qualification as baseless.

The deputy registrar of the university specifically stated that Jonathan was among 422 students that matriculated in the school in 1977 and was admitted in the Department of Zoology, which had been renamed Animal and Environmental Science.

“The authorities of the University of Port Harcourt are aware of rumours that are now spreading like harmattan fire over the doctoral degree status of President Goodluck Jonathan. The allegations have neither legs nor grounds to stand on and we hope that its purveyors will now rest in silence.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the authorities of the University wish to state without equivocation that Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, as he then was, was among 422 students, who matriculated in 1977. He was admitted into the then Department of Zoology, now Animal and Environmental Biology in the then School of Biological Sciences, now a Faculty in the new College of Natural and Applied Sciences.

“At the end of a successful residency period, Jonathan was awarded the Bachelor of Science (Upper Division) in 1981. It was rumoured among students that the young university was reluctant to award the First Class to its pioneer class in an effort to consolidate its academic profile,” Wodi said.

He said the President later enrolled into the postgraduate programme and obtained the Master of Science degree in Hydrobiology and Fisheries in 1985 and crowned his academic pursuit in the University with the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Zoology in 1995.

He said, “From the above account, it has become obvious that Dr. Jonathan successfully completed the prescribed courses and programmes as specified by the Senate of the University of Port Harcourt to earn his degrees from the university.”

Stressing that the university remains proud of Jonathan, Wodi advised any person or organisations in need of further information on the educational qualification of the President or any other student of the institution to contact authorities of the university.

“We have absolutely nothing to hide as an institution that has a statutory mandate to advance the frontiers of knowledge,” Wodi added.

Hot pics of Zahra Buhari - but why share now?
Everybody has been talking about how beautiful Buhari's pikin is. She is studying in England and there are photos of her on Linda's blog.

But why release these photos now? I saw this in an online article today:






"First off, where did these photos come from, and why they have been released now? It’s no secret that the APC has hired expensive foreign image consultants, whose job it is to make the 73-year-old former military dictator appear more human and increase his appeal. Young people, who weren’t around to experience the General’s draconian regime, which lasted from 1983 to 1985, have been a particular target of the campaign. And there lies the answer to why these photos have mysteriously come out now.

This is a deliberate effort by the Buhari campaign to trick voters into thinking they know the General, while also making him seem more connected to the world of today because he has a stylish and hip daughter. But the truth is that the General is not a man of 2015, but rather a former president still living in the past, who doesn’t understand the complex problems facing Nigeria today.

Furthermore, the release of these images also arguably indicates that General Buhari believes women should be seen, but not heard. Zahra is studying microbiology in England, and is no doubt an intelligent young woman. She probably has lots of interesting opinions and thoughts to share with her fellow Nigerians. But we don’t know what she thinks about things because the campaign has decided she is more useful as an object to be admired and used for crass political gain. General Buhari has already attracted international criticism for pledging to abolish the office of First Lady if he is elected, even though this is an important office in all presidential democracies around the world.

While the release of the photos of Zahra has likely been successful in its aim to attract more young people to the APC campaign, there are signs that it may be backfiring by bringing unwanted attention to Zahra Buhari’s expensive lifestyle. According to media reports, General Buhari may have spent as much as 42-million Naira over the last four years on Zahra’s university tuition and living expenses in Britain. This raises questions about whether the General is being truthful about his personal finances. He has said publicly that his assets consist of only 1-million Naira and 150 cows, but the details of his daughter’s lavish lifestyle in London – one of the most expensive cities in the world – appear to contradict this claim. President Jonathan, who earned his PhD here in Nigeria at the University of Port Harcourt, has made improving access to education and ensuring there is a university in every state a key effort of his presidency. But General Buhari clearly thinks Nigerian universities are not good enough for his children, so he prefers to pay expensive tuition fees in Britain instead.


General Buhari is trying to hide behind his beautiful daughter, but Nigerians won’t be lured backwards by a pretty face. More importantly, we deserve to know how General Buhari would move Nigeria forward, and the fact that he feels a need to distract voters with images of his daughter would indicate he is a man without a plan."

..

That is an outrageous lies cooked up by APC in retaliation to PDP for exposing Buhari's discrepancies in his supposed certificate. They will surely be put to shame. Buhari should come and explain his self as per his certificate and stop trying to sidetrack our attention from his perjury.GEJ till 2019

The only sure pledge right now Buhari is ur certificate within 12hrs. Nigerians hav come to d level where we r not moved by words but action. Keep ur words to urself. GEJ till 2019

And I hope he remembers all that he has pledged. All this plenty grammar as pledge. He cannot boast of one thing he did as the head of state, now he's giving us long pages of pledge. He should answer all the unanswered questions. GEJ till 2019

The controversy surrounding APC is just too much. So many loopholes. FFK pls keep up the good work and put those ppl to shame. GEJ till 2019

It's not as if the certificate has been verified real sef,its also not encouraging. Buhari! U r a disappointment. GEJ till 2019

Hw can sum1 talk these carelessly, with no good proof. Leave PDP to continue wid dier peaceful campaign. Continue in ur violence. GEJ till 2019