₦airaland Forum

Bemigho Reno Omokri is the Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on New Media. In this interview with ABIODUN ALADE, he pooh-poohs what he terms the propaganda and lies of the opposition about his principal. On President Jonathan and his achievements President Goodluck Jonathan is the best
president Nigeria has ever had and I am
backing this with facts. I am not moved by
opinion, I am moved by facts. Let me
corroborate my stand with five facts. Number
one, according to the United Nations record, Nigeria life expectancy was 47.5 years in
2009, a year before President Jonathan took
over. As at today, according to the same
United Nations Human Development Index,
which is released annually, Nigeria average
life expectancy is now 52 years. Since record has been kept, this is the largest life
expectancy in Nigeria. When President Jonathan took over power, the
World Bank listed Nigeria as a low income
country, but, today, Nigeria is a middle income
nation.
In 2010, Nigeria was the second largest
economy in Africa but it is the largest economy in Africa today.
Also, according to the International Food
Policy Research Institute which undertakes
research on global hunger index annually,
Nigeria is improving. Prior to President
Jonathan assuming office, the country has been sliding on the global hunger index but
since he took over Nigeria has been improving.
In 2005, our index was 16.1 but in 2013 it
reduced to 15 and this year it is 14.1. On the final score, President Jonathan, during
his declaration speech, said he is proud there is
no political prisoner in Nigeria; as a matter of
fact, Nigeria has become so free under
President Jonathan that those in exile were
able to return home. Some chose to attack him, others chose to support him but the obvious
thing is that there is no consequence because
we have a God- fearing and philosopher king as
president. Insecurity The issue with insecurity can best be
answered by the military. But I will say that
never in the world has a conventional army
been used to destroy terrorists. Nigeria has
had high success in peace-keeping all over the
world because we have been meeting with conventional war. Terrorism is a new threat
and we have to develop special forces to deal
with this threat and, to the best of my
knowledge, that is going on at a very advanced
stage and, very soon, we will see the effect of
that. I am very confident that in no distant time, Nigeria will overcome the Boko Haram
insurgency. Our soldiers are already being
trained in special operations so we will, in the
near future, bid farewell to insecurity
occasioned by Boko Haram in the country. Impact of largest economy on the citizens It is an opinion to say that the transformation
of the economy is not impacting on the lives of
Nigerians. There are seven billion opinions on
earth and if you are going to live by that, you
will be an unstable person. Facts support the
notion that the economic progression Nigeria has made under President Jonathan is trickling
down to the citizens. For the first time in the
history of this country, we have 14 million
farmers registered with the ministry of
agriculture. They received fertilizers and
seeds directly from the ministry. Of the 14 million, two million are women. It has never
been done anywhere in the world; other
nations like South Africa and India are coming
to learn how we did it. Now we are talking of
14 million farmers which is clear evidence that
Nigerians are benefiting from the economic progress made under President Goodluck
Jonathan. The per capital income of Nigeria, which was
1090 dollars in 2009, is 1800 dollars today.
Today, you can take a train from Ido terminus
in Lagos and be in Kano at the cost of N2,250.
You can charge your laptop on that train. You
can move within Lagos with air-conditioned fast trains. These are facts but obviously, the
opposition will not want to paint the president
in his true colour because they are desperate
for power. One of the roads built by Jonathan’s
administration President Jonathan has ensured that every
state that did not have a university now has
one, he has ensured that almajiris who did not
have school before now have 150 schools of
which he planned to build 400. This is a man
who has impacted on the lives of the everyday average Nigerians. In the rural areas, there is a conditional grant
given to women that attend post-natal care in
health centres. Over 80, 000 graduates have
been able to find internship through the
Graduate Internship Scheme. 4, 000 Nigerian
youths have been given grant of between two million and ten million naira to start up
businesses which have empowered and
employed tens of thousands of people through
the YOUWIN (Youth with Innovation Nigeria)
scheme. These are brilliant initiatives that
have never be done before to impact the lives of Nigerians. Sadly, some people with no record to show will
speak negative of the president. For 34 years,
the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has been left
dormant but today, it is witnessing one of the
fastest constructions on earth- Julius Berger
starting from the Lagos side and RCC starting from the Ibadan side which will ensure they
meet at a point to complete the work on time.
Where has that been done before in Nigeria? It used to take nine hours to travel from Lagos
to Benin but President Jonathan ensured that
the Benin- Ore Road was reconstructed not
repaired. Today, that same journey takes three
hours and the Coordinating Minister of the
Economy, Prof. Okonjo Iweala, took that journey herself to verify it. So President
Jonathan is impacting on the lives of everyday
Nigerians. Corruption and the president’s body language Let us look at facts and not opinion. In this
country, one of the greatest avenues of
corruption is the procurement of fertilizer for
farmers but today, the Jonathan
administration has addressed that and
ensured that farmers get fertilizer directly from the source. There is no middleman, thus
the country is able to save over two billion
dollars annually which was in the past
frittered away. Over 50, 000 ghost workers have been
weeded out of the civil service, the FG is
saving over three hundred and fifty billion
naira annually by that singular act. These 50,
000 have been there over the years. This administration is not interested in show
trial where you arrest people, do a trial with
the media having sensational stories but in
fairness, how many people that went through
this show trial are in jail? You fight corruption
at the root and weed it out. I can state categorically that there is no anti-
corruption president like Jonathan but being a
philosopher king, he will not dance to the
gallery; he will fight corruption accordingly.
The opposition has saturated the media with
negative information.

Mr president is in ACTION!!! GEJ lekan si ooooooooo!!!

y not take dem unaware?mst u dizclose al ur plans?..in other news...boko plan to tackle special forces underway..

kestolove95:
y not take dem unaware?mst u dizclose al ur plans?..in other news...boko plan to tackle special forces underway..

and u guys wil stil call him clueless for not disclosin wat he is doin! naija i hail.

Smh this guy is obviously daft.... achievements only on paper not in reality, the governed do not feel the so called achievements.... its surely his kind that is misleading GEJ