₦airaland Forum

CORRUPTION.

There is probably no better prove of a leaders commitment to a corruption free Nigeria than what this president has done in the area of exposing corrupt practices and ensuring that culprits are brought to book. The various reforms carried out in the last two years in the area of pension administration, management of the Nations ports, Oil and gas, Fertilizer management, Electoral process as well as the strengthening of institutional framework for fighting corruption is certainly the most courageous moves ever undertaken by any Nigerian President.

The sleaze uncovered in these processes are in consonance with the spirit and letters of the Freedom of Information Act which was the first bill signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan on assumption of office.

Today, the President’s foresight as contained in the bill on reform of the Criminal Justice system which he initiated is underscored by the outrage which followed a light sentence given to one of the suspects in the widely reported police pension fraud. The import of this is that the President’s work in fighting corruption only needs to be complemented by the Legislative and Judicial Arms of government to have the desired effects.

SECURITY.

No one envisaged the level of insurgency such as this administration was faced with in the last two years. It is however noteworthy that the rate at which this insurgency has been curtailed in the last twelve months is equally unsurpassed.

Due to the increased capacity of security agencies in the area of intelligence gathering, I can report to you that over 70 percent of planned insurgent attacks were foiled before actualization. These are largely unreported because they did not happen and this is a good thing.

The intelligence arm of our security agencies has deployed massive modern technology to pre-empt and destabilize these criminal elements who intended causing harm. Empirical evidence shows a gradual decline in cases of bombing and other insurgent activities.

However, government will not relent in its efforts to do even more in the coming year.

In this regard the Nigeria Police Force recently trained a total number of 18,357 personnel in counter insurgency tactics to complement the heroic work being done by members of the Nigerian Armed Forces, the State Security Service and other agencies of government.

President Jonathan is deeply touched by the wanton killing of innocent citizens and destruction of properties by these criminal elements and assures Nigerians of his resolve to confront these evil groups at every opportunity.

AGRICULTURE

In realizing the prime position that the agricultural sector occupies in the economic transformation of most advanced nations and in fulfillment of his electoral promise to the Nigerian people, President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration established a revolutionary agricultural programme to ensure food security, reduction of expenditure regarding foreign exchange in food import, diversification of the economy and creation of new jobs.

You will recall that prior to the advent of the administration of President Jonathan, major agricultural produce like cotton, sorghum and groundnut, which were the bedrock of the economy of Northern Nigeria were practically extinct.

Considering the fact that Nigeria imported N500 billion worth of rice in 2011, one will not be left in doubt as to the need for a radical solution, which the Agricultural component of the transformation agenda is progressively providing.

In the year under review 14 new rice mills with capacity to process 240 metric tons of rice were set up by the private sector while in addition, a sum of 1.2 billion dollars was secured by the Federal Government to install 100 large scale rice processing mills to produce 2.1 million metric tons of rice annually.

Today, Nigeria has reached an unprecedented 60 per cent sufficiency in rice production, a feat, which the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) recently described as capable of raising world rice output to a record high in the next 12 next months. By the year 2014, Nigeria’s 167 million populations will feed on rice grown and processed locally as we would have attained 100 per cent self-sufficienc y in rice production like we just did in the production of cement.

This and other initiatives of government in 2012 resulted in the creation of about two million new jobs among rural dwellers.

In 2013, the Federal Government will implement a Young Graduates Commercial Farmers Scheme, which will absorb 780,000 graduates in its first phase and provide an estimated four million jobs in the agricultural sector in the first year.

In the same vein, government will restructure and recapitalize the Nigeria
Agricultural Bank to provide loans to peasant farmers at single digit interest rates. This will be the most remarkable fund injection initiative ever undertaken by any government to empower rural peasant farmers and create wealth for rural dwellers.

Export of dried cassava chips began in July 2012 and this represented the first time that Nigeria will achieve commercial scale export of dried chips, which will earn $136 million annually in foreign exchange. Also, improved cotton seedlings, which have been provided free of charge to farmers especially in the northwest and northeast geo-political zones, will result in the resuscitation of the upstream and downstream cotton/textile sub-sector before the end of 2013.


On the issue of CORRUPTION, i score him 5/ 100. Yes he exposed the maggots behind oil subsidy. But where and when is the prosecution due
On security, i score him 10/100. He needs to act more and PROMISE LESS. Mr President, "all these terror, Nigerians demand action"
On Agriculture, i am confused. Can someone tell me what farmers need with 10million phones again instead of fertilizers
Standard of living is still what it used to be... LOW!
The reason, i said he was tryin , is in road construction.