Since independence in 1960, President Jonathan appears to have been
the only President who was elected by popular acclaim. His election in
April 2011 cut across religion, partisan interest, ethnic nationality
and geo-political zone. This was evident in the overwhelming support he
garnered during the April 2011 General elections. His popularity is
attributable to two main factors. First, since independence, Nigeria has
for the first time produced a President who has traversed the academia,
the public and private sectors. Academically, he is the most qualified
person that has ever ruled Nigeria, even though good qualification may
not correlate directly with leadership. Secondly, President Jonathan
appears to have distinguished himself as the most humble leader. More
importantly, President Jonathan canvassed a progressive, people-oriented
development agenda – the transformation agenda – which is a holistic
agenda for fast-tracking the development of the nation. It was the
popular appeal that made Jonathan’s presidency very attractive.
When President Goodluck Jonathan canvassed a transformational
agenda – a change-centric manifesto, Nigerians from all six
geo-political zones voted for him. I think than the transformational
agenda articulated by President Jonathan was a compelling vision for a
better Nigeria. A transformational leader does the right thing rather
than do things right, and because of the penchant for long-term
planning, transformation leaders do better when they win the trust and
confidence of the people. The official pronouncements of government have
always shown that President Jonathan is eager to bequeath a legacy for
posterity as a transformational leader. He is optimistic and
enthusiastic about turning bad statistics and the negatives into
positives and all his official policies point to that direction.
Propelled by the desire to transform the nation, President Jonathan
reiterated the same policy thrust during a 2-day Presidential Retreat
with the Private Sector was held on the 13th and 14th of October, 2011,
at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The theme of the
Retreat was ‘Economic Development and Job Creation’. The Retreat’s
purpose was to ensure that the Government and Private Sector work
collaboratively to deliver on the Transformation Agenda. The President’s
charge for both the Public and Private Sectors to imbibe a positive and
proactive attitude to delivering on the required reforms, as this
attitude was as important as the reforms themselves. This transformative
attitude was best represented by the twin mantras of ‘Just Do It’ that
is, moving from policy formulation to execution and delivery; and ‘Never
Again’ that is not to repeat the past mistakes of economic
mismanagement and missing past opportunities.
The President
used the instrumentality of the retreat to ask the Economic Team to
identify and prioritize the resolution of critical challenges facing key
sectors of the Nigerian economy and possible areas of focus and
strategy to create jobs. The President also charged the retreat to
identify policy changes and reforms required to enhance inclusive growth
and promote job creation as well as key indicators to focus on to
improve the real sectors that are likely to give Nigeria a competitive
edge in the developing economies of Africa.
Since then the
President has been consistent Further highlights of the retreat include
the drive towards “economic justice through the responsible stewardship
of natural resources for present and future generations; accelerating
the implementation of key reforms including the Power Reform Roadmap,
Ports Reforms, the Agriculture Transformation Action Plan, Downstream
Deregulation, Land Use Act reform, and the passage of the Petroleum
Industry Bill into law.
On trade and investment, the Jonathan
administration has established the National Automobile Council
established as well as an Automotive Development Fund to provide long
term loans to resuscitate the automobile industry and generate jobs.
Machinery has been put in place for the establishment of 37 Skills
Acquisition Centers nationwide. Approval for genuine foreign investors
to obtain visas at the point of entry to facilitate FDI investments has
been given by the President. This is to facilitate potential investors
to do business in Nigeria. Government has also completed of Model Skills
Training Centers in Abuja-collaboration between the Industrial Training
Fund and the Institute for Technical Education, Singapore, first of its
kind in Nigeria. In order to boost trade and investment, the Jonathan
administration has established the Nigerian Vehicle Credit Purchase
scheme. It has also commenced the process of establishing a World Trade
& International Business Center in Lagos and the process for
backward integration in Sugar and Rice Production to ensure self
sufficiency.
President Jonathan has done so much to boost the
overwhelming success of the Amnesty Programme. The Amnesty Programme,
which has brought relative peace to the hitherto turbulent Niger Delta
Region, has led to the expansion of Nigeria's oil production expanded by
20% and Nigeria has reclaimed her former position as Africa's largest
oil exporter which she had hitherto lost to Angola. Last year, 2011
Nigeria set a new record by being recognized by OPEC in the month of
July as the second largest oil exporter in the cartel second only to
Saudi Arabia. It is the first time Nigeria has recorded such a feat. In
the months ahead, there would be noticeable improvements.
President Jonathan launched two satellites in August 2011. These
satellites were designed and built by Nigerian Engineers/Scientists in
conjunction with British Scientists and will help expand Internet
Bandwidth, monitor the weather and provide early warning to prevent
natural disasters like floods, crop monitoring and urban planning.
Another uncommon achievement!
The administration approved
allowance Increase for Youth Corps Members and in recognition of the
sacrifices of youth corps members, the President approved the upward
review of their allowances from 9,700 Naira to 19,800 Naira. This is in
addition to the implementation of the N18, 000 minimum wages Increase
for Nigerian Workers. President Jonathan believes that Nigerian workers
deserve to earn more as compensation for the efforts they put into
advancing our society.
Another critical reason Nigerians should
trust President Jonathan is his achievements so far when he assumed
office last year. The President has implemented the Amnesty Programme,
which dividends are very conspicuous for all to see. Niger Delta youths
have inundated the training institutes in Ghana, South Africa, the
Philippines, Russia, Ukraine, India and so many countries around the
world. Soon, the Niger Delta will produce lots of pipeline and
Under-water Welders, Pilots, Boat Builders, Seafarers, Marine Engineers
and ICT gurus among others. If the Amnesty Programme is sustained to its
4th and fifth stage, the Niger Delta Region will never be in short
supply of techno-vocational manpower especially at the intermediate
level.
Whereas the Petroleum Industry Bill is on its way to
becoming an Act; government has signed into an Act, the Local Content
Act. To address the rapidly expanding demand for tertiary education in
the Country, the Federal Government has established seven more
Universities in Nigeria. President Jonathan, for the first time since
1960, has reviewed the foreign policy of the country to make Nigeria
more proactive in solving her domestic problems while not compromising
the big brother role she has been playing in continental Africa.
This vision presupposes that President Jonathan has chosen to focus on
creating a transformational leadership franchise and legacy. The
implication of this choice is that President Jonathan wants his politics
and overall leadership to be all about national transformation! That
is, President Jonathan's top three priorities are national
transformation, national transformation and national transformation!
It's pretty obvious that President Jonathan would want to be remembered
as the President who did his best to propel the socio-economic and
political transformation of Nigeria.
One policy Nigerian must
remain grateful to President Jonathan for is the prioritization of
Agriculture as a key growth driver of the economy. To this end, efforts
are being made to improve the productivity, yield and competiveness of
key agricultural commodities with significant export potential. By
harnessing the value chains in the production of cocoa, groundnut, oil
palm and rice, as well as for cotton, cassava and sorghum, we will
conserve billions of dollars in foreign exchange that would otherwise
have been spent on imports. We will equally reverse the unsustainable
food importation process, which has fueled domestic inflation. This will
improve our national food security position; and unleash the sector’s
potentials for employment generation and wealth creation. Similarly,
government has made concerted efforts to accelerate economic
diversification by improving the nation’s investment environment to
ensure a sustained economic growth so that government would create
significant employment generation for wealth creation.
For
Jonathan, the retreat could not have come at a more auspicious time in
the nation’s history, at a time the global economy was facing uncertain
times, as developed and developing nations, alike, strived to recover
from the ongoing global economic upheaval. He, therefore, reminded the
participants that several nations were grappling with the grim realities
of a protracted crisis; prospects for global economic growth remained
unbalanced. But Nigeria, according to him, has tried to be pro-active in
response to these issues. He said primarily as part of his
administration’s transformation agenda, government was adopting and
implementing more prudent macroeconomic and fiscal policies over the
medium-term horizon.
With the approval of the Nigerian
Sovereign Investment Authority, the President facilitated direct
investments into infrastructure with the priority areas being Power and
Roads. In the area of power generation President approved the pioneer
board for the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading (NEBT) Plc, in an effort
to stabilize power supply by facilitating smooth operations between
independent power producers and distribution companies. Nigeria now
generates power at her highest level ever.
Sufficient attention
has been accorded the mass transit especially railway transport. The
Nigerian Railway Corporation has commenced Mass Transit Train Services
in five out of the six geo-political zones with the sixth zone coming on
stream before the end of the year. The Jonathan administration has
approved funds for the rehabilitation of the West road in Nigeria in
order to facilitate transportation of goods and services around the
country. The Federal Government also awarded contracts for various road
projects across the country whose impact will soon be felt nationwide.
Prior to the subsidy removal controversy, the President introduced the
unique policy of intervening in the pricing of kerosene by engaging with
the Private Sector and the price reduced within the first 100 days
between May and September, 2011. He also introduced the policy of
selling kerosene direct to end users essentially to reduce the
bottlenecks associated with the distribution system. This successful
scheme has reduced the artificial scarcity of the product hitherto faced
by the Nigerian masses.
In the area of administration of
justice, President Jonathan set up of a 12-man Justice Sector Reform
Implementation Committee to ensure the implementation of various reforms
that have been articulated and widen access to justice. Mr. President
assented to several bills to increase access to justice including; The
Human Rights Amendment Act, 2011; Legal Aid Amendment Act, 2011; The
Evidence Act (which has simplified the process of collating evidence in
our legal system), Further, the President signed the FOI Bill into an
Act, thereby showing his commitment to lifting the veil covering
governance and deepening participatory democracy. The framework for
compliance of the FOI Act has been prepared by the Office of the AGF for
gazetting, after inputs from critical stakeholders.
As a
result of the dexterity of the helmsman at the PDP office, Security and
peace appear to have been deepened. Peace has been sustained in the
Niger Delta; ex-combatants are in training or engaging in worthwhile
ventures. Efforts are made to improve on facilities for an
Intelligence-Based Security Approach, while maritime Safety is being
pursued with renewed vigour. To reduce the incidence of kidnapping in
the South East, President Jonathan order on the establishment of the 14
Brigade of the Nigerian army in Ohafia, Abia state. This is a feat not
yet achieved by any President since 1960.
While this writer did
not set out to chronicle the achievement of the Jonathan
administration, it does appear that President Goodluck Jonathan has
fashioned out the right strategy to keep the transformation agenda
working. With a formidable Economic Team getting the strategy right is
the most crucial component in any policy implementation process. All
these achievements have been recorded when President Jonathan is yet to
celebrate his one year in office. There are certain glaring challenges
facing the Jonathan Presidency but the helmsman has so far demonstrated
statesmanship, leadership and demonstrated his zeal and candour to
transform the nation and re-position her economy on a rock-sure
foundation. For their sake, and for the sake of the youths, unemployed,
women and children, Mr. President’s reform agenda should be supported by
all stakeholders.
Idumange John – a Policy Analyst.
