‘Jonathan’s 2nd Term Declaration Is Scorecard Of Failure’

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as a scorecard of  failure, the claims of phantom achievements by the President Goodluck Jonathan- led  Administration in its almost 60 months in the saddle, saying Nigerians  cannot wait to sweep away one of the ‘worst governments’ to have even  presided over their nation’s affairs
In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its National Publicity  Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the President failed to   get the usual bounce from such declarations because Nigerians were not
the least impressed by the achievements, which have not  positively impacted on the lives of the citizens.
”Mr. President, Nigerians have asked themselves a simple question:  Are we better off today than we were before President Jonathan assumed  office, and they have unanimously answered in the negative. This is why  your declaration failed to resonate, despite the hired crowds you  ferried to Abuja,” it said.
APC said having weighed the President’s claims in his declaration  speech against the reality on the ground, the party has decided to  present to Nigerians the true scorecard of President Jonathan in the  critical spheres of life, including insecurity, education, job  creation, corruption, power sector, and poverty eradication.
The party said the areas of insecurity and job creation, which are  intertwined, represent the biggest failure of the Jonathan  Administration, irrespective of its claims to the contrary.
”Today, after the Jonathan Administration has spent $32 billion on  security and defence, Nigeria is not any safer, with thousands of  deaths, 221,000 square kilometres of territory captured by Boko Haram,  650,000 Nigerians internally displaced and also a daily harvest of  death from ethno-religious crisis, clashes between pastoralists and farmers, armed robberies and kidnapping.
”To make matters worse, our once proud and globally-acknowledged  military has been brought to its knees by lack of necessary fighting  equipment, even with $32 billion spent. One wonders where the huge  funds went to,” it said.
APC said while the government claimed to have created 1.9 million jobs  in all of five years, the truth is that this is a mere tokenism.
”Even if the jobs they said they have created are not phantom, which  we know they are, the situation on the ground is grim: 1.8 million  Nigerians enter the job market every year, 5.3 million youth are  unemployed and overall 20 million Nigerians are in the job market, and
these are very conservative figures. Therefore, creating 1.9 million  jobs over several years cannot amount to any achievement,” the party  said.
It said while President promised Nigerians to eradicate corruption in  all sectors of the economy, the facts on ground do not back the  promise.
On electricity, the party said the statement by President Jonathan  that his Administration’s ”bold move” in the sector has put the  country ”on the road to guaranteed regular power supply in the months  ahead” is nothing but sheer deceit.
”Under the Jonathan Administration, Nigerians should not be in a  hurry to throw away their generators. The facts on the ground show this to be true: While the FG has spent 533 billion naira (about $3
billion) on power, at best Nigerians enjoy less than six hours of  electricity per day, where they enjoy it at all, while spending over  800 billion naira annually to fuel their generators.
”Also, the 4,000MW of electricity being generated by Nigeria cannot  guarantee stable power for 170 million people or propel the country
towards industrialization. By comparison, South Africa, with less than
a third of Nigeria’s population, generates over 44,000MW of
electricity. There is therefore no way that Nigeria can enjoy a stable
power supply with a meagre 4,000MW in power generation,” it said.