The year 2012 ended last Monday, but it was year that will not quickly be erased from the memory President Goodluck Jonathan and members of his cabinet. It was the year that Jonathan witnessed what may go for a swift twirl of events in terms of public perception of the man, his style of governance and his level of competence as a leader.
One of the latest in the strings of criticisms that trailed the Jonathan administration was last Sunday’s attack by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), in which the opposition party accused the present government of lies, saying it was overstating its achievements. It also accused President Jonathan’s men of making themselves purveyors of blatant lies for defending a government that swims in corruption. According to a statement by Lai Mohammed, National Publicity of the ACN, government claims of fixing Nigeria’s moribund power sector, unemployment and insecurity among others were tissues of lies.
But when LEADERSHIP accompanied other reporters in Aso Rock presidential villa to engage Special Adviser to the president on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, he came out in his same old way fiercely to defend the administration and the Jonathan presidency. He contended heavily that since President Jonathan became president, a lot has changed in the country and a lot is still changing.
Asked to be specific about what has been done differently, the presidential spokesman noted that principally, Nigerians have seen a change in style of leadership. He stated: “For many years, even after the military rule and return to democracy in 1999, Nigerians have been used to a dictatorial style of leadership. They have been used to the idea of a leader as a brute. Because of the circumstances that attended President Yar’Adua’s administration, Nigerians didn’t quite have the time, the opportunity to comment on his style. But what you can see is that with President Jonathan, the kind of criticisms that people are putting across, it simply means that Nigerians still have a military hangover. Nigerians are not yet used to the fact that a leader can be made. Nigerians are not yet used to the fact that a leader can respect the rule of law.
“They are not yet used to the fact that a leader can observe and respect due process. Now, under this president, there is a new reacting. The age of impunity in terms of the style of governance ended. We have seen in this country for so many years a situation whereby government goes out of its way to break the law. I once read a book about how government breaks the law. But under President Jonathan, you see the president and his administration respecting the rule of law every step of the way and where I could find this demonstration more graphically I think is in the conduct of elections and bye elections that we have had under President Jonathan.
“Under President Jonathan, free and fair elections have become well established and transparency in elections has become well established. When last did you hear of lorry loads of policemen being sent to any state on the orders from Abuja to go and force the issue in a Particular election? It has not happened under this president. Have you ever heard of President Jonathan sending soldiers to go and remove a governor or to go and sack a State House of Assembly? That has not happened. So, significantly, there has been that change and I think that with time, Nigerians will begin to get used to the reality that when you say you are running a democracy, there are certain principles; there are certain ethics that are foundational and fundamental”.
On the personality of President Jonathan
Asked to describe the character and personality of Mr. President, since he has been with him closely for sometimes now, Abati said, “Humble, hardworking, determined, focused, God fearing, very optimistic, a natural team player and consensus builder and a man who has a lot of faith in God. One thing Nigerians deserve notice and which many Nigerians have commented upon is his humility and his naturalness; a man who occupies a very high position but who still has the common touch. He is in that position as president of Nigeria but he still manages to find time to relate with people in his community and to relate with even old school friends. There are times we have gone to Otuoke, his village and we will be going from one place to the other and he will see somebody, they will speak their language and chat and then he will tell us that “that man was my classmate in the secondary school”.
“Sometimes I will say does this man even realize that he is the president of Nigeria? But that is the kind of person he is; he is very natural. He is a man who has a very clear sense of where he is coming from and the historic responsibility that currently rest on his shoulders. And all he asks for is the understanding of Nigerians to be allowed to focus on the assignment and for people to stop distracting the administration because if there is any challenge Nigeria face, it is just that too many people who are still not convinced that the election ended over one year ago are still doing everything one way or the other to distract the administration. But I can tell you that he remains focused and the assignment Nigerians have given him is an assignment that he takes very seriously”.
On allegation of being too slow in governance
Some Nigerians, especially in the opposition camp, have considered President Jonathan to be too slow in carrying out his duties. Against this backdrop, Abati said, “When you use the word slow, a lot of people say this in terms of what they consider to be what the government is doing, but I have answered this question again and again. When a government takes power, things do not just happen overnight. There are processes; there are projects that we need to carefully plan because due process would have to be followed. But at the time people were making that point that was early in the life of the administration when people were impatient and they were just looking for all kinds of adjectives with which they could discredit the administration.
“Some of the people behind that propaganda- because that was also propaganda- were trying to change the perception of the public about the capability of the administration. Those people were also doing it for political reasons. But I think that Nigerians are better informed now. I think that the majority of Nigerians have a different opinion now because if you look around in the last one year, so much has changed. And what this president has done is to do everything in terms of the structure and process of government to ensure that democracy is consolidated because for him, that is the basic foundation. In terms of how government impact on society, first there must be transformation at the level of attitude and mentality. That is one major thing that is being done differently and I have not seen anybody who does not agree with this.
“The second major thing that we have seen is that under President Jonathan, this has become a much more open society. The right of the individual to choose, the right of the individual to speak, the right of the individual to express himself or herself has been very well maintained under this administration. Somebody was saying there are some foreigners who come to Nigeria and when they read our newspapers or listen to the media, they wonder what is going on here. Of course they, they do that in terms of comparison with where they are coming from. So, the press in Nigeria is very free. The government allows a free inter-play for Nigerians. You will recall that since 1999 before President Jonathan, that was not always exactly the case. So, how do you now criticize the leader who is allowing free space for expression, who is allowing the flowering of the human spirit and who at the same time is humane in his approach to issues”.
Significant achievements in 2012
On what the administration can boast of as its landmark achievements
in 2012 despite the criticisms, the presidential spokesman said, “When
the power supply situation improved, it wasn’t government that carried a
loud speaker to go and tell people that there has been improvement in
power supply. Nigerians themselves started talking about it. And as at
this December, close to 5000 mega watts have been generated and anybody
who wants to be honest with you will admit that indeed there has been
improvement in that area and government should sustain it and government
will hear.“Even the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria held a meeting with the government to say we are thankful that the power situation has improved, but you can still do a lot more to support the real sector. In the last two months, if you look at some of the incentives that have been given to the real sector, these are meant to encourage productivity within the economy. All of that is not a result of slowness. It is a result of deliberate planning and purpose oriented leadership which President Jonathan provides.
“Look at foreign investment. If you look at the report, there was more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in flow into Nigeria. There are even plans to bail out the ailing airlines because part of the problems we are having is that there are not too many airlines operating at the moment. It is not just the aviation sector. The railway has been revived; the same railway project that some administration in the past were just toying with. If you have been following twitter very well you see people talking about rail travel. Now, when we were in secondary school or so when we do social studies, we used to draw the railway line. But there was a period in Nigeria that school children did not even know anything about railway stations; that has changed. Under President Jonathan, there has also been a lot of investment in exhibition.
“The Amijiri school concept is to get so many kids in the Northern part of Nigeria off the street and to reduce the number of young kids who are available for recruitment for database purposes. Above all this is a government that listens. When the furor over the deregulation of the downstream sector became an issue, government listened to the people. When there was an outcry over the likely introduction of N5000 notes, government listened to the people. So, I don’t know whether some of the people who are still saying government is weak or slow, maybe they take weakness to mean that the president listens. Maybe what they are saying is that they prefer a quail to a leader who is humane and who is purposeful. If that is what they are asking for that would be unfortunate because once you are elected to run a democracy, you should abide by the principles and ethics”.
“If you look at agriculture; if you look at the entrepreneurship empowerment programme; all these are designed to create jobs, to create opportunities and the change the style of doing things. In this same country, anytime people talked about agriculture, what came to the mind is fertliser scam. The ministry of agriculture specialized in the distribution of fertilizer. But now that has changed; there is nobody to collect rent on fertilizer anymore because under President Jonathan that has been stopped. The agricultural programme of government cannot be a fertiliser scam process. Rather, agric has become real business; it has become one of those key targets for the empowerment of the Nigerian people. And because these changes are happening, a number of persons who feel shot out are likely to become desperate and they are likely to sponsor all kinds of misperceptions against the government.
“If you were making your money from the fertilizer scam and government has changed that, you are not likely to be happy with government. This government has decided that it must focus on service delivery and not rent collection; not the entitlement mentality of old. Now when you want to change the system like that from within, people are bound to resist it out of fear, out of desperation and out of mischief. And the thing to tell Nigerians is that once you have accepted the idea of transformation and you voted for it, then you must be prepared for that transformation and transformation will come with its own cost because it means that certain things just must change.
“A president who preaches transformation, and who is leading a democratic system cannot be the kind of bully that people are saying they want. You can’t say you want a democrat as a leader and at the same time you say you want a leader who can dictate and push people around. You see that this president doesn’t push people around; he respects them and what we are asking for is leaders that are humane, that are God fearing and who we can see a reflection of ourselves and have every reason and every cause to be hopeful and that is what this president represents”.
On level of 2012 Budget implementation and likely areas of improvement in 2013
Abati further scored the implementation of 2012 budget high, assuring
that it will be a continuation of what had been done last year at a
more advanced level in 2013. He said, “What we have seen demonstrated
this year is that in terms of quality, this is a government that is
capable, that is determined for formulating policies and seeing those
policies through. And you can be sure that in 2013, that is going to
continue. The budget for 2013 has as its theme such issues as fiscal
consolidation and inclusive growth, which means that most of what has
been done this year will be done and a lot more will be done to even
make growth more inclusive.“You talked about budget implementation. People ought to know that budget implementation is a process and that is why some people have been recommending a situation whereby we have budget circus rather than this yearly thing because once you start a procurement process, the procurement process is a process so defined and defined. So, it doesn’t mean that when a ministry is doing fast track for a particular piece of action, it just collect the money and the money is spent like that. No. Processes will be followed. That was the reason why Nigeria has had over the years many abandoned projects and unfulfilled dreams. It is because the processes were not followed and because there was no discipline in budget implementation. Under this president, that discipline is being enforced and that is why this year alone, President Jonathan did something novel in Nigerian history.
“He got the ministers to sign a performance contract. He got the ministers to state their key performance indicators. A ministerial appointment as the president has made clear is not an opportunity for you to come and moonlight. And it is still even continuing. It is one of the first major things that would be concluded in the New Year; taking a look at what has been done; if there are challenges, how can those challenges be addressed. You minister A, how much were you given? This is how much I received; these are the things I said I will do in my performance contract and this is what I have been able to do. These are the challenges I faced. In the coming year, my ministry will do this.
“I don’t think there has ever been anytime in the history of Nigerian government that ministers are subjected to this level of rigours in terms of accountability. And I think that Nigerians should note that because this is one thing that happened this year and it was very well reported in the public domain. It is an innovation that President Jonathan has introduced that should be copied even at other lower levels”.
On policies introduced last year
Abati said the policies that have been introduced this year in terms
of taxation, in terms of housing, in terms of job creation and in terms
even of the real definition of the foreign policy orientation and
processes of the federal government of Nigeria were remarkable. In his
words: “If look at what I have said earlier about the aviation sector
the whole policy is to transform that sector. Earlier in the year, the
president had a seminar on the foreign policy process of Nigeria to
strengthen the focus on citizen diplomacy, if I may borrow that term,
and on the investment tribe. Now, if you look at all his trips this
year, those two issues had been in the front burner and Nigeria now has a
more productivity driven foreign policy process.“Each time the president travels, he is looking for business and investment opportunities for Nigeria and he uses the opportunity of his travels also to engage Nigerians in Diaspora. There is no country that he visited that he didn’t squeeze out time to meet with Nigerians there to know what the issues are. All that came out of the quality reorientation. And you can go like that from one sector to the other: solid minerals, the policy of greater productivity, the petroleum sector, the PIB.
Leadership
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