Another Prominent PDP Senator Files Out- Says, I Am on My Way Out Of PDP, To Camp With APC

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Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Magnus Abe, has  said he will soon join All Progressives Congress, APC, insisting that there was no provision in the constitution preventing him from doing so with the present turmoil in Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Speaking at Bori, headquarters of Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, during his third annual interactive session with youths from the seven local government areas that make up Rivers South-East senatorial district of the state, he said: “I am going to cross to APC. Even if it is only one senator that will cross from PDP to APC, you can go and write it down, Magnus Abe will be that senator. I will cross. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees freedom of association. It says if there is division in your political association, you can cross.”

The lawmaker said that the crisis rocking PDP, which led to the walk-out of some aggrieved members of the party and subsequent formation of a faction of the ruling party, justifies the decision to dump PDP for APC.

“Everybody in Nigeria knows that there was a walkout during the convention of PDP and that resulted in the formation of a faction. That faction has now merged with APC. So, what am I doing in PDP when my faction is in APC?  This country belongs to all of us. Nigerians must oppose this idea that once you hold power, it is your personal estate and you can do whatever you like.

“Have people not been crossing to  PDP? How many governors have crossed from other parties to the PDP? Was Theodore Orji of Abia State not elected on the platform of another party? Is he not in PDP today? Did they hang him? People have been crossing over to PDP, suddenly, you said, people cannot cross. There can only be one rule for all Nigerians. That is how other countries make progress.”

Earlier in his remarks, Speaker of Rivers State Youth Parliament, Mr. Ijok Emmanuel, commended Senator Abe for all he had done for students and youths of Rivers South-East senatorial district since he was elected into the National Assembly.

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2015: Buhari’s posters floods Kano (Photos)

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Contrary to reports that former Head of States, Gen Mohammed Buhari may have dropped his presidential ambition to enable a younger and energetic candidate emerges as the flag-bearer of presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, the emergence of Buhari 2015 campaign posters in some strategic areas in Kano has indicated that the ex-military president may still be in race to Aso-Rock come 2015.

It was widely reported earlier that the APC may have conceded the presidential ticket to the House of Representatives’ speaker, Aminu Tambuwal. This latest development clearly show that, the flag-bearer of the opposition APC is yet to be resolved.

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Jonathan Running a ‘Robber Government’ – Tinubu

A national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, has lamented the manner in which the Federal Government handled the alleged missing $11 billion (N1.7 trillion).

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Lamido Sanusi, had, in a recent letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, alleged that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, did not remit about $49 billion (N7.8 billion) to the government’s coffers. Mr. Lamido later recanted, saying only $11 billion was not returned. He explained that CBN did not capture the figures of the allocations to the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, and Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR.

Mr. Tinubu said in its poor handling of the controversy, the government had portrayed itself as a “robber government,” that deserved to be swept out of power with the APC’s broom.

He said the country had regrettably degenerated to the extent that losing such a huge amount had become a sign of fiscal rectitude.

In a New Year message to Nigerians, Mr. Tinubu argued that in an atmosphere of good governance, the money should not be missing and if it happened to, senior officials of the government should by now be under criminal investigation by the police.

“Under this administration, the matter is swept aside as if a minor thing, like a broken tea cup on the floor. If this government can treat a missing $11 billion like a minor accounting infraction, much more than a teacup needs to be swept away. This robber government needs to feel the broom and the sweep of change as well,” Mr. Tinubu said.

Strange government

Mr. Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, also criticised President Goodluck Jonathan over his recent statement on the nation’s security challenges, which Mr. Tinubu stated showed no urgency or initiative.

He recalled that the president told Nigerians during a church service on Christmas Day that Nigeria was not like Syria and other war-ravaged lands and as such they ought to be happy because things could be worse.

“In the face of the nation’s greatest security challenge since the Civil War, this is the presidential policy: to lay low and measure your failure relative to the failure of other nations,” Mr. Tinubu said. “As long as other nations suffer conditions worse than ours, we should accept our fate and commend government for allowing only one of our legs to be amputated and not both. Jonathan’s hands-off and laissez faire approach to civil insurrect does not commend itself to national greatness or wise statecraft.”

Mr. Tinubu said President Jonathan was promoting a lazy and dangerous policy.

“This nation will not improve simply by being content that we are not as bad as other nations. That is not way of improvement. It is the excuse of a leader grown too comfortable with failure,” he said.

Describing the Jonathan administration as a “strange government that resides in Abuja,” Mr. Tinubu expressed worry that it applauded itself for economic growth when the majority of people suffered caustic poverty.

“The growth they commend is restricted to them and their cronies. The rest of the nation stagnates,” he said. “Children’s bellies swell not from feast but from near famine. Schools close. Businesses are shuttered. Jobs evaporate. The streets fill with the frustration of the unemployed and hopeless. Homes, stores and factories are dark. There is no light.”

He noted that officials of the Jonathan administration believed they had taken Nigeria to the Promised Land and as such, intended to keep things as they were now.

The former governor also alleged that the Jonathan administration believed the economy should be permanently structured in such a way that the vast majority of Nigerians squirmed under the boot of poverty while government officials relaxed in the nectar of luxury.

“This is an unfair, crooked deal. We reject it and, as the drumbeat of change marches closer, it will drown out their lame excuses to make way for a fairer economy,” he stressed.

A year of decision

Stating that the advent of a new year was a time for people and nations to resolve themselves to a greater future, the APC leader said 2014 would present Nigerians a stark choice whether to remain were they were or to root for change.

According to him, his party was floated as a vehicle to generate and accelerate the process of change towards the most beneficial end for the greatest number of Nigerians.

“Nigerians must enter the New Year determined to succeed although much around us signals failure. As a nation, we are destined to be better than we now are. Today, we slump in a low place but that is only for now,” he said. “Our nation is crippled but not broken, confused but not lost. Given into the hands of enlightened progressive leadership, this nation can become a fertile land of prosperity, of law, of peace and dignity for us all.”

He said the coming year would be one of decision; for change or against it.

“Shall we continue as we now are? If so, failure will be our sole destination and darkness our only compass. As for me, I reject this end as well as the means that lead to it. We have gone far enough down the unlit road. We want no further part of it,” he said.

The promise of the APC

Mr. Tinubu said the APC offered Nigerians the choice to return the country to her best path, adding, “We realise the Nigerian public has been stung so many times by false promises that the people will not give their trust quickly. Given our political history, this is only wise and prudent.”

He said the APC, in the New Year, would show the people the vast difference between it and the PDP.

“They are a conservative and elite network of under-the-table deals and backroom governance. We are its open and progressive alternative. We mean the people well and do not work to keep them in the dark. We will show the comparative differences in several ways.”

He explained that the party would demonstrate its commitment to democracy by exercising internal democracy and transparency on its deliberations and also communicate to the people at the grassroots level as well as the national level.

“You will see and hear from APC members and leaders at the local, state and national levels. We will create venues and platforms that you may communicate your concerns to us as well. We will highlight the ideological and substantive policy differences between the progressive us and the elitist them. Where the PDP has imposed trickle-down economics reminiscent of a 1980’s Reagan-Thatcher-IMF road show, we seek an economy of genuine and broadly shared growth where the laboring wage earner and small businessperson benefits proportionally to the powerful financier and big corporate power.”

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Voice of American on Jonathan, PDP and political turbulence in Nigeria

Goodluck Jonathan, President of Nigeria (center), in Nairobi, Kenya, Dec. 12, 2013. VoA

VoA – Nigeria saw a major political shake-up in 2013 with the opposition coming together and governors and parliament members defecting in droves from the ruling party. Analysts see serious challenges ahead for President Goodluck Jonathan and his party this year as the country gears up for presidential elections in 2015.

2013 saw a new opposition emerge in Nigeria — one that is more united and more defiant than anything the country has seen since military rule ended in 1999.

This mega-party is called the All Progressive’s Congress, or APC. Key figures from both the opposition and the ruling PDP party have flocked to its ranks since July.

APC politicians, like Hajiya Hafsat Mohammed Baba in Kaduna, said people wanted change.

“And that change, the way we see it, is inevitable. It is coming and it will come very soon…. Politics is a game of numbers and we are increasing by the day,” he said.

Five of Nigeria’s powerful state governors recently defected to the APC from the ruling party, including those from voter-heavy states like Kano and Rivers.

Also, 37 members of the lower house of the National Assembly have switched from the PDP to APC, taking away the PDP’s majority.

APC politicians and analysts said that they expected to see as many as seven more governors, as well as members of the National Assembly’s upper house, the Senate, defect to the APC in early 2014.

“Definitely, People’s Democratic Party has never had it so bad because to be elected president of this country even if you have the majority of the votes, the law says that you must have 24 states out of 36, two-thirds of them,” said Political commentator Abubakar Sufiyan Osa Idu Al Siddiq.

But he and other analysts said that this rapid influx of members to the APC could be a double-edged sword.

“It was supposed to be a new platform that would bring hope to Nigeria by challenging all that we say was wrong with the PDP. Yet this same party is extending its hand of fellowship, moving from one part of the country to the next, bringing these same bad guys, these same discredited politicians, these same thieves, whatever title you want to use for them, [they] are the same persons they are bringing into the APC…. These are the same old stock who will never change,” said head of the political science department at the Delta State College of Education, Isitoah Ozoemene.

Members of the ruling party, like Saidu Usman Gombe of the Northern Youth Awareness Forum, said the newly-expanded APC would implode.

“This opposition party, they are deceiving themselves, even in the party, that opposition party, there is a lot of clash. They will crack. They will break down completely before [the end of] 2014,” he said.

The People’s Democratic Party, or PDP, has run Nigeria since 1999. It has been the only party to have a national presence from the highest posts in the country down to the country’s 774 local governments.

Dissatisfaction with President Goodluck Jonathan – especially with his efforts fighting corruption and his violation of an unwritten PDP rule to trade off the presidency between northerners and southerners – has been a key driver of the defections.

Analysts said President Jonathan was more isolated than ever.

Some speculate that he could face an impeachment attempt in 2014 as the opposition gains ground in the National Assembly.

2013 didn’t exactly end on a high note. In December, his political godfather, former president Olusegun Obasanjo, denounced him publicly in an 18-page open letter that ripped apart Jonathan’s performance in office and told him not to run in 2015.

The presidency hit back saying that letter was irresponsible, untrue and aimed at fueling defections to the opposition.

It is impossible to say whether it’s too late for the PDP to turn things around and reconcile with its prodigal members before 2015, but analysts say elections up ahead are going to be interesting and could transform Nigeria’s political landscape.

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Tinubu: THISDAY Man of the Year – The Man Who (Re)Built Nigerian Opposition

He might not be the darling of all, but Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a two-time governor of Lagos State, has carved a niche for himself in the 14-year history of the rebirth of democracy in Nigeria. His persona excites as much awe as fear from the people, especially the political class.

He has through his doggedness and can-do spirit earned a name for himself as one of the foremost politicians of the nation’s fledgling Fourth Republic. Although Tinubu’s participation in the politics of the Fourth Republic was not his first foray into politics, it was in the current dispensation that he made a name for himself.

As a senator representing Lagos West Senatorial District in the aborted Third Republic, the dispensation did not last long enough for him, just like many others, to make his mark. The annulment of the June 12, 1993 election by the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida-led junta, put paid to efforts to return Nigeria to civil rule after almost a decade of military interregnum. In the heat of the civil protest that trailed the annulment, he teamed up with others in the defunct National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) to rally the people behind the campaign to force the military back to the barracks. Like many leaders of the anti-military group, he was forced to flee to exile, especially under the late Gen. Sani Abacha dictatorship that resorted to state brutality to subdue the opposition.

Whatever Tinubu might have done to advance the cause of democracy before the Fourth Republic, has paled to insignificance with his avowed commitment, in the extant dispensation, to champion the cause of sustaining one of the cardinal principles of democracy: the people’s right to choose. In this quest, he has become the face of the alternative force in a nation that for all intent and purpose, has been tending towards a one-party system since 1999.

With the return of democracy in 1999, Tinubu joined his comrades in NADECO and others in the now comatose Alliance for Democracy (AD) on whose platform he won the Lagos State governorship election. The AD was the ruling party in the South-west, controlling the administration of the six states in the region. It was a domination that brought the party under intense pressure, especially given the fact that the then President Olusegun Obasanjo of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) got into power without the support of his Yoruba kinsmen. Like AD, Obasanjo, whose presidency was hobbled by its lack of support from his kinsmen, was also under pressure to redress the situation.

Obasanjo bid his time and in the run-up to the 2003 general election, he deployed guile and diplomacy to outwit the leadership of the pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, to ensure that the Yoruba supported his re-election. In the election, the PDP swept the polls and of the six AD governors then, only Tinubu returned for a second term in office. Tinubu survived the Obasanjo onslaught as he saw through his shenanigans during his negotiations with the Yoruba leaders such as the late Chief Abraham Adesanya, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Chief Olanihun Ajayi.

His victory was to redefine the relationship between the duo during their second term. A chagrined Obasanjo never forgave Tinubu for outfoxing him. At every point in their official interaction, he did all he could to frustrate the Tinubu administration. When Tinubu made moves to build the first independent power plant in Nigeria, the Obasanjo administration frustrated it.

The frosty relationship between them was to further deteriorate when Lagos made moves to create more local government areas in deference to the yearnings of the people. The state, after going through the constitutional process, finally created 37 additional local government areas, which the Obasanjo administration refused to recognise. The creation of additional local governments in the state turned out to be a battle of wits between Obasanjo and Tinubu. To force Lagos to revert to its 20-local government structure, Obasanjo directed the seizure of funds to local governments in the state, totalling over N10 billion, from the Federation Account. Not even a Supreme Court judgment, which described his action as illegal, could make the former president back down.

The duo were to be locked in a fresh political battle, reminiscent of that of 2003 in the 2007 general election. By then, Tinubu had pulled out of AD to form the Action Congress (AC), which later metamorphosed into the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Obasanjo, as the outgoing president wanted to ensure the continued domination of the PDP in the South-west, to consolidate his position as a respectable leader of the party.

On the other hand, Tinubu was set to reclaim the geopolitical zone from the rampaging PDP machinery. In the end, PDP retained its five states with ACN retaining Lagos. But it turned out to be a pyrrhic victory for the ruling party because with an uncommon determination, Tinubu engineered and encouraged the legal battles that finally led to the reclamation of Ondo, Ekiti, Osun and Edo States from the PDP.

From the scratch, he built the ACN to a formidable political party that within a short time became the major opposition party in Nigeria. He deployed his resources, energy and political acumen to give the ruling party a fight in the political space.

In his avowed determination to ensure the defeat of PDP, he tried to form an alliance in the run up to the 2011 general election with Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, another respectable opposition leader. Under the scheme, the ACN and Buhari’s Congress for Progress Change (CPC) were to work together. But the alliance, which began rather late, failed due to irreconcilable differences between the two party leaders.

Nevertheless, they were not discouraged. What Tinubu and Buhari failed to pull off in 2011, they did in 2013. With their encouragement, focus and determination, they were able to bring the major opposition parties in the country to come together. They adopted a novel, though complicated process that eventually led to the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which in its short existence has been nibbling at PDP’s stronghold.

Starting out with 11 governors after its formation, APC recently increased the number of governors in its fold to 16 following the defection of five aggrieved PDP governors to the party. APC has since turned the PDP, the behemoth that had a stranglehold over the political space in Nigeria since 1999, into a minority party in the House of Representatives. Effectively, as the PDP grows weaker by the day, the APC waxes stronger.

As the nation approaches another election year in 2015, the electorate is assured of a choice: it is either PDP or APC. This largely has been due to the unwavering commitment of Tinubu who has given his all to nudge the opposition in the right direction. For his foresightedness and unrelenting determination to deepen Nigeria’s democratic space, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is THISDAY’s Man of the Year.

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2013: Presidency Awards Self Pass Mark; APC: Okupe Feeding The Nation With Lies, Nigeria is Failing!

The Presidency yesterday reviewed its performance in 2013 and awarded itself a pass mark, adding that its achievement in the outgoing year is unprecedented.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, gave the presidential score card in a statement last night in Abuja.

In the statement Okupe said that President Goodluck Jonathan has moved significantly forward in many sectors than it was in 2011 adding that the transformation which took place in the economy, transportation, agriculture, power and other critical sectors were the routes which all developed nations had taken before now but which unfortunately had not been taken by Nigeria before now.

The statement read in part: “It is an incontrovertible fact that Nigeria under Jonathan has reduced its food imports by about 40 per cent and increased its local production of rice, cassava, sorghum, cotton and cocoa in percentages ranging from 25 to 56 in the last two years.

“For the first time since independence, the Nigerian agricultural sector is attracting unprecedented Foreign Direct Investment. Over the past  two years, the sector has attracted $ 4 billion in private sector executed letters of commitment to invest in agricultural value chains, from food crops, to export crops, fisheries and livestock.

“The number of private sector seed companies grew from 10 to 70 within one year. Over $ 7 billion of investments from Nigerian businesses have been made to develop new fertilizer manufacturing plants, which will make Nigeria the largest producer and exporter of fertilizer in Africa. It is also noteworthy that agricultural lending as a share of total bank lending has risen from two per cent to six per cent in two years.

“On the power sector reforms initiated by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2010, Okupe explained that the major component of the reform which is the privatization of the generation and distribution power infrastructure was successfully accomplished in 2013 thus putting Nigeria on a sure path of steady power supply in a no distant future.”

However, the opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) denied the Presidency’s claims, saying the citizenry are worse off on account of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party’s alleged bad rule.

Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Joe Igbokwe who spoke on behalf of the party said all the indices of a failed state are present in Nigeria.

Igbokwe said: “What do you expect Okupe to say? You should not have expected them to score themselves low or to have agreed that they have failed. There is nobody in the presidency who will have the courage to say that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP-led Federal Government is not doing well. I am not surprised. There is no need wasting time on Okupe’s claims. He is just earning a living, that is why he feeds the nation with lies.

“The fact is that the President is not in charge. All the indices of a failed state are present in the country at the moment. Our economy is not doing well, the hospitals are still mere consulting clinics, security is a luxury, while oil theft is on the rise. I was reading an article on Sahara Reporters and the author of the article listed all the contracts that have been awarded by the present administration and there is nothing to show for it. He specifically mentioned the Benin/Ore Highway which is still dilapidated and they award the contract yearly. Maybe they are claiming the glory of Lagos because the state is doing well. Same applies to all APC states. Maybe they are claiming the glories of the APC states,” Igbokwe added.

SkytrendNews

Shocker for PDP: Tambuwal to join APC

by OBIORA IFOH AND SOLA ADEBAYO 

…opposition closes ranks to fi ght ruling party
Tukur denies dragging NEC to court

The fortune of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is set to deem further as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal is set to formally decamp to the rival All Progressives Congress, APC, in January.

The Speaker’s decision came as a shock to the leadership of the PDP, who earlier in December had extracted commitment from the House leaders that member’s defection will no longer be tenable.

This is as PDP’s National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur denied that he was filing a legal action to prevent the National Executive Council, NEC, of the party from removing him.

Our correspondent gathered that the Sokoto State chapter of the APC has mandated its Tambuwal Local Government chapter to formally present a membership card to the Speaker who has been asked by the state Governor, Aliyu Wamakko to formally declare his stand.

Tambuwal has been seen as a beautiful bride by both APC and PDP, and has attended meetings with both parties.

It was gathered, however, that Tambuwal would retain his seat as Speaker due to the numerical strength of the opposition party if he decides to decamp.

It will be recalled that the defection of some members of the House of Representatives elected on the platform of the ruling party into APC has brought the number of the federal lawmakers of the opposition party to 172. The PDP presently has 171.

The likely defection of Tambuwal will further alter the equation in favour of APC in the House, with its membership increasing to 173, with PDP coming down to 170.

It was being speculated that other members of the House were also planning to join Tambuwal to pitch tent with APC.

Tambuwal was elected on the platform of the ruling party from Sokoto State.

Already, his colleagues from the state have followed the path of Governor Wammako to decamp.

One of the principal officers of the House, who confided in our correspondent, told National Mirror that Tambuwal had perfected the plans to move into the opposition party.

“The Speaker of the House (Tambuwal) is moving into APC and that movement is sure. The speaker is to formally declare for the opposition party as soon as the House reconvenes from recess.

“But Mr. Speaker is going to retain his seat as he is set to tap the numerical strength of APC in the House to retain his seat. The defection of Mr. Speaker is going to alter the political equation in the House substantially because many other members of the House are likely to join him to move to APC.

“The speaker has made up his minds and he has perfected the strategies with the leaders of APC and he is not likely to go into APC alone as some of his colleagues in the House have also decided to follow him into the opposition party.

“The transition of Mr. Speaker is going to be smooth and his seat is not going to be threatened in any way. The movement of the speaker is going to deal a death blow on the ruling party. Just let us wait for the outcome of the suit challenging the defection of some House members into APC by the leadership of PDP.

“There is going to be exodus of members, including members of the National Assembly, out of PDP, if the court judgement allows defection,” added the federal lawmaker, who craved anonymity,” the source said.

Reacting to the defection plot, Special Adviser on Media to the Speaker, Imam Imam said that those reports remain rumours and as a matter of rules, they have refused to react to speculation.

He said: “The Speaker is in PDP, he remains a PDP member and there is nothing to suggest that he is moving to another party.

“All of those reports remain speculation and like you know as a matter of policy, we do not react to specualtions. The Speaker has not defected.”

In a related development, Tukur, in a statement by his Special Adviser, Prince Oliver Okpara, denied insinuation that he plans to sue the party’s NEC.

The national chairman disassociated himself from such move, describing it as unthinkable and unimaginable.

He wondered how he could initiate such an action against a body he is part of and an organ of the party that has the highest say and policy making body in the party.

His words: “How can somebody destroy his own house? The intended legal action only exists in the minds of the writers of the false story. I am a member of the PDP NEC and I respect the body and the members.”

Meanwhile, the Presidency has said that unprecedented policy decisions were taken and major projects executed for the good of Nigerians in spite of pockets of distractions during the year 2013.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe stated this in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday.

Okupe noted that contrary to impressions being created by the opposition, Nigeria under President Goodluck Jonathan has moved significantly forward in many sectors than it was in 2011.

The Presidential aide said the transformation, which has taken place in the area of transportation, agriculture, power and other critical sectors are the routes which all developed nations had taken before now but which unfortunately had not been taken by Nigeria before now.

Okupe said: “It is an incontrovertible fact that Nigeria under Jonathan has reduced its food imports by about forty percent and increased its local production of rice, cassava, sorghum, cotton and cocoa in percentages ranging from 25 to 56 in the last two years.

“For the first time since independence, the Nigerian agricultural sector is attracting unprecedented Foreign Direct Investment. Over the past 2 years, the sector has attracted $ 4 billion in private sector executed letters of commitment to invest in agricultural value chains, from food crops, to export crops, fisheries and livestock.

“The number of private sector seed companies grew from 10 to 70 within one year. Over $7billion investments from Nigerian businesses have been made to develop new fertilizer manufacturing plants, which will make Nigeria the largest producer and exporter of fertilizers in Africa.

“It is also noteworthy that agricultural lending as a share of total bank lending has risen from two percent to six percent in two years.”

According to him, the major component of the power sector reform, which is the privatisation of the generation and distribution of the sector, was successfully accomplished in 2013, thus putting Nigeria on a sure path of steady power supply in no distant future.

He explained that with the completion of the privatisation process this year, as well as the completion of 10 National Integrated Power Projects, NIPP, Nigeria for the first time, has moved away from vertically integrated state owned and poorly managed electricity industry to a modern private sector-led fully regulated market with the right incentives capable of attracting new investments to kick start the re-industrialisation of the country.

Other major achievements of the Jonathan administration in the outgoing year, according to the Presidency, include the recovery of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, which was made possible by a combination of sound fiscal and monetary policies as well as a transparent conduct of state affairs in a manner which has rekindled investors’ confidence in the Nigerian market.

Okupe said those who always seek to use the security challenges in some parts the country as the only barometer to measure the present administration are not being fair to the President, considering the fact that the war on insurgency and terrorism has never been a quick fix anywhere in the world.

While reminding the public that bombings and killings by insurgents happened in Kano, Kogi, Niger, Yobe, Borno, Sokoto,A damawa and the Federal Capital Territory in 2011 and 2012, the Presidential aide noted that terrorism has been largely contained and restricted to one or two states in 2013.

“Yes, we are not where we hope to be but it will be sheer mischief to insist that we are where we were or as some wickedly say we are worse than we were. Definitely, their position is not based on facts and so should be ignored by Nigerians” Okupe stated

While reiterating the determination of President Jonathan to remain steadfast in his pursuit of accelerated economic growth and stability, peace and development of all parts of Nigeria, Okupe said the Federal Government will consolidate on the growth recorded in the outgoing year by completing all ongoing projects as well as initiating new programmes and projects, especially in sectors that will create jobs and empower Nigerian youths.

NationalMirror