2015: North ’ll decide who succeeds Jonathan – Sen. Aruwa.

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From: NOAH EBIJE, Kaduna
Senator Mohammed Muhkar Aruwa was a two-term Senator and represented Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the Red Chamber between 1999 and 2003. He was also the governorship candidate of All Nigeria Peoples Party, Kaduna State, in the 2007 and 2011 elections. In this interview with Daily Sun, Aruwa declares that the issue of who will succeed President Good luck Jonathan is nothing to fret about, as he believes the North will decide. According to him, “As long as Nigeria is concerned, the number is here in the north. The leadership resides here. To take it anywhere else, there has to be consensus and agreement of people from the north. There is no question about that. It is a question of understanding the politics of democracy.’’ Excerpts:
Why did you decide to leave the ANPP?
I have the choice and the right to leave. Should I broadcast my right, what belongs to me? Who did I consult before I joined them?  Nobody. I consulted myself and I decided. Now, I have also decided and in the course of my decision, I am consulting with the people I know and whoever wants to go with me is welcome. It is not by force and there is no reason why I should give explanation why I am leaving. It is unfair.
It appears that the level of reported corruption at the National Assembly is much pronounced now than during your days there. What do you think?
When we were at the National Assembly, there was corruption but nobody drummed it as it is being done now. Corruption has been there right from the military era. As long as there are civil servants in Nigeria, corruption will never be stamped out of Nigeria. People talk about corruption and relate it to politicians but the biggest corruption lies with the civil servants. No politician will go to an office and start corruption without those people he met there putting him through what has to be done. If a minister is appointed for a particular ministry, he does not know what is what and where is what. The civil servants are his coaches. They alone know the tricks and intrigues to get to the corrupt means. I am not saying that politicians are not corrupt but the biggest ones are the civil servants. So, during our time, civil servants were also there. Those who decided to follow their sermons got corrupted and those who did not remained uncorrupt. It is the same thing up till now. As long as we leave the civil service intact, we would be chasing shadow.
Would you say the Executive is more corrupt than the Legislature?
The Executive arm carries along civil servants. How do you perpetuate corruption without having an insider whether Executive, Legislature or Judiciary? All the arms of government are corrupt and the corruption spans from those workers called civil servants in the various organs.
How then do you begin to reform the civil service to eliminate the corruption?
The first thing is to look at the civil service rule and amend it because it is too archaic and the powers given to those officers, from deputy director up to the Permanent Secretary, is so dangerous. They can make or mar a minister no matter how powerful that minister may be. If he does not follow their way, they know the way to plot his downfall. They are the ones behind the big corruption. They should be graded and rated by performance and transparency and they should not be promoted indiscriminately. A civil servant should have a record of what he has done since he joined the service and how long can a civil servant be in a juicy office. Where you have a director for donkey years in the ministry, he knows how every kobo comes in and how it will be spent and how every kobo will not be spent and how it can be taken out. They become consultants to the politicians. Some politicians go into that office without knowing a thing about corruption but by and large they get corrupted. So, first, reform the civil service, make those offices unattractive and see if it does not address corruption.
Are we expecting a more vibrant Aruwa now that you are joining another political party?
Aruwa will never change as far as the interest of Nigerians and Nigeria is concerned. Wherever I see wrongdoing, I will expose it. When I hear about wrongdoing and confirm it, I will expose it. I do not witch-hunt, I do not envy and I know that collectively if  we put our heads together with the fear of God, this nation has great things to offer everybody. But there must be the fear of God, transparency, the love of one another, regardless of creed, tribe or religion. That is when we will have the kind of Nigeria Aruwa will die for.
Given your experience in the National Assembly, what is your view on the purported move by the House of Representatives to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan over alleged non-implementation of the budget?
Impeachment has its causes and the word impeachment should not be taken lightly because once it is sounded, it must be followed by facts. Members of the House do not represent themselves. They represent all of us. If they choose to go that way, they should first of all convince those they represent as to the grounds for the proposed impeachment. But if it is non-implementation of the budget, then it is a non issue. It does not have the weight to impeach the President. But the budget is law and non-implementation constitutes a violation of the law.
Is he implementing the budget?
Yes, they claim that he has implemented about 50 per cent of the budget. I am looking at the core issue that justifies an impeachment and certainly, partial implementation of the budget cannot be enough reason to impeach the President.
Some other people are also suggesting that the President should be impeached for his alleged inability to handle the Boko Haram issue….
I think it is everybody’s responsibility to handle Boko Haram. It is not the responsibility of the President alone. He did not create Boko Haram. Did he? And he is not happy with what they are doing in a country that he is the President. There are issues that the National Assembly can take the president on but certainly, not these ones. Everybody is doing his very best to get to the bottom of this unfortunate development and how do they want the President to handle Boko Haram? Is there a set rule of handling Boko Haram that Jonathan has failed to follow? I am not trying to defend Jonathan but there are so many other issues that affect Nigerians and Boko Haram is just one of them. Is that what the National Assembly should be telling us now? Are there no other core issues, which they need to bring to light? But it appears the Boko Haram issue has apparently gone out of hand. The main job of terrorists all over the world is to make governance impossible. Under the circumstances, the government is doing its best but maybe there are some approaches that need to be re-examined.
Will impeachment solve the Boko Haram problem?
Certainly not. There are issues that the National Assembly should talk about and they are not talking about them. You and I and other people know about Boko Haram and the menace and harm they have continued to cause and it is not new. When a catastrophe of this nature begins to brew, we all turn the other way and begin to bring religion into it. But they have now proved to the whole world that they are not after Christians only. Christians and Muslims, nobody is spared and we all believe it is a Muslim sect. So, the focus of the authorities had gone to the wrong direction not until the Boko Haram started planting bombs in the mosques, planting bombs in churches. So, they have told us that they are not what the security people think they are. They have proved that they want to make governance impossible whether you are a Christian or Muslim. So, is that why you want to empanel some people to impeach the President? But the President was quoted sometime ago as saying that members of Boko haram have infiltrated his administration yet he refused to name those involved. I support those asking him to name them. But you see, initially, nobody took this Boko Haram as serious as we later found out. We had thought it was something that was hanging out in a section of the country and that it would remain there. I am sure the President made that statement out of context because for a President to say that they infiltrated his government and was not able to fish them out of his government, leaves a lot to be desired. But I feel it was a slip of the tongue. They did not give him the correct picture of what they call Boko Haram in the first place. But now that he has realized that they are not what we thought they are, he should listen to Nigerians much more than to those so-called advisers. He should not enclose himself with the very few advisers. He should listen to every statement made by majority of Nigerians and have them analyzed and follow them up. But where the sources of information are limited to a section of the people who do not even mix with the people, then there is bound to be problem. I feel sorry for the President and until he gets out of that cage and starts listening to Nigerians, he may never get it right.
Some people also believe that activities of Boko Haram may deny the north the presidency in 2015. Do you hold the same view?
No. How do they identify themselves and how many of them are registered voters? The only authorities that can deny any section of the presidency are the people of Nigeria and it is a matter of votes and number. What the north needs is to unite. Once the north is united, the leadership of this country is nothing to fight over. It is naturally residents of the north that will determine where and who becomes the President, if democracy is about number. But where the north is not united, the results will be scattered. You do not wrestle for leadership; the number gives it to you. Anybody from any part of the country can be President as long as there is consensus. As long as Nigeria is concerned, the number is here in the north. The leadership resides here. To take it anywhere else, there has to be consensus and agreement of people from the north. There is no question about that. It is a question of understanding the politics of democracy. But I am not saying that power should reside in the north forever.

Lamido/Amaechi 2015 Ticket: Real Or Imaginary Slug Line? By Ifeanyi Izeze.

When the Holy Bible say “my people perish” it was emphatic they did not perish because they lack resilience for militancy or ordinary graah -graah. They perish for “lack of knowledge” and in this context knowledge about the mechanics and mischief of politicking at the national stage. Is it not interesting that some supposedly highly -placed people of the south-south and their followers or rather village people, for whatever reasons, could be so gullible to buy wholesale and had continued to widen the gap in the relationship between President Goodluck Jonathan and the Rivers state governor and chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), Chibuike Amaechi. Whosoever is involved in ensuring this partition is sustained and even fortified for sure have other reasons.
Whose interest is the continued divide between Jonathan and Amaechi going to serve at the end of the day? Does the president need any governor whether for or against to perform and show the Nigerian people that he is trying no matter how small or slow? If a government is delivering on the social contracts with the citizenry, such performance would speak for itself because it would be glaring and cannot be denied even by worst oppositions and critics. But a situation where the government is yet to convince the ordinary Nigerians that against all odds installed it that “yes we can”, how do you expect the electorates to begin to sing “yes we believe” except because faith as defined in the Holy Bible “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen yet.”
How could any reasonable person think or even believe that Amaechi was installed as the NGF chairman to make sure Jonathan did not succeed as a president? Meanwhile, the other side of the divide thinks that Amaechi was put there to enable his south south brother do whatever he wanted with little resistance. If Jonathan is working, is he not going to do it from his office? If he is not working, it is in his office also as the president. So how is it that Chairman of the NGF is the one making sure the president does not perform? This assumption is evil and vexing because it is an outright expression of a disable mindset to think that a governor (even the league of governors) could make a sitting president fail in his office. Even if the president is not performing because there are people who want to make sure he fails, at least there should be sparks of ability to perform which nobody not even satan can take away from him. Is it not so? But what do we have today?
Interestingly, a recent newspaper report had it that “Obasanjo backs Lamido/Amaechi ticket for 2015.” Is this not absurd and a well-packaged mischief deliberately intended to strengthen the slug line between the duo of Gov. Amaechi and President Jonathan. As reported, Lamido and Amaechi will slug it out with President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice -President Namadi Sambo if Jonathan decides to contest the 2015 poll. Guess who is pushing the ticket? Former President Olusegun Obasanjo of all people! The question is: who planted this story, which at best was speculative, as the lead on prominent Abuja-based national daily? And what did the person intend to achieve?
As was said by an analyst, it is also important to warn that the logic of that story is not its truth or falsehood but hanging Sule Lamido and Amaechi’s perceived presidential ambition on Obasanjo’s sponsorship was intended to make it unacceptable to Obasanjo’s many political enemies. This story no doubt is fundamentally a product of intrigue, manipulation and misinformation geared towards causing strife in the ranks of both northern and Southern political leaders and that’s why it’s worrying. Sule Lamido and Amaechi –two governors who have shown undisputable strong leadership models are obviously the target of the mischief.
Is it not surprising that the ticket as canvassed will be Lamido/Amaechi? Why are the proponents not talking of Amaechi as the presidential candidate and Lamido as his vice since the ticket is to unseat a south-south president who is claiming his zone still has one more term to complete their stay at the presidency? Dragging Amaechi into all these was an outright mischief. Let’s even assume President Jonathan would not contest for whatever reasons and the slot returned to the North, is the choice of the vice presidential candidate from the south south more important than the choice of the presidential candidate from the section that should produce him? As it stands today, almost everybody who has been in politics as governor in the north wants to be the PDP presidential candidate: Sule Lamido, Babangida Aliyu, IsaYuguda and Bukola Saraki, amongst  others want to be the president of Nigeria at the same time by wresting power from Jonathan at the PDP primaries except he decides not to contest. If Governor Lamido is being propped up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, as reported, and Yuguda, Aliyu and Saraki are hinging their aspiration on their contacts within the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and PDP Governors’ Forum, why was it easier for the Obasanjo candidate to see no other person to pick as vice other than the Chairman of the governors’ forum who should naturally be better disposed to his governors colleagues who are hinging their support on the forum? You see the mischief?
If it is true as reported that the PDP governors and the Northern Nigeria Governors Forum, will speak with one voice on who they would support for the presidency, we should rather wait until then and not drag Amaechi into the northern calculation which is pretending to ignore the strongest presidential contender and amongst the well-groomed and most-qualified from the region under the current PDP platform- former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who has never hid his intention to take a shot at the presidential contest come 2015.
We need to be reminded that when Jonathan decided to contest against the will of the North in the 2011 election, almost all the Northern Governors rose against that decision but as events unfolded, we all saw how their nay turned to aye and the ayes had it. Nigerians should shine their eyes, lets no one deceive us again.

Nigerian Leaders Must Make Personal Sacrifices, PDP Tells Jonathan, Other Elected Officials.

PDP Secretary, Olisa Metuh 

 

By SaharaReporters, New York

The ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), today called on President Goodluck Jonathan and other elected members of the party to be ready to make personal sacrifices and self-denial.
The party said in an unusual statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, this is what Nigerians expect from them as their leaders.
It also said that underperforming elected officials of the party in public offices would not be allowed to fly the party’s flag in 2015, an unprecedented acknowledgement that some of its officials have failed to live up to public expectation.
“The 2015 re-election ticket for its members would be anchored strongly on credible performance while non–performing appointed officials would be shown the way out as well as be blacklisted,” the statement said.
Issued to mark the party’s 14th anniversary next Friday, the statement called on its members in public offices to go the extra mile in ensuring the “faithful and accelerated translation of its manifesto” in order to meet what it called the “burgeoning expectations” of Nigerians.  
“Our focus on the performance chart of our members in government is a crucial pedestal to achieving our pact with the people whose mandate we have,” it stated.
It further said, “Those who have been lukewarm; those on the borders of average must wake to the reality that the re-awakened destiny of our party, the pact which gave us mass appeal, is leaving them behind. The choice is to shape in or ship out.”
This is the first time the party has ever placed the indivisibility of the party on the line or “demanded” performance of its elected officials.
Analysts told SaharaReporters in response that the recent Edo State elections gubernatorial contest, in which the PDP was electorally buried in every community statewide by the respected performance of Governor Adams Oshiomhole, may have generated panic in the national rhetoric of the party.
“The PDP is clearly beginning to feel the heat, to recognize that it can no longer take the people for granted at the polls, especially where rigging is limited,” one of them said.  “The question is whether it is too late, especially at the centre, to which the party’s “demand” for performance ought to resonate clearly.”
Another political analyst said the PDP was simply playing games, and is neither capable of change nor interested in it.
“This is not a party capable of change unless it is taught a historic lesson by voters in a free and open burial as in the case of Edo State,” he said, asking, “Do you think the patient knows his condition is terminal, or merely thinks it is a cold day today?”

I am the world’s most criticised president – Jonathan.

 by Ihuoma Chiedozie.

President Goodluck Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday said he was the most criticised President in the whole world and vowed to become the most praised before he left office.

Jonathan however absolved himself of any blame for the country’s problems for which he said he had become an object of criticism.

“I think I am the most criticised President in the whole world, but I want to tell this audience that before I leave I will be the most praised President,” he said at the opening of the 52nd Annual General of the Nigerian Bar Association at the International Conference Centre in Abuja.

He added, “Sometimes, I ask, were there roads in this country and Jonathan brought flood to destroy the roads?

“Was there power and Jonathan brought hurricane to wipe it out?

“If Boko Haram is that of poverty in the North, were there farms and Jonathan brought tsunami and drought to destroy them? Within two years – is that possible?

“But what I can tell Nigerians is, ‘let those talking keep talking, time will tell.’”

The keynote speaker at the event, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Sokoto Catholic Diocese, had earlier picked holes in the 1999 Constitution and said the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was the most powerful President in the world.

Kukah also said a messiah was needed in the country, but he emphasised that the identity of the messiah was still unknown.

The President’s spokesman, Reuben Abati, had in an article in The Guardian newspaper on Sunday defended Jonathan against insinuations that he was a drunk and glutton.

Abati wrote, “We are not allowed to touch alcohol. Alcohol is not served during official duties. Yes, when there is an international function, wine is served, but nobody gets drunk around here (Presidency). That will amount to an act of indiscipline.

“The President himself does not allow alcohol to be served at his table. But when you go to social network media, they tell you something else. Lies. Lies. Lies.”

Meanwhile, Jonathan also joined the controversy over the propriety or otherwise of the creation of state police in the country. He called for restraint in the debate on the creation of state police, although he admitted that the National Council of State welcomed the proposal when it was raised at one of its meetings.

He said, “On the issue of state police, everybody knows I have been Deputy Governor and Governor in Bayelsa State, there was a time we were frustrated and we felt that we should have our police, that we would be able to manage criminality in our state better because of our local environment.

“Police from other parts of the country find it difficult to go into the waters, but for us who were born inside the water, even in the night we can enter ordinary canoe to go anywhere and we feel that if we have our local police it will be better for us because our police can reach everywhere in our state.

“But when I discussed the issue of state police with former presidents before a state council meeting, they said it is a good idea, which probably one day we will get there.

“And that is the emphasis I want to make, one day we’ll get to that point. But presently we have to be careful on how we go about it.”

He added, “Experiments have been made, there was a time when the police came up with a policy that police officers from the rank of inspector and below should be posted to their states of origin as a way of testing whether police familiar with the environment will make changes. But it was realised that when police officers from the rank of inspector down were posted to their state of origin, things became worse. So the police had to discontinue that policy.

“We also feel that looking at the federal level and the way the governors are handling elections in their states with the state electoral commission, where opposition parties hardly win even councillorship elections.

“So, if there is state police and the governors manipulate their state police the way they are manipulating their state electoral commissions, the instability that it will create, even what we are witnessing will be a child’s play.”

President of the NBA, Joseph Daudu, SAN, had in his address backed calls for the creation of state police in the country.

The NBA also condemned the level of insecurity and corruption in the country, and told the President that he would go down in history as the architect of a modern Nigeria if he revived the anti-corruption campaign.

The theme of the conference was ‘Nigeria as an emerging market: Redefining our laws and politics for growth’.

In apparent response to calls for the convocation of Sovereign National Conference, the President said in his address that democratic structures were already in place in the country.

“It is important to appreciate the existence of a democratic structure in the country, which, no matter our opinion, cannot be wished away,” he said.

Kukah, in a paper titled, ‘Nigeria as an emerging democracy: The dilemma and the promise,’ had said that due to the nature of the country’s constitution, the President of Nigeria was the most powerful in the world.

“The President of Nigeria is more powerful than any President anywhere in the world, even more powerful than the American President.

“The President of Nigeria can, as I am standing here now, decide to allocate an oil well to me,” the cleric said, drawing laughter from the audience.

“To be the President of Nigeria, you have to have the capacity to do well and that is where motive becomes important,” he added.

Noting that Nigerians were looking for a messiah, Kukah said only a Nigerian could lead the country to the Promised Land.

He added, “Nigerians are looking for a messiah, but a messiah is not going to come from another planet.

“The Nigerian messiah is among us – we were not told that a Ghanaian could be the President of Nigeria. The only qualification to being the President of Nigeria is being a Nigerian.

“The messiah is among us, but who the messiah is, we don’t know.”

He noted that all the Presidents since the country’s independence came to power by accident.

“There is no President of Nigeria till date that did not come to power by accident.

“This should teach us to be more modest because God always finds a way of bringing somebody who was heading somewhere else – who has no ambition,” he said.

Kukah went ahead to stress that “the Constitution as it is does not have the capacity to deal with the fine issues of a complex country like Nigeria.”

The cleric noted that calls for state creation are largely selfish.

He emphasised the need to address difficult questions in the country, like the country’s membership of the Organisation of Islamic Countries, the implementation of Sharia law in parts of the country, and the need for state police.

“When Shagari became the President of Nigeria, not a single Muslim in Nigeria mentioned Sharia law, because we were all busy eating,” he said.

The President Nigerians Know – by Paul Adepoju.

It was with a rare blend of shock and utmost surprise that I read Dr. Reuben Abati’s write-up on a Sunday morning, right in the presence of the Lord where nothing is hidden before the Most High. As expected, the veteran journalist dwelt more on portraying the president as a leader who has the interest of the nation at heart.
He also fired word missiles at the self-appointed social media activists thus: “we have a lot of unintelligent people repeating silly clichés and too many intelligent persons wasting their talents lending relevance to thoughtless conclusions.”
I agree with Dr. Abati on the contamination of public commentary, I however disagree with his assertion that lots of the commentators are unintelligent while the intelligent ones are wasting their talents, since he belonged to the same demography before pledging his allegiance to the presidency.
Obviously, he knows more about what a larger percentage of Nigerians don’t know about the man – Goodluck Jonathan, a man he also criticised from a distance prior to his appointment as the president’s media henchman. So it’s not unexpected for him to publicly clamour for fairer consideration of the president who could go down in history as having the lowest approval rating.
Having a closer relationship with people in government is something that has proven severally to be counter-productive for the machinery of governance because it clouds one’s objective assessment of the situation at hand.
On the notion that the president has good intentions for Nigeria, Dr. Abati and everyone at the presidency should know that Nigerians do not doubt that. As a matter of fact, all past presidents had (and still have) good intentions for our nation. The bone of contention however is not unrelated to the inability of the president to bring his brilliant intentions hanging somewhere in the skies to reality.
Despite national and international outcries that characterised the military junta, former heads of government such as Generals Sanni Abachi and Gbadamosi Babangida took the oath because they all had good intentions for the nation.
Extending this beyond the scope of government, one could unequivocally say that even the Nigerian contingent to the 2012 London Olympics had good intentions; they wanted to make the nation proud but their good intentions were inconsequential. Same could be said of the president.
As the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces whose primary role is to ensure the safety of Nigerians, the spate of suicide bombings, ethno-religious crisis, extra-judicial killings and several others could make Nigerians doubt the intention of the president. In other words, Nigerians aren’t doubting GEJ’s intentions, they just aren’t sure he can handle the challenges of his office effectively since thousands of homes daily mourn the demise of their loved ones as a result of circumstances that past presidents would have controlled effectively without bloodshed.
On alcoholism in Aso Rock, Dr. Abati ought to know that Nigerian constitution is silent about drinking alcoholic beverages at the presidential villa hence it’s left to the occupant, current occupant, to decide whether he will perform better under the mild or strong influence of emu oguro (fresh palm wine) or ordinary Zobo drink. All Nigerians care for is a vibrant president who is tackling all their problems.
One of the major reasons why the presidency is being tongue- and word-lashed extensively are his visits to countries where the governments are doing well; his inability or reluctance to introduce such reformations to better the lots of Nigerians whose taxes, sweats and shares of the nation’s oil wealth are fuelling the presidential jets.
As a veteran journalist who has written copiously on politics and government, Dr. Abati can’t expect the president to enjoy the support of all Nigerians; neither will they cheer him on since this isn’t a kindergarten class!
I guess they need to be reminded that Nigeria is the world’s largest black nation and the president is responsible for the fate of over 150 million people belonging to more than 300 ethnic groups; people who are vast and diverse as shown in recent world studies that described them as the happiest, the most spiritually faithful, most unfaithful, and most sexually active – yes we are.
So, instead of attempting to force the love of Goodluck Jonathan down the sore throats of Nigerians, Dr. Abati could do Nigerians, especially the loyal readers of his Friday and Sunday tirades on the pages of Guardian newspapers, much good by using his closeness to the president to give him a frank assessment of what Nigerians really want.
Despite the fact that the president feels he’s being unfairly crucified by the media and activists who are always asking him to resign, he should know that Nigerians aren’t asking him to bring the moon to bar beach, or the sun to the oil creeks; they only want security and the basic things of life in addition of signs that show that the president truly care about the plight of Nigerians by keeping to his promise.
Dr. Abati’s carefully written and scrutinized piece left out the various tell tale signs that made many Nigerians lose hope on the president’s ability to restore fading hope.
A BBM broadcast is currently circulating; it is laced with the president’s various promises while campaigning across the nation. So far, none of them has been satisfactorily fulfilled.
He also reneged on a number of promises including his pledge during the fuel subsidy uproar to reduce his foreign trips and entourage.
However, like some fellow Nigerians, I’m having second thoughts about the man Goodluck Jonathan. Obviously, lots of things are wrong with his administration but he’s making some risky bold steps which if successful could change the public perspective about him from a weakling to an intelligent president. PHCN is one of such.
So, instead of wasting public resources in recruiting media experts to “rebrand” and make the presidency “look good” to Nigerians, the president and his numerous committees need to work harder, sacrifice more, travel less and tackle more problems that will make life easier and safer for Nigerians.
Unlike Reuben Abati, Nigerians don’t see the president every day, but they see his handiworks in the high pump price of fuel and the incessant bomb blasts up north. According to them, the president they know isn’t working hard enough.

I will surprise my critics by 2013 – Jonathan.

Abuja – President Goodluck Jonathan said on Monday he would prove critics of his administration wrong by 2013 when the dividends of new policies introduced begin to manifest.
Jonathan said this while declaring open the 52nd Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Abuja.
He said he was the most criticised President in the world at the moment because his critics failed to understand that the country’s current challenges predated his administration.
He assured that his critics would have the cause to praise him at the end of the life of his administration when his Transformation Agenda would have yielded the expected dividends.
“I think I am the most criticised president in the whole world, but I tell this noble audience that before I leave, I will also be the most praised president.

President Goodluck Jonathan

“I have experienced that before in my governor journey in Bayelsa state. In fact, people who were close to me will tell you that even after the election, I told them that in my first 12 months please cover your ears because you will hear all kinds of things. But as we progress, you will see (changes).
“We are working very hard to stabilise power. We are working very hard to resurface our roads. We have security challenges, which we are also working very hard to bring to reasonable control.
“It is not easy; we don’t have the magic wand, except the miracle worker that with the wave of the hand, probably will help to throw all these challenges away and prosperity will appear. But in pure governance issues, it takes time.
“Sometimes, even people who have held offices in government criticise me to the extent of personal abuses. Sometimes I ask, were there roads across in the country and Jonathan brought flood to wipe out these roads? or we had power and I brought hurricane to break down the entire infrastructure?
“If they say Boko Haram is because of poverty; were there massive irrigation projects in the North where agriculture can thrive and massive farms, and Jonathan brought drought to wipe out these farms? under two years is it possible?
“Well, time will tell. What I can tell Nigerians is that let those who criticize continue to criticise.
“We will do our best and as we progress, Nigerians will know the truth and we’ll see that we are committed and will surely transform this country,’’ he said
The President said that he promised to deliver free, fair and credible elections before the conduct of the 2011 general elections and the assessment of the polls by local and international observers was a testimony that he kept his promise. (NAN)

Senate Committee Directs CBN To Suspend Introduction Of N5,000 Note-PUNCH Newspaper.

Punch Newspapers, Lagos

The Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions on Monday directed the Central Bank of Nigeria to suspend the introduction of  N5,000 note until the Senate was properly briefed.
The Chairman of the committee, Senator Bassey Otu  (PDP- Cross River) issued the directive while speaking to newsmen in Abuja, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
Otu noted that the re-denomination of the currency required the approval of the National Assembly, warning that the CBN must avoid sending the wrong signals to stakeholders in the economy.
He said it was vital for the CBN to discuss the implications of the currency re-denomination with the Senate before it was implemented.
“ I believe that a project of this nature requires parliamentary approval because there are numerous fiscal implications on the entire economy.
 ”The CBN must be very careful in order not to send the wrong signal to the domestic sector and external partners that the Nigerian currency is valueless.
“So, we are sending a letter to them (CBN) to stop all further actions on this until the Senate of the Federal Republic is properly briefed,” he said.
He warned that the conversion of some denominations into coins would lead to a waste of public funds as the previous exercise did not yield the desired result.
“In 2005, the CBN undertook a major currency restructuring to re-coin some denominations which ran into billions of Naira.
“It did not work at all because both the goldsmiths and the blacksmiths converted the coins to moulding bangles, earrings and so on,” he added.
The committee chairman said there were other mechanisms available to the apex bank to tackle the problem of inflation other than the re-nomination of the nation’s currency.