President Goodluck Jonathan was at Ooni of Ife’s palace in Ile- Ife, Osun State on Saturday where he told the monarch and other chiefs that he remains the best person to lead the nation till 2019.
The visit was in continuation of his consultations with critical stakeholders on the issue of his reelection bid.
The President seized the opportunity to address some of the complaints coming from the southwest about his administration.
Stressing the need for the implementation of the reports of the national conference as the panacea for the growth and development of the country, the President expressed belief that no matter what developmental strategies put in place without long term solution such as enunciated in the conference reports, such efforts would always end up as short term measure.
According to the President, “One of the key things that we must do is to ensure that we have some significant changes in the country in terms of social and political structures and we believe that for us to really have a change society we must go beyond just infrastructure and that is one of the reasons why we set up the national conference, which they came up with some key recommendations, that if we implement it will move Nigeria forward.
“When some people talk about change, we are talking about moving Nigeria forward, and to move Nigeria forward, we believe that that the implementation of that report is key . Yes as a government we can work on our infrastructures like roads. But those clamouring for change; they won’t be able to bring about real change since they have refused to be part of the process that would bring about the change they are shouting about.
“Some political parties that are advocating for change I believe they don’t have the blue print for the development of this country as enunciated in the report of the national conference. and they cannot give out what they don’t have because they boycotted the conference and I don’t see how they will implement that report and if they will not implement that report, where will they take this country to? ”
He gave a firm commitment that the issue of poor representation of the southwest in the scheme of things at the federal level would be addressed if he is returned to office.
His words, “One of the matters that keep cropping up is the issue of political appointments for people from the south west. I promise that in the next dispensation whatever lapses we have, will be taken care of. We will sit down and make sure that while appointing people into offices, the south west is not short hanged in any way.
“We knew what happened that led to that skewed distribution in a way, over the period we tried to correct it and I believed because of that major problem at the beginning not caused by me, you know the reason, I believe my good brothers and sisters, my fathers and mothers from the south west let me promise you that in my second tenure, we will make sure that thing doesn’t come up at all.
“We promise that we will do our best for the whole country and south west must play roles in government so that whatever is due to the south westerners, they will surely get it, and we promise that we will do our best for our country.”
The President, who listed the achievements of his administration, especially in the areas of roads, agriculture, health and education, noted that Nigerians would enjoy better services if given another chance to lead the country for the next four years.
“When we took over just about 5,000 kilometers of federal roads were motor able, out of the 35,000 kilometers of roads owned by the federal government. Within this period,we have added 20,000 and expanded a number of them dualised. We still have about 10,000 kilometers of federal roads still bad, but you can see the difference, 5,000, now 25,000 motor able, 10,000 for the next four years will surely get repaired.
“In agriculture we have moved forward and I always that for you to know, that we have done something in agriculture, you will now the devastating floods in 2012, and people thought that Nigeria was going to suffer from cost of food items but it never went up.
“Within this period because of the drop in the international price of crude oil which has even affected the value of the Naira that has dropped, in comparison to the dollar! We have been able to maintain a level of equilibrium. In some other countries that have experienced similar problem, people are queuing up to buy essential commodities, but here in Nigeria, because we moved forward in agriculture, we are producing a lot of food items and we have reduced our import bills.
“Before now we were spending about N3.3 trillion to import food stuff alone, but now we are spending just about N600 billion .Because of that the food prices have not gone up, and has remained stable.”
The President seized the opportunity to address some of the complaints coming from the southwest about his administration.
Stressing the need for the implementation of the reports of the national conference as the panacea for the growth and development of the country, the President expressed belief that no matter what developmental strategies put in place without long term solution such as enunciated in the conference reports, such efforts would always end up as short term measure.
According to the President, “One of the key things that we must do is to ensure that we have some significant changes in the country in terms of social and political structures and we believe that for us to really have a change society we must go beyond just infrastructure and that is one of the reasons why we set up the national conference, which they came up with some key recommendations, that if we implement it will move Nigeria forward.
“When some people talk about change, we are talking about moving Nigeria forward, and to move Nigeria forward, we believe that that the implementation of that report is key . Yes as a government we can work on our infrastructures like roads. But those clamouring for change; they won’t be able to bring about real change since they have refused to be part of the process that would bring about the change they are shouting about.
“Some political parties that are advocating for change I believe they don’t have the blue print for the development of this country as enunciated in the report of the national conference. and they cannot give out what they don’t have because they boycotted the conference and I don’t see how they will implement that report and if they will not implement that report, where will they take this country to? ”
He gave a firm commitment that the issue of poor representation of the southwest in the scheme of things at the federal level would be addressed if he is returned to office.
His words, “One of the matters that keep cropping up is the issue of political appointments for people from the south west. I promise that in the next dispensation whatever lapses we have, will be taken care of. We will sit down and make sure that while appointing people into offices, the south west is not short hanged in any way.
“We knew what happened that led to that skewed distribution in a way, over the period we tried to correct it and I believed because of that major problem at the beginning not caused by me, you know the reason, I believe my good brothers and sisters, my fathers and mothers from the south west let me promise you that in my second tenure, we will make sure that thing doesn’t come up at all.
“We promise that we will do our best for the whole country and south west must play roles in government so that whatever is due to the south westerners, they will surely get it, and we promise that we will do our best for our country.”
The President, who listed the achievements of his administration, especially in the areas of roads, agriculture, health and education, noted that Nigerians would enjoy better services if given another chance to lead the country for the next four years.
“When we took over just about 5,000 kilometers of federal roads were motor able, out of the 35,000 kilometers of roads owned by the federal government. Within this period,we have added 20,000 and expanded a number of them dualised. We still have about 10,000 kilometers of federal roads still bad, but you can see the difference, 5,000, now 25,000 motor able, 10,000 for the next four years will surely get repaired.
“In agriculture we have moved forward and I always that for you to know, that we have done something in agriculture, you will now the devastating floods in 2012, and people thought that Nigeria was going to suffer from cost of food items but it never went up.
“Within this period because of the drop in the international price of crude oil which has even affected the value of the Naira that has dropped, in comparison to the dollar! We have been able to maintain a level of equilibrium. In some other countries that have experienced similar problem, people are queuing up to buy essential commodities, but here in Nigeria, because we moved forward in agriculture, we are producing a lot of food items and we have reduced our import bills.
“Before now we were spending about N3.3 trillion to import food stuff alone, but now we are spending just about N600 billion .Because of that the food prices have not gone up, and has remained stable.”
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