Every citizen should see this little successes not as the success of Goodluck Jonathan but as the success of our Nation, I would in no way paint Gej as the God sent messiah but I would describe him as a man who possesses a burning desire to see Nigeria grow into its rightful place amongst the comity of Nations.
In the last 100 days we have achieved the following as a Nation;
•Nigeria's oil industry expanded by 20% and we reclaimed our position as Africa's largest oil exporter which we'd hitherto lost to Angola. Nigeria was also recognised by OPEC in July as the 2nd largest oil exporter, 2nd only to Saudi Arabia. It is the first time Nigeria has recorded such a feat.
Though this results into more revenue for our country which we may now put into other sectors such as Education, Security and the development of critical infrastructure which is needed, I would advice the government to reduce its dependency on oil and focus on agriculture, though this has been the recent policy of government, I believe youths should be vigorously driven in this direction. Youths should be advised to abandon the lure of white collar jobs and delve into the abundance of agriculture. Also policies which would aid this youths in terms of availability of resources should be put in place.
• Secondly, Inflation rate has been reducing as the administration enforces tighter fiscal policies and in June the Consumer Price Index showed an inflation rate of 10.2% which dropped to 9.4% in July being the lowest rate in the last 4 years.
•Foreign Reserves Rose by 10% to $35 Billion, due to misinformation I once heard a young man say "Gej had spent all our foreign reserves on his campaign", apparently this was not the case.
•Nigeria has been declared top three investment destinations in Africa (number 2) by the independent Africa Business Panel in The Netherlands. Mr Henry Bellingham, UK Parliamentary Under Secretary of State For Africa and Overseas Territories, said during a two-day investment forum in march 2011 tagged: "Making Nigeria Your Goal.''that;
"Nigeria has averaged growth of 8.9 per cent which is really stunning.
"Nigeria is the world's fourth fastest growing economy with solid growth in the next five years and beyond ; this is truly remarkable,'' he said. He also stated that the Nigerian economy may outpace that of South Africa in the next 10 years if the current reform in the banking sector was extended to the power, oil and gas sectors. The benefit of course is enormous for our economy.
•Nigeria now generates power at her highest level ever (4000mw) which is still far from enough but which will improve monthly according to Reno Omokri, the Presidents special adviser on media.
•Nigerian Railway Corporation commenced Mass Transit Services in 5 of 6 geo-political zones and the Last zone should come on stream by year's end.
•Furthermore with the establishment of the NSIA which would facilitate direct investments into infrastructure with priority areas being Power and Roads, Nigerians should rightly expect more infrastructure development.
• The Launch of NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X Satellites would help expand Internet Bandwidth and provide early warning to prevent natural disasters, with such technology we would be rid of the poor internet facilities we are currently experiencing and disasters such as the floods in Lagos and Oyo states would be well managed to avoid loss of live and property.
•The President also introduced the policy of engaging the Private Sector on kerosine pricing, this resulted into the price being reduced between May and September, 2011.
•In addition, by recognising the sacrifices of youth corps members, the President approved an upward review of allowances from 9,700 to 19,800 Naira. Corp members received the news with great joy in July and we hope that one day, Corp members would earn as much as 50,000 naira.
•The Implementation of Minimum Wage Increase for Nigerian Workers to 18,900 Naira monthly is another good step in ensuring the commitment of Civil servants to their duties.
• Women are also not left out as they were given a 16.35% Slot in the cabinet.
With this we hope to see the rise of more women in our polity.
•By deepening Security and expanding Peace in the Niger Delta, the reign of militancy and guerilla warfare amongst our youths in the Niger Delta has reduced. Also with governments recent commitment to cleaning Oil spills in the Ogoni land, we should hope for the better welfare of the Ogoni people.
• Also, there has been reduced kidnapping in the South East with implementation of President's order establishing the 14 Brigade of the army in Ohafia, Abia state. Maritime Safety has also been ensured and stabilized in the last 100 days.
•A stellar cabinet comprising former MDs of the World Bank & Goldman Sachs, Chairperson Accenture and multiple PHds and the approval of genuine foreign investors to obtain visas at the point of entry to facilitate FDI investments, we hope would formulate policies that would help grow and promote the Nigerian economy.
•The National Automobile Council established an Automotive Development Fund to resuscitate the automobile industry and generate jobs is also a platform for providing employment for our youths.
• Model Skills Training Centers in Abuja- collaboration between Industrial Training Fund & the Institute for Technical Education,Singapore have been established as well.
•Finally, there has been established the Nigerian Vehicle Credit Purchase scheme, which would help the common man to acquire vehicles.
I would advice the Federal Government to continue in this direction of development and growth, though there are other sectors of the economy which still require drastic reforms, I pray God grants government the wisdom, knowledge and understanding to continue to provide the dividends of democracy to Nigerians.
God bless Nigeria.
Adedunmade Onibokun
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
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