FG To El-Rufai: You're Not The 'Priest' You Claim To Be
However, in a release signed by Olusanya Awosan, media director at the office of the senior special assistant to the president on public affairs, the Federal Government countered El-Rufai’s arguments, listing series of achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan in more than a year in office.
The statement, in full, reads:
EL-RUFAI’S CRITICISM OF PRESIDENT JOHNATHAN: THE REAL ISSUES
We have read the response of Mallam Nasir el Rufai to Dr. Doyin Okupe’s press release on some issues.
We are compelled to respond as the department of public affairs in the presidency, whose duty it is to engage the public on issues of national importance with a view to establishing and maintaining mutual understanding between the government and citizens through provision of information, education and collation of responses from citizens to government on programmes and policies of government.
The major issues raised by the former FCT minister include: allegation of incompetence against the administration, to the extent of being bereft of ideas and “seeking to outsource governance”; the issue of patriotic service of Mallam El Rufai and the SNG; his wrong perception of government action towards addressing terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery and general insecurity; his encounter with State Security Service at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos; his reference to some distinguished priests and their civil liberty struggles; and the personal attack on Dr Doyin Okupe.
Our response, will however, be limited to some of these issues, which are designed by Mallam El Rufai for deliberate misinformation on the unwavering commitment of this administration to progress and development. We are aware the State Security Service has competent machinery to respond to issues concerning its operation.
Also since Mallam El Rufai is not a priest, even though he tries to equate the patriotic struggle of the priests cited by him with partisan and parochial political campaign on the pulpit, we shall not dwell on this point neither shall we raise any issue on his attack on the person of Dr Doyin Okupe: so as not to take the discussion to the level of the ludicrous.
Terrorism, kidnapping and armed robbery are social problems, which do arise in a society out of the dynamics of multi-faceted management of socio- economic factors and which, in the case of Nigeria, have arisen as a result of years, even dating back to military era, of deprivation, poverty and infrastructural neglect.
It is against this background that this administration has continued to apply diverse policies and programs towards addressing the fundamental factors promoting this social menace and societal dysfunction. It is clear that with the prolonged existence of the fundamental factors of our present challenges, these challenges cannot be resolved by any ‘microwave ‘approach but rather by painstaking analyses, robust planning and precise execution of policies and programs, all of which this administration has been dutifully engaged in and which positive result are gradually manifesting.
It is unfortunate that Dr Okupe’s call for unified disposition in the face of present challenges has been misconstrued by the ‘patriot’ Mallam El Rufai and presented as “outsourcing governance” or “begging the opposition for ideas.” The fact is, in times of national challenges in any fully integrated society, the elite class, does spontaneously come together in a nonpartisan manner to address such issues of national importance.
We sympathize with Mallam El Rufai, because he is obviously constrained and motivated by the prevailing, fractionalized elite structure in our country; hence his unfortunate misinterpretation of Dr Okupe’s patriotic call to national duty. Our brother should not hide his political frustration and deep seated hatred propelled by other reasons best known to him, in his attempt to demean this administration and discount its unwavering commitment to progress and development.
This administration is not interested in hoodwinking Nigerians with the propaganda of fleeting performances, but even within this short period of its existence, and in spite of incessant attacks from certain quarters to frustrate and distract government, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s administration has engaged in concrete and sustainable socio-economic deliverables that will transform the Nigerian society.
We will hereunder highlight just a few of the numerous achievements of this administration in the last 14 months.
Power
• This administration met 10 abandoned NIPP projects and has successfully revitalized all. More importantly they are all within the range of 95-100 % completion stage and are awaiting gas supply for which government has taken very concrete steps to address.
• Government has improved the power generation from under 3000mw in 2011 to 4300 mw by august 2012
• Various communities across Nigeria can attest to the fact that steady power supply is gradually being restored
The NIPP projects are as listed below:
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Location
Total installed power output
1
IHOVBOR EDO STATE
451 mw
2
OMOTOSHO ONDO STATE
451 mw
3
OLORUNSOGO OGUN STATE
750 mw
4
SAPELE DELTA
451 mw
5
GEREGU KOGI
434 mw
6
EGBEMA IMO STATE
338 mw
7
GBARAIN BAYELSA
225 mw
8
OMOKU RIVERS STATE
225 mw
9
CALABAR CROSS RIVER
561 mw
10
ALAOJI ABIA
1074 mw
TOTAL
4960 mw
Therefore when the 10 NIPP projects are fully on stream, which will be within the next few months the total national generation capacity will not be less than 9000 mw which will be a 200% increase in the generating capacity as compared with the figures for 2011 and the highest ever by any administration since independence.
Agriculture
• Government has elevated the living standards and income of farmers and rural dwellers through the free distribution of several millions of improved seedlings including cotton,sorghum,rice and cassava.
• Today Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of cassava and is on its way to becoming the largest exporter of cassava products globally.
• The agricultural transformations agenda will double cocoa production from its present 250,000mt to 500,000mt /annum by the year 2015.
• The flour millers, who initially resisted the primary directive from government for 3 % local substitution, have since on their own increased the substitution ratio to 20%. For example Gala a UAC product has a substitution ratio of 20 % cassava mix. This has resulted in considerable foreign exchange savings and increased income for farmers and agro- allied processors.
• On the PPP initiative of the Federal Government, foreign investors have invested $40 million in rice production and milling in Taraba state (Feb 2012). This will be the largest rice farm project in Africa.
• The expected production is 300,000 metric tons of rice (which accounts for 15% of the national rice import) while at the same time creating 15,000 jobs.
• This administration is facilitating the establishment of the largest high quality rice processing mills with an overall installed processing capacity of 2 million tons per annum which will also be the largest installed milling capacity in Africa. It will be private sector driven and established in rice producing states.
• Presently however 3 new rice processing mills in Ebonyi, Niger and Kebbi states with combined 90000 tons of milled rice per annum are already completed
Major market infrastructure projects completed within the last 12 months to drive agricultural transformation at the state level.
1. 180 km of rural roads and 77 km of feeder roads completed
2. Establishment of 10 export crop, preservation and conditioning centers located in Kebbi, Kaduna, Cross River, Nassarawa, Gombe and Enugu states
3. Establishment of 8 agro processing centers.
4. Completion of 10 additional silo complexes with total capacity of 550,000 metric tons
5. 100,000 metric tons capacity silos located in Fct, Borno, Zamfara and Kebbi states
6. 25,000 metric tons capacity located in Taraba, Osun, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Katsina and Sokoto states.
Water supply
Projects completed:
1. Northern Ishan water supply project in Edo state with a plant capacity of 9 million litters per day to serve communities of Uromi, Ubiaja, Ugengu, Ugboha and Igueben, with a total projected population of 500,000 by 2012 at a cost of n2.5billion
2. 10 million liters per day – Mangu water treatment plant at the cost of over n1billion to serve communities of Gindiri and Mangu townships in Plateau state
3. The Federal Government and Benue State Government have completed and commissioned 50 million liters per day capacity the greater Makurdi water supply scheme.
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Ongoing water projects
Cost
Okiriki water supply project Rivers state
830m
Ojirami water supply project Edo state
966m
Takum water supply rehab, Taraba state
263m
Central Ogbia regional water scheme Bayelsa state
4.7b
Biu water supply reactivated, Borno state
8.5b
Usmandanfodio water supply Sokoto
40m
Zungeru /Wushisi water supply project Niger state
2.1b
Fed university of Agric Makurdi
180m
Completion of Okpilla water supply, Edo state
800m
Rehab of abu water supply Kaduna State
465m
Fika –Gadaka water supply Yobe State
300m
545 new hand pump schemes completed
1000 hand pumps borehole in 18 states across the six geopolitical zones rehabilitated
836 new motorized boreholes completed
The rehabilitation of Oyan dam in Ogun state at a cost of 650m
Transportation
In the transportation sector government has successfully rehabilitated 3000km out of 3505 km of existing narrow gauge rail lines. The Lagos –Kano corridor will be completed this year, while the Port Harcourt -Maiduguri corridor which has started will be completed in 2013. The all-important Itakpe-Ajaokuta–Warri modern standard gauge line rail lines is nearly complete with the entire tracks 100% laid down. The 2 nd similar standard modern guage lines between Lagos and Ibadan has also been awarded.
Aviation
There is ongoing massive rehabilitation of airports nationwide, and for the first time ever there is 100 % total radar coverage of Nigeria’s airspace .this is the largest radar coverage project in black Africa.
Ports
At the ports, cargo clearing time has been reduced from one month to seven days and is expected to be reduced further to four days within the next few months.This has seriously impacted positively on the business and economic climate within the country.
Infrastructure
In the area of infrastructure this administration’s impact can be felt in all nooks and crannies across the six geopolitical zones of the country as follows:
Projects already commissioned in 2012
• Enugu-Abakaliki road
• Ogoja –junction Ikom road
• Gombe to biu road
• Akure –Ilesha road
• Kurfi-Charancha in Katsina
• Taka-Alabaju-gaya road in Kano
• Dingaya –Galambi road in Jigawa
• Nafada-Gombe-abba road in Gombe state
• Hong –Mubi road in Adamawa state
• Doma-Lafia road in Nassarawa state
• Rumukurshi –Chokoho road Rivers state
• Akure –Owo road in Ondo state
• Ado-Ilumoba-Agbado road
• Lafia-Mokwa road
• East-West odi road
• Okpala-Igwurita road
• Jebba-Lafiaji
Projects completed
• 7 presidential initiative projects
• 15 highway road projects
• 24 street lights projects
• 36 road consultancy projects
• 16 weigh bridges
• 7 traffic census road projects
• 7 road inventory projects
• Renovations of central work shops
• 92 national road rehabilitation projects completed
• 59 zonal intervention projects
• 6 access roads to refineries
• 4 roads under the Nigeria /Niger joint commission for cooperation
Ongoing Projects
• Abuja-lokoja dual carriageway will be completed by this admiration
• Kano-maiduguri dual carriageway will also be completed by this administration
• At then beginning of this administration benin _ore road was almost impassable and it used to take 6-9 hrs to get to lagos .now it takes just 3 three hours.
• Onitsha head bridge –upper iweka junction
• Apapa –oshodi expressway is being rehabilitated
• 9th mile to otukpo –iweata road in benue is being rehabilitated
• Gombe –potiskum road washout
• Auchi-ikene expressway washout
• Biliri highway washout
• Sokoto –ilela washout
• Km 30 onitsha –enugu road washout
Conclusion
With these few highlighted developmental efforts and activities of the government enumerated above, all the fallacies, deceits, misinformation and disinformation about incompetence and non-performance of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration are unfounded not supported by facts on ground and are therefore are outright falsehood.
Irrespective of what the detractors of this administration want the general public to believe, the truth, and indeed the absolute truth, is that this government is alive to its responsibilities, effectively, actively performing and responding to the needs of the Nigerian people.
SIGNED:
OLUSANYA AWOSAN (MEDIA DIRECTOR)
OFFICE OF THE SENIOR SPECIAL ASSISTANT
TO THE PRESIDENT (PUBLIC AFFAIRS)
PRESIDENCY
ABUJA