Why Jonathan Will Win in 2015 - By Reno Omokri

The Special Assistant to President Jonathan on New Media,
Reno Omokri writes on why he believes the president will win
in 2015. Read below and tell us what you think...
My dear brothers and sisters, a number of you have
asked me, particularly on Social Media, why I think
President Goodluck Jonathan deserves your vote. I will
use this space to answer that question headlong and
unequivocally, because I believe with every fiber of my
being that reelecting President Jonathan is the best
course of action that Nigerians can take if we do not
want to go back to the old ways in which the
government dictated to us rather than related to us.
Everything about the emergence of President Jonathan as the
candidate of the PDP shows his party and it's candidate as
the only truly national candidate. The National Convention in
the Federal Capital Territory, which is known as the 'Center of
Unity' was auspicious and befitting as the PDP is the only
political party that projects one united and indivisible Nigeria.
Nigerians can take pride in the PDP and its pan Nigerian
credentials. The party does not have regional bases. The
whole nation is its base.
The ruling has a unique ability to unite as a party that goes
on to unite Nigeria as a nation.
The PDP is the largest party in Africa and under this banner,
we have grown our economy to the point where it is now the
largest economy in Africa proving that as the PDP grows
stronger, Nigeria grows stronger.
And with all due respect, the choice between the PDP's
candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan and the opposition's
candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari is clear.
Lagosians who are today escaping Lagos traffic via the air
conditioned Goodluck train must be under no illusion that this
service just appeared from nowhere. No. It came about via a
visionary long term plan whose ultimate goal when fully
implanted will see a Lagos-Ibadan High Speed metro line that
will enable people live in Ibadan and work in Lagos. The
contract was signed in August 2012 for $1.5 billion and the
management of the Chinese Firm CCECC has mobilized to
site.
The project itself, being part of the Interstate Rail Project, has
been listed by KPMG as one of the world's top 100
infrastructure projects!
This is a fulfillment of the idea that Alhaji Lateef Kayode
Jakande had way back in 1982-3 but which was delayed
when the military thought they had murdered that idea by
canceling the project. But that project has been given new life
today by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration
because as Thomas Sankara said "you cannot kill ideas".
Some people erroneously think that President Jonathan will
not do well in the 2015 election in Katsina State, but the
people of Katsina will vote for President Jonathan because he
built the only Federal University in Katsina state as well as
the only 6 Almajiri schools in that state. Before the ascension
of the President to power, Katsina and 11 other states had no
Federal Universities.!
The 2015 election is about records. The President has his
record and the opposition have theirs.
The days of selling a candidate based on his ethnicity, region
and religion must go forever. 2015 must be about issues,
records and ideas!
I, Reno Omokri, am proud to say that President Jonathan has
never publicly or privately called for violence or bloodshed.
President Jonathan's has bequeathed a good Human Right
Record to Nigeria. No political Prisoners exist in Nigeria. No
one is imprisoned for their views under President Jonathan.
What is the opposition's Human Right record?
When President Jonathan took office in 2010, it used to take
an average of 7-8 hours to go from Benin to Lagos. Today,
after the reconstruction. (Not repair) of the Benin-Ore road,
that same journey can be done in 3 hours and the President
sent the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Mrs.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to undertake the journey and verify the
Estimated Travel Time on that road.
Some people say the opposition is coming to fight corruption
and I ask them if they have seen the latest Corruption
Perception Index released by Transparency International 2
weeks ago?
Under President Jonathan, Nigeria progressed 8 points upward
in the scale proving that the President is tackling corruption
headlong.
The major progress Nigeria made in the 2014 Corruption
Perception Index released by Transparency International are
the result of the clinical surgical incision made by President
Jonathan at the root of corruption in Nigeria.
Gone are the show trials that glorify style over substance with
media prosecutions that do not lead to convictions. Under
Jonathan, Nigeria has had more corruption convictions than
at any other time and Transparency International noticed.
Remember that the Fertilizer Procurement and Distribution sub
sector of the Agricultural sector was a veritable channel of
corruption. Billions of dollars went into private pockets as
middlemen inflated costs and supplied adulterated products to
farmers. But under President Jonathan's watch, 14 million
farmers were registered by the Ministry of Agriculture who
connected them directly to the product through an e-wallet
system by which the Agriculture ministry send texts to
farmers to go and pick up their fertilizer and seeds direct from
their locality.
What greater anti corruption credential can you have than to
weed out 50,000 ghost workers from the Federal Civil service
saving Nigeria almost 350 billion Naira per annum?
As I speak to you, the Abuja-Kaduna Rail project has been
completed, under budget and under the time frame for which
this administration promised which is as a result of the new
efficiency of the Federal Civil Service which, through the
Federal Ministry of Works, had been able to supervise the
contractors efficiently because no kickbacks exchanged hands.
My brothers and sisters, as I unveil my candidate to you, I am
confident not only that he will win the 2015 Presidential
elections based on his record, I will further call on you and
other well meaning Nigerians, that If you value human life,
please urge INEC to make candidates take an oath not to
incite violence when they lose in 2015.
I sometimes wonder if the opposition think that President
Jonathan is a time traveller. Why do I say so? When the
opposition says Nigeria's problem is Jonathan perhaps they
should explain why we had problems when some of them
where in power. Is it that President Jonathan travelled back
into the past to create the problems they faced?
They say that President Jonathan has not achieved anything.
In that case is it that President Jonathan bribed the UN to
say that Nigeria's average Life Expectancy rose from 47 to 52
years under his administration, or he bribed the International
Monetary Fund, IMF, to promote Nigeria to a Middle Income
Nation in 2013 from a Low Income Nation before that? Or he
bribed KPMG to list our interstate High Speed Rail project as
one of the world's top 100 infrastructure projects? Did he
compromise the International Food Policy Research Institute
to say that hunger has reduced in Nigeria under Jonathan
from 16% to 14.1%?
I am not saying that Nigeria's problems are all solved. How
could they be? It took us 50 years to get to the point we were
before President Jonathan became president in 2010. Surely it
will take us more than four years to get out of the problems
we faced for half a century.'
But one thing I can say is that we are making progress under
President Jonathan. Elections are now free and fair and we
have bade farewell to do or die elections.
People can say what they like and be assured of freedom of
speech and freedom after the speech.
The era of politically motivated assassinations are gone.
Our railways have been revived, our major highways have
either been revived or are in a state of being revived.
All those 12 states that did not have universities prior to
Jonathan's ascension now have universities.
In today's Nigeria, you cannot name a state in Nigeria where
Jonathan has not built either a brand new university, a
secondary school, a hospital or a new road!
President Jonathan knows that a mind is a terrible thing to
waste thus Jonathan built 150 schools for Almajiri. And then
some say that he has only scratched the surface. My
response to them is that if previous administrations had
likewise scratched the surface, we won't have 12 million
children out of the formal education system in Nigeria!
President Jonathan is building schools in every state because
if disadvantaged kids had schools in the 80s they would not
have grown up into adults that believe that books are haram!
Those regions that did not have international airports before
Jonathan now have.
Today, Hyundai, Kia and Nissan have opened up vehicle
manufacturing/assembly plants in Nigeria even as the
government, most especially the Presidency, is patronizing
Innoson cars as official cars.
Nigerians want stability in their leader. You won't marry a
person who jumps from relationship to relationship, so why
support a Presidential aspirant who jumps from party to
party?
From 1999 till today, President Goodluck Jonathan has
remained in one party come rain come shine. Who in the
opposition can make such a claim?
Nigerians want to know what a candidate will do for them.
They do not want to listen to candidates bicker like motor
park touts. Even those that do not support the President or
the PDP have at least heard of the Transformation Agenda.
Have you heard of the opposition's agenda?
As elections approach, expect more panic attacks from a party
that spent its time insulting and criticizing the President
instead of selling its ideas to Nigerians.
They say that they will form a parallel government if they lose
in 2015. Under Jonathan, elections held in Edo, Anambra,
Ondo, Ekiti and Osun. Which of them were rigged? Why is APC
rejecting 2015 elections in 2014?
My brother and sisters, never allow those who swore that they
were determined to make some parts of Nigeria
"ungovernable" shake you and turn your focus from the
verifiable progress Nigeria is making under President Goodluck
Jonathan. I can assure that just as he said when he declared
his interest to contest the 2015 Presidential elections, under
President Jonathan's leadership, Nigeria "will never go back to
the old ways"!
Reno Omokri