16th November, 2014
Secretary
The All Progressives Congress has asked President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to come out with evidences that it has employed about 1.9 million Nigerians in five years of governance.
The main opposition party in Nigeria said this in a press statement issued by the party’s publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, noting that Nigerians “could not wait to sweep away one of the worst governments to have even presided over their nation’s affairs.”
APC said while the government claimed to have created 1.9 million jobs in all of five years, the truth is that this is a mere tokenism.
”Even if the jobs they said they have created are not phantom, which we know they are, the situation on the ground is grim: 1.8 million Nigerians enter the job market every year, 5.3 million youth are unemployed and overall 20 million Nigerians are in the job market, and these are very conservative figures. Therefore, creating 1.9 million jobs over several years cannot amount to any achievement,” the party said.
Mohammed said while President promised Nigerians to eradicate corruption in all sectors of the economy, the facts on ground do not back the promise.
”Mr. President, under your watch, Nigeria’s rating by the global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International has fallen. In 2009, Nigeria was rated 133 out of 180 countries, while in 2013, the country was rated 144 out of 177 countries.
”Mr.President, under your watch, the list of corruption cases begging to be handled is long: The missing $20b oil money, the Malabu oil scandal, the fuel subsidy scandal, the police pension heist, kerosene subsidy, and the sudden drop in the total amount realized from the Victims Support Fund from N80b to N60b. Plus the Ministers like Abba Moro, who presided over the swindling and death of job seekers, and Diezani Alison Madueke, who has presided over the most opaque oil industry in history, have rather received presidential cuddling instead of sanctions.
”Also, SURE-P, which was conceived to mitigate the hardships imposed on Nigerians by the needless increase in fuel prices, has now become a cesspit of corruption, a conduit for siphoning public funds and sure pit for money that could have ameliorated the suffering of ordinary Nigerians,” APC said.
On electricity, the party said the statement by President Jonathan that his Administration’s ”bold move” in the sector has put the country ”on the road to guaranteed regular power supply in the months ahead” is nothing but sheer deceit.
”Under the Jonathan Administration, Nigerians should not be in a hurry to throw away their generators. The facts on the ground show this to be true: While the FG has spent 533 billion naira (about $3billion) on power, at best Nigerians enjoy less than six hours of electricity per day, where they enjoy it at all, while spending over 800 billion naira annually to fuel their generators.
”Also, the 4,000MW of electricity being generated by Nigeria cannot guarantee stable power for 170 million people or propel the country towards industrialization. By comparison, South Africa, with less than a third of Nigeria’s population, generates over 44,000MW of electricity. There is therefore no way that Nigeria can enjoy a stable power supply with a meagre 4,000MW in power generation,” it said.