The Urgent Task Before Jonathan

Once again, Nigeria’s leader, President Goodluck Jonathan has reiterated his promise to make this year a better one for Nigerians. In his New Year Message, the president assured that Year 2013 will be better than the previous ones.

The president who gave this assurance in his New Year message predicated his confidence on the fact that unlike last year when the implementation of the budget was delayed for about four months, this year’s budget will be signed into law this month for early implementation.

Apart from this, he assured that he would do more to improve security by further empowering security agencies to stem terrorism and enhance the security of life and property. He said he will focus more on flood and erosion control, rehabilitation and expansion of roads, improved power supply as well as upgrading of the national rail network.

We want to note here that this is not the first time the president is making promises to improve the lot of Nigerians without taking concrete steps to actualise them. In fact, his hollow promises to make things better for Nigerians have made many not to believe him anymore.

It is our desire that President Jonathan will strive this time around to fulfil his promises to Nigerians. We are glad that the president has identified non implementation of the budget to the letter as one of the problems responsible for the slow progress of his administration in meeting the yearnings of Nigerians.

The president should focus on three critical programmes dear to Nigerians. They include power supply, rehabilitation and expansion of roads and enhancing the security of lives and property in the country.

President Jonathan should make it a matter of priority to ensure improved power supply this year. Provision of power is critical to industrial development. The president will do well to tackle this problem before 2014 when politicians begin to jostle for political offices in 2015.

The president should ensure that all federal roads in the country are rehabilitated. The roads have become death traps and have caused a lot of pains to motorists and travellers. President Jonathan should direct his Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, to embark on massive rehabilitation and expansion of the roads to provide succour to the people.

The President should also tackle the insecurity in the land by effectively empowering security forces to deal with terrorism, kidnapping and armed robbery.

He should shake off the lethargy for which his administration is well known and tackle these problems.

If he is able to tackle them, he would have succeeded in writing his name in gold for Nigerians to remember his contributions to national development.

Nigerians are tired of promises, which at the end of the day, are not kept. The president will do well to turn a new leaf this year by ensuring the fulfilment of these promises.