Buoyed by the support of all 2,812 votes cast by delegates at the Peoples Democratic Party National Convention at the Eagle Square, Abuja, where he emerged as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2015 polls, President Goodluck Jonathan has signalled that if he is re-elected, his new Presidency will witness a mixture of his trademark characteristics and the adoption of new strategies.
As part of his acceptance speech at the Convention, Jonathan pointedly declared, “Today in Abuja, we begin the next phase of our mission. Our mission is to secure Nigeria’s future.” The question which naturally follows is: how exactly will he do so?
Going through the rest of his acceptance speech, it is clear that Jonathan is not ready to compromise on the hallmarks of his current Presidency, namely the pursuit of his Transformation Agenda, guarantee of personal liberties and freedoms, and the prosecution of the war against terrorism and insurgency.
Reemphasising his record of safeguarding the rights of Nigerians, Jonathan stated: “I did say during my declaration on November 11, 2014, that we are proud that no Nigerian has been exiled or imprisoned on our watch, for holding contrary views. We must ensure that we continue to water the tree bearing the fruits of freedom, for our beloved people.”
President Jonathan also indicated that he is committed to consolidating and expanding the economic gains made under his watch. He said, “This administration is also working to revitalize our insurance industry. We want to transform this sector, just as we have done for our banking sector and our pensions industry. Our goal is to grow the total insurance premiums in our country from 300 billion naira currently to 1 trillion naira in the next three years. And to increase the number of direct jobs created in this sector from about 30,000 people today to over 100,000 people in the next few years.”
Regardless of his plans to accelerate growth in the insurance sector in order to create more jobs and engender a wealthier purse of premiums from which funding for new infrastructure may be sourced, Jonathan is aware that in this campaign season, his opponents will try to diminish his infrastructural and economic achievements. As such, Jonathan placed his supporters on notice that the opposition will be pushing a message of “change” which will not acknowledge the actual changes he has already achieved.
In his words: “During this campaign, some office seekers will say it is “time for change”, but while they were changing from one name to another and from one party to the other, we had already brought change to Nigeria. Has change not come to our railway system? Has change not come to our airports? Has change not come to our roads network? Has change not come to our agricultural sector? Has change not come to our electoral process? Has change not come to Almajiri education?”
Even while taking a subtle swipe at the opposition, which has indeed been marked by a flux of name changes and mergers over the past few years, Jonathan emphasised: “Our focus now must be on the future and not on the past. We have challenges but we are determined to overcome them. And this we will.”
Furthermore, with his stated mission for his new Presidency being to secure Nigeria’s future, it seems President Jonathan is likely to abide by his principle of not exchanging brickbats with his opponents. Instead, his new action plan outlines priorities that are hardly ever mentioned by even opponents who ideally should be in the forefront of pursuing such matters, if only because, charity, as the saying goes, begins at home.
For instance, Jonathan declared that, “there exist environmental challenges, such as desertification, which is threatening the lives of our people, especially in the frontline states of Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara. We have responded most appropriately by implementing the Great Green Wall Programme for which we have released over N16 billion.”
Another priority area is security. In this regard, President Jonathan declared: “I assure all Nigerians that this Government will continue to do whatever is required to provide the security we deserve. It is encouraging that the security situation is improving, and by the grace of God, elections will be conducted in all states of the federation.”
With elections scheduled to hold in all states of the country, Jonathan is taking his case for re-election directly to the people. According to him: “The choice before Nigerians in the coming election is simple: A choice between going forward or going backwards; between the new ways and the old ways; between freedom and repression; between a record of visible achievements and beneficial reforms – and desperate power-seekers with empty promises.”
To drive home the point that he will never be desperate in his bid to return to Aso Rock, Jonathan declared: “Let me emphasise again, that nobody’s political ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian. We must eschew violence, even in the face of the most outrageous acts of desperation.”
What is clear is that President Jonathan, based on his achievements in office and his commitment to campaign on the facts and the truth; to campaign with issues and ideas, and to campaign on his record of performance, remains the frontrunner in the 2015 presidential elections. Whether he will succeed in his mission of securing Nigeria’s future will be decided on February 14, 2015. What is noteworthy is that Jonathan himself is supremely confident in his quest as he declared: “Our best days are before us, not behind us. We must continue to move forward.”
Onuora sent this piece from Asokoro, Abuja, through chikamadubuikeonuora@gmail.com
