President Goodluck Jonathan

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In Defence of General Obasanjo | By: Joe Igbokwe

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo remains one of the luckiest Nigerians that is still transversing the political landscape today, all things considered.

He is one General that has ruled Nigeria for almost twelve years – three years plus as a military head of state and eight years as a civilian president.

General Obasanjo is the first Nigerian to serve as a military head of state and as well as a civilian president. On those two occasions, the man never struggled to be president.

He became president in 1976 when General Muritala Muhammed was assassinated. History again threw him up in 1999 when he left the prison to Aso Rock in circumstances which only God can explain.

If any prophet had predicted by February 17, 1998 that General Obasanjo would be President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Arned Forces, that prophet would have been dismissed as one of those drunken fable bearers that litter Nigeria.

If General Obasanjo had been told when he was handing over the instrument of authority that somewhere towards the very end of the millenium, he would be receiving the same instrument from General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who was a Lieutenant Colonel then, he would have dismissed it as the ranting of an ant.

He would have been killed the way General Musa Yar’ Adua was poisoned but Lucky must have been the second name of this retired General. He survived against all odds and has remained an elder statesman since he left office in 2007, intervening in matters of national significance when the need arises.

Obasanjo is well respected by world leaders, including past presidents and serving presidents. He sits among the greatest leaders in the world. He has been very outspoken and the world knows him for it. His words carry a lot of weight and he throws them when the need arises. He is controversial, he is a good fighter and he is fearless.

Today February 16, 2015, this man added another drama to his long history. He tore into shreds his PDP membership card in the full glare of the Nigerian press. Why? The retired General is totally disgusted with President Jonathan and his party, the PDP.

He has been screaming from the mountain top that the PDP and President Jonathan are not getting things right in Nigeria but they will not listen. He has offered useful advice to help strengthen the party but the characters in the party will rather call him names.

He single-handedly brought President Jonathan to where he is today but anytime the man rebukes Jonathan for not taking the right steps, he gets abused. For instance, General Obasanjo kicked and kicked when Kashamu Buruji was appointed the South West leader of PDP. Obasanjo raised an objection to that appointment but the presidency and the PDP did nothing.

This international drug baron, who has remained a wanted person in the United States for many drug offences, has taken pages of newspapers to abuse the former president and yet the presidency rather allows Buruji Kashamu to be the one importing and distributing the President’s rice to impoverished Nigerians.

In Obasanjo’s very eyes, the PDP, working in tandem with the Military, rigged another rascal and political liability called Ayo Fayose as Governor in Ekiti state. All the tainted characters Obasanjo rejected in the South West are now working for President Jonathan.

Former President Obasanjo is still in possession of a document where the president said in 2011 that he will not seek a second term and today Jonathan is seeking a second term.

Obasanjo raised an alarm when the Foreign Reserves he left in 2007 is mercilessly and shamelessly being depleted in the past six years without any tangible thing on ground to show for it.

Obasanjo also raised an alarm that the Presidency has been building attack mercenaries to deal with political enemies and irritants and Nigerians thought he was raising dust for nothing until we saw the State Security Service, SSS, in our own very eyes, becoming a department for repression, oppression and suppression.

Former President Obasanjo did his best to help President Jonathan to succeed but dangerous elements from Niger Delta, especially the arrogant and greedy like Edwin Clark, Asari Dokubo, Tompolo, Boyloaf etc will not allow Jonathan to listen to wise counsel.

Under Jonathan’s watch, these characters abused Northern leaders and called them names such as parasites and lazy fools and yet he did nothing. If President Jonathan is trounced on March 28, 2015, (and it is sure to happen) these characters above created 50 per cent of the problems that led to his defeat.

President Jonathan did not only fight the retired General through proxies and surrogates, he sometimes threw insults on the former president with reckless abandon. In his home base in Rivers state, Jonathan and his wife descended on Governor Rotimi Amaechi simply for doing his work.

A minor disagreement between Governor Amaechi and Mrs Patience Jonathan, which the president could have resolved maturely by rebuking his wife to realize that Amaechi is an elected Governor and his wife not elected. Soon the matter got worse when Amaechi won the chairmanship of the Nigeria’s Governorship Forum.

President Jonathan sponsored Governor David Jang to break the once powerful Forum, and things were never the same again. Soon President Jonathan unleashed AIG Joseph Mbu (then commissioner of police) on Amaechi and the bubbles bust.

A president who should have kept his home base intact played to the gallery and fought Amaechi with all the energies at his disposal and the rest is now history.
In the North, President Jonathan did not build friendship and he did not sympathize with them on the death of their son, the late Umaru Yar’ Adua. If he did, he would have just completed the two years Yar’ Adua left and return power to the North as agreed in the power equation.

If he managed to get additional four years as he did, he would have been satisfied with it than to begin to look for another four years thereby making the south rule for 18 years by 2019 assuming he succeeds.

This is the last straw that broke the camel’s back. To make matters worse, President Jonathan played up ethnic and religious cards to the letter. He showed bias to Muslims by allowing some greedy pastors to deceive him that the whole North hates him because he is a Christian.

He has been visiting Jerusalem and churches without caring to visit mosques. He sees the North as another political enclave and this is the reason why he did not fight Boko Haram with every sense of seriousness it deserved.

He did not believe that the Chibok girls were kidnapped until after 14 days. Now if Jonathan scores 10 per cent votes in the whole North on Saturday March 28, 2015, I would not be surprised.

His ambition to rule Nigeria for 10 years will cause him a big loss in the North. In fact, Jonathan has lost this election in the first ballot and he will be defeated mercilessly.

March 16, 2015, former President Obasanjo has completed history by tearing his membership card as a national leader in PDP. A friend told me that a big anointing has broken the yoke of PDP in Nigeria and things will never be the same again.

The anointing of the Lord has set the captives free. PDP has been torn into shreds. PDP is collapsing. PDP IS FINISHED IN NIGERIA.

The New York Times, one of the greatest and most influential institutions in the world, has described President Jonathan as a lousy president. Christiane Amanpour described Jonathan as a failed head of state.
The Economists magazine described the Jonathan government as a failed regime. General Theophilus Danjuma says Jonathan is rewarding crime and encouraging more people to go into it.
Senator McCain says Jonathan’s government is practically not existing and therefore America should just help Nigeria.
Hilary Clinton says Jonathan is running a government that is supervising the siphoning of Nigeria’s resources. This is the verdict of the world and there is no hope again for President Jonathan and PDP in 2015.

Credit: 247NigeriaNewsUpdates

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Entertainment

"Let us all be, you are not God" Femi Fani-Kayode tells Obasanjo.

Director of Media and Publicity of President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign organsiation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has reacted strongly to ex President Olusegun Obasanjo’s claims that GEJ has plans to scuttle the forthcoming elections for fear that he would be jailed if his opponent succeeds him.
The former Minister of Aviation and Special Assistant on Public Communication told press men at a briefing in Abuja on Sunday that  Obasanjo’s grouse with President Jonathan is personal and can no longer intimidate him.

“He should leave Nigeria out of it and let us all be. If he has a personal score to settle with Jonathan he should not do so at the expense of the peace and stability of Nigeria.

“If he wants to stop Jonathan then let him attempt to do so through the democratic process and through the ballot box and not through foul and unconstitutional means.
“We said it before and we will say it again: gone are the days that any President can be tele-guided and controlled because we have all come of age.
“We continue to hold President Obasanjo in high esteem but his recent actions and utterances are beyond the pale. He has been unfair to Jonathan, to Nigeria and even to himself.
“Most importantly, the days of intimidating others with his harsh words and overbearing influence are long over. Obasanjo is not God. Only God is God and He alone determines the fortunes of men and the destiny of nations.”
 

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Entertainment, Opinion

Nollywood cannot afford to lose Goodluck- Charles Novia writes

Let us admit it – we have never seen any President so besotted with entertainment like Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, especially the movie-making sector. And this is not a satire. Yes, his detractors may point at “weakness” for entertainment as a signpost of an unserious mind frittering the commonwealth on ‘joli-joli’ matters!
Even the opposition may grumble loudly that the lively engagement with the Nollywood is essentially exploitative and window-dressing – to the detriment of more important and critical sectors of the national economy.

However, no one is in doubt that the life and essence the Creative wayfarers was initially ignited by Bayelsa governor, the much maligned Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, immediate boss of GEJ around year 2000. With dizzying state support and elaborate razzmatazz, the duo of Alams and GEJ wallowed in the sudden euphoria of showbiz and the attendant media opulence only comparable to IBB’s romance with PMAN’s ding-a-long of 1989 – 1992 when Tony Okoroji was the majordomo.

It was no surprise GEJ flowed with the momentum when fortune made him supplant Alams as Gov. of Bayelsa in December 2005. Yet, for all his enthusiasm for professional revelries, the make-believe could not have believed their luck when good ol’ providence thrusted GEJ, again, into greater prominence.
In quick succession, he moved from Vice-President to Acting President and eventually President within years! By 2011 when he assumed office, on his own stamina, the Nollywood romance had blown out of the creek waters. The two lovebirds were careering giddily on a thoroughfare peopled with great thespians, gifted producers, immaculate directors and of course a coterie of charlatans and ‘waka-pass’.
With technocrats within the federal service and the movie industry, different modules of foundational interventions were crafted – and cash-backed like never before. Millions of naira were mentioned, which ballooned, to the consternation of nay-sayers, to billions of naira in creative “stimulus packages”.
In the past ten years of GEJ’s unstinted romance with a powerful sector of the entertainment community, it is very uncharitable (even for inveterate detractors) to say that Jonathan has not “performed”. You may quarrel with the impact or management of his interventions; you may yap him and his people for mystifying the process and access to the several GEJ interventions in the Artsworld.
You may claim he has lost similar interest or attention to details in other critical sectors of the Nigerian state. However, no ONE can simply dismiss his unprecedented regard, affinity and seeming devotion to the people, practice and promise of Nigeria’s movie-making community and allied sectors. In his six years as President, GEJ has arguably awarded more national honours to our artistes than all the past regimes rolled together!
So, when you hear and see leading lights of Nollywood rooting aggressively for GEJ; when you read famed voices shouting on the roof of their cyper-pages and declaring the ceaseless glory of GEJ; when you read otherwise quiet prima-donnas spit fire and engage in internet-‘gra-gra’ with many of their tele-fans…for the sake of their beloved Moses (Jonathan) – you really must understand and appreciate their position – enlightened self-interest (a completely natural instinct).

They are not ‘bought’, ‘turn-coats’ or ‘ass-licking’ – against their will or legacy. They simply are paying good back to the man who has brought them a load of luck – and thus enhancing their means of livelihood, and embellishing their relevance. No pun intended.

This 2015 presidential election is a watershed for Nollywood. They cannot see anything in the “Change”-troopers to indicate that their groovy-train will go on; GMB has not even for once coughed about any plans for Nollywood, one of the major revelations of the 2014 rebasing parameters! It does appear that GMB does not even know that Nollywood exists – beyond gyrations at campaign rallies!
So, stop yakking at Nollywooders if they have little or no sympathies for GMB – he is disconnected from them in the past decade, at least. And within that same period, GMB’s main opponent has been their God-sent. Most assuredly I say to you: a good friend is difficult to find – and keep; Nollywood can’t afford to lose this Goodluck. God forbid!!

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Entertainment

I have 60 reasons not to vote for Jonathan – Wole Soyinka

Multi award-winning writer and Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has implored Nigerians not to vote for the incumbent President, Goodluck Jonathan in the forthcoming Presidential elections.
The renowned author made the declaration yesterday while speaking to ‎students at the 2015 edition of Vision of the ‎Child (VOTC) programme.
Citing the kidnap of the over 200 Chibok school girls last year, Soyinka stated‎ that Jonathan’s leadership has failed in his duties and thus doesn’t deserve a second term.‎
 “I have ‎sixty reasons ‎not to vote for the Jonathan regime. ‎I will not vote and I will not encourage anyone to vote for ‎the ‎continuation of this government, simply because your ‎colleagues numbering over two hundred were kidnapped.” He said.‎
‎
He continued, “And the government of this nation failed to show leadership. ‎So anyone who says after that ‎event that ‎I will vote or cast ‎my vote or ‎encourage anyone to vote for this regime must be ‎living in Sambisa forest.‎There has been a failure of leadership. Our children whom ‎you represent today have been betrayed.‎”
‎
“After that dereliction of duty, after that failure of leadership, ‎after that betrayal for our future, for anyone to ‎think or to put ‎words in my mouth suggesting that I will vote or encourage ‎anyone to vote for this regime is a travesty of intelligence.”
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Entertainment, Sports

Joseph Yobo reportedly dumps football for politics

Ex Nigeria international, Joseph Yobo has reportedly dumped football for politics. I’m taking this news with a pinch of salt. Albeit the former Super Eagles Captain and Nigerian football legend, Kanu Nwankwo have been visible members of President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign team, that really doesn’t mean the latter has called it quits with the round leather game. And again, he could be seeking for a political post.

But sources close to the former Everton player disclosed that he is really through with soccer and infact he rejected contracts from Asia and America to concentrate on his support for the President.

“I can tell you that Yobo is no longer interested in playing football or anything related to the game now. Yobo is more interested  in paving the way for his political ambitions and from the way he is going, it is not a mirage.

“A couple of weeks ago, he turned down contracts from Asia and America to concentrate on his support for President Jonathan. Yobo is not stopping at just support alone, he is determined to take it beyond 2015.” The source added.

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Entertainment

Winners Chapel releases official statement on "gate of hell" allegations.

“Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to the President and founder of the Living Faith Church worldwide, also Known as Winners’ Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo, which has gone viral.

He was reported to have made the statement last Sunday when the President of the federal republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan came to worship at Faith Tabernacle, which is the headquarters of the ministry.
The falsehood that is being spread around by mischief makers is that the Bishop, while praying for the President, said, “I will open the gates of hell to anyone who oppose you.” A little later, some others who in an attempt to “defend” the Bishop, came up with another quote purportedly said by Dr. Oyedepo, which is: “I will open the gates of hell to those who oppose the peace of this nation.”
Well, let’s set the records straight: The Press and Publicity Unit of the church, publishers of Faith Tabernacle News, was at the 3rd service and recorded (on tape), the President’s 6-minute speech, the congregational prayer for him and the Bishop’s blessing on the President.
Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who is also the presidential candidate of the ruling party – the PDP, came to the church as the President of this country, not as a candidate in the forthcoming elections. And Bishop Oyedepo prayed for him, as instructed in the Bible book of 1 Timothy 2:1-2, as the President of Nigeria not as a PDP standard-bearer.

The Bishop’s prayer for the President
“1st Timothy 2:1-2: I exhort you therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers and intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men.” Then on the priority list is “For kings and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”
“I only had an idea of the President’s visit just yesterday. It wasn’t there last Friday when we had the One Night with The king. So we are going to be praying for our President. Let prayers and supplications and intercessions be made for all men; first of all, for kings, and for them that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

And after that I will do what the priests are asked to do. It says “Speak to Aaron, that after this manner shall ye bless.” Proclaim blessings as a priest of God over our President, and the blessings will answer, in the name of Jesus Christ.
In Numbers 6:23-26, The Lord said to Moses and the children of Israel saying “On this wise shall ye bless the children of Israel saying: The Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; The Lord lift His countenance upon thee and give thee peace.”
When that blessing comes to stay, something happens. You see, the generation of the Old Testament knew the value of blessings; they would even cry for it. Every blessing proclaimed upon you today must answer on your life.
I like us to be on our feet and lift the President up to God. Whatever you desire to see God bring about in his life; bring about in our nation, begin to pray that prayer right now.
*Father, release your grace upon the President to manage the demands of his office.
*Release unusual grace in increasing dimensions, to manage the demands of his office.
*Cause your face to shine upon him.
*Lord, grant the desires of his heart.
*Grant Nigeria peace.
*Under him, grant Nigeria greater advancement.
Thank you father, in Jesus’ name we pray.”

THEN THE BISHOP ALONE PRAYED FOR THE PRESIDENT
*This entire church proclaims the President blessed today
*Blessed with divine wisdom to manage the demands of his office
*Blessed with keys to see the miraculous in his life
*Blessed with grace that will advance His cause in our nation
*Every time we pray here, God hears. The Bible says “Wherever 2 or 3 are gathered, I’m there in their midst, and if we agree concerning anything, it’s done for us.” Therefore, in the name of Jesus, our President is declared blessed.
*His going out is blessed, his coming in is blessed.
*The will of God is blessed in his life.
*Thank you father, blessed be your name, in Jesus precious name.”
And the whole congregation shouted “Amen.” That was it!

NOTE:
1. There was no mention of “hell” in the prayer
2. There was no mention of “the gates of hell” in the prayer
3. There was no mention of “opposition” or “oppose” in that prayer
4. It is very clear that these mischief makers were waiting for an opportunity, which presented itself in President Jonathan’s visit to the church in the heat of the campaigns. And with what we have seen, most politicians can do just anything to whip up sentiments and score cheap political points.
5. The church has never been involved in partisan politics but has been prayerfully active in ensuring that the Nigerian ship doesn’t sink
6. The church has always obeyed the biblical injunction to pray for those in authority and the “peace of Jerusalem.”
7. This is not an attempt to defend the church or Bishop Oyedepo, as we already know that no matter how far a lie has travelled, the truth will definitely overtake it.
8. This is also not an attempt to defend God, because the Almighty God is more than able to defend himself.
9. As you read this, no one has even called to confirm from the ministry the veracity of this claim and a video recording of the service which is equally online has been labeled “doctored” by those who are bent on dragging the name of the church into partisan politics.
10. For the record, this is exactly what happened; whatever is being peddled was obviously created by those who want to benefit politically from the controversy; and promoted by bloggers who want to drive traffic to their sites; and spread by those who already think they have an axe to grind with their perceived lifestyle of Bishop Oyedepo.
Jesus is Lord

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Entertainment

Buhari vs Jonathan: Beyond The Election | By: Charles Soludo

I need to preface this article with a few clarifications. I have taken a long sabbatical leave from partisan politics, and it is real fun watching the drama from the balcony. Having had my own share of public service (I do not need a job from government), I now devote my time and energy in pursuit of other passions, especially abroad. 
A few days ago, I read an article in Thisday entitled “Where is Charles Soludo?”, and my answer is that I am still there, only that I have been too busy with extensive international travels to participate in or comment on our national politics and economy.
But I occasionally follow events at home. Since the survival and prosperity of Nigeria are at stake, the least some of us (albeit, non-partisan) must do is to engage in public debate. As the elections approach, I owe a duty to share some of my concerns.
In September 2010, I wrote a piece entitled “2011 Elections: Let the Real Debate Begin” and published by Thisday. I understand the Federal Executive Council discussed it, and the Minister of Information rained personal attacks on me during the press briefing. I noted more than six newspaper editorials in support of the issues we raised. Beside other issues we raised, our main thesis was that the macro economy was dangerously adrift, with little self-insurance mechanisms (and a prediction that if oil prices fell below $40, many state governments would not be able to pay salaries). 
I gave a subtle hint at easy money and exchange rate depreciations because I did not want to panic the market with a strong statement. Sadly, on the eve of the next elections, literally everything we hinted at has happened. Part of my motivation for this article is that five years after, the real debate is still not happening.
The presidential election next month will be won by either Buhari or Jonathan. For either, it is likely to be a pyrrhic victory. None of them will be able to deliver on the fantastic promises being made on the economy, and if oil prices remain below $60, I see very difficult months ahead, with possible heady collisions with labour, civil society, and indeed the citizenry. To be sure, the presidential election will not be decided by the quality of ‘issues’ or promises canvassed by the candidates. The debates won’t also change much (except if there is a major gaffe by either candidate like Tofa did in the debate with Abiola).
 My take is that more than 95% of the likely voters have pretty much made up their minds based largely on other considerations. A few of us remain undecided. During my brief visit to Nigeria, I watched some of the campaign rallies on television. The tragedy of the current electioneering campaigns is that both parties are missing the golden opportunity to sensitize the citizenry about the enormous challenges ahead and hence mobilize them for the inevitable sacrifices they would be called upon to make soon. Each is promising an El-Dorado.
Let me admit that the two main parties talk around the major development challenges—corruption, insecurity, economy (unemployment/poverty, power, infrastructure, etc) health, education, etc. However, it is my considered view that none of them has any credible agenda to deal with the issues, especially within the context of the evolving global economy and Nigeria’s broken public finance. The UK Conservative Party’s manifesto for the last election proudly announced that all its programmes were fully costed and were therefore implementable. 
Neither APC nor PDP can make a similar claim. A plan without the dollar or Naira signs to it is nothing but a wish-list. They are not telling us how much each of their promises will cost and where they will get the money. None talks about the broken or near bankrupt public finance and the strategy to fix it.
In response to the question of where the money will come from, I heard one of the politicians say that the problem of Nigeria was not money but the management of resources. This is half-truth. The problem is both. No matter how efficient a father (with a monthly salary of N50,000) is at managing the family resources, I cannot see how he could deliver on a promise to buy a brand new Peugeot 406 for each of his three children in a year. Even with all the loopholes and waste closed, with increased efficiency per dollar spent, there is still a binding budget constraint. To deliver an efficient national transport infrastructure alone will still cost tens of billions of dollars per annum even by corruption-free, cost-effective means.
 Did I hear that APC promises a welfare system that will pay between N5,000 and N10,000 per month to the poorest 25 million Nigerians? Just this programme alone will cost between N1.5 and N3 trillion per annum. Add to this the cost of free primary education plus free meal (to be funded by the federal budget or would it force non-APC state governments to implement the same?), plus some millions of public housing, etc.
I have tried to cost some of the promises by both the APC and the PDP, given alternative scenarios for public finance and the numbers don’t add up. Nigerians would be glad to know how both parties would fund their programmes. Do they intend to accentuate the huge public debt, or raise taxes on the soon to-be-beleaguered private businesses, or massively devalue the naira to rake in baskets of naira from the dwindling oil revenue, or embark on huge fiscal retrenchment with the sack of labour and abandonment of projects, and which areas of waste do they intend to close and how much do they estimate to rake in from them, etc?
 I remember that Chief Obafemi Awolowo was asked similar questions in 1978 and 1979 about his promises of free education and free medical services. Even as a teenager, I was impressed by how he reeled out figures about the amounts he would save from various ‘waste’ including the tea/coffee served in government offices. The point is that at least he did his homework and had his numbers and I give credit to his team. Some 36 years later, the quality of political debate and discourse seems to border on the pedestrian.
 From the quality of its team, I did not expect much from the current government, but I must confess that I expected APC as a party aspiring to take over from PDP to come up with a knock-out punch. Evidently, from what we have read from the various versions of its manifesto as well as the depth of promises being made, it does not seem that it has a better offer.
Let me digress a bit to refresh our memory on where we are, and thus provide the context in which to evaluate the promises being made to us. Recall that the key word of the 2015 budget is ‘austerity’. Austerity? This is just within a few months of the fall in oil prices. History repeats itself in a very cruel way, as this was exactly what happened under the Shehu Shagari administration. Under the Shagari government, oil price reached its highest in 1980/81.
 During the same period, Nigeria ratcheted up its consumption and all tiers of government were in competition as to which would out-borrow the other. Huge public debt was the consequence. When oil prices crashed in early 1982, the National Assembly then passed the Economic Stabilization (Austerity Measures) Act in one day— going through the first, second, and third readings the same day. 
The austerity measures included the rationing of ‘essential commodities’ and most states owed salary arrears. Corruption was said to be pervasive, and as Sani Abacha said in that famous coup speech, ‘unemployment has reached unacceptable proportions and our hospitals have become mere consulting clinics’. General Muhammadu Buhari/Tunde Idiagbon regime made the fight against corruption and restoration of discipline the cardinal point of their administration which lasted for 20 months. I am not sure they had a credible plan to get the economy out of the doldrums (although it must be admitted that poverty incidence in Nigeria as of 1985 when they left office was a just46%— according to the Federal Office of Statistics).
We have come full circle. If the experience under Shagari could be excused as an unexpected shock, what Nigeria is going through now is a consequence of our deliberate wrong choices. We have always known that the unprecedented oil boom (in both price and quantity—despite oil theft) of the last six years is temporary but the government chose to treat it as a permanent shock. The parallels with the Shagari regime are troubling. 
First, at the time of oil boom, Nigeria again went on a consumption spree such that the budgets of the last five years can best be described as ‘consumption budgets’, with new borrowing by the federal government exceeding the actual expenditure on critical infrastructure. Second, not one penny was added to the stock of foreign reserves at a period Nigeria earned hundreds of billions from oil. For comparisons, President Obasanjo met about $5 billion in foreign reserves, and the average monthly oil price for the 72 months he was in office was $38, and yet he left $43 billion in foreign reserves after paying $12 billion to write-off Nigeria’s external debt. In the last five years, the average monthly oil price has been over $100, and the quantity also higher but our foreign reserves have been declining and exchange rate depreciating.
I note that when I assumed office as Governor of CBN, the stock of foreign reserves was $10 billion. The average monthly oil price during my 60 months in office was $59, but foreign reserve reached the all-time peak of $62 billion (and despite paying $12 billion for external debt, and losing over $15 billion during the unprecedented global financial and economic crisis) I left behind $45 billion. Recall also that our exchange rate continuously appreciated during this period and was at N117 to the dollar before the global crisis and we deliberately allowed it to depreciate in order to preserve our reserves.
 My calculation is that if the economy was better managed, our foreign reserves should have been between $102 –$118 billion and exchange rate around N112 before the fall in oil prices. As of now, the reserves should be around $90 billion and exchange rate no higher than N125 per dollar.
Third, the rate of public debt accumulation at a time of unprecedented boom had no parallel in the world. While the Obasanjo administration bought and enlarged the policy space for Nigeria, the current government has sold and constricted it. What debt relief did for Nigeria was to liberate Nigerian policymakers from the intrusive conditionalities of the creditors and thereby truly allowing Nigeria independence in its public policy. How have we used the independence? Through our own choices, we have yet again tied the hands of future policymakers. This time, the debt is not necessarily to foreign creditor institutions/governments which are organized under the Paris club but largely to private agents which is even more volatile. We call it domestic debt. But if one carefully unpacks the bond portfolio, what percentage of it is held by foreign private agents? And I understand the Government had removed the speed bumps we kept to slow the speed of capital flight, and someone is sweating to explain the gyrations in foreign reserves. I am just smiling!
In sum, the mismanagement of our economy has brought us once more to the brink. Government officials rely on the artificial construct of debt to GDP ratio to tell us we can borrow as much as we want. That is nonsense, especially for an economy with a mono but highly volatile source of revenue and forex earnings. The chicken will soon come home to roost. Today, the combined domestic and external debt of the Federal Government is in excess of $40 billion. Add to this the fact that abandoned capital projects littered all over the country amount to over $50 billion. No word yet on other huge contingent liabilities. If oil prices continue to fall, I bet that Nigeria will soon have a heavy debt burden even with low debt to GDP ratio. Furthermore, given the current and capital account regime, it is evident that Nigeria does not have enough foreign reserves to adequately cover for imports plus short term liabilities. In essence, we are approaching the classic of what the Shagari government faced, and no wonder the hasty introduction of ‘austerity measures’ again.
Fourth, poverty incidence and unemployment are also simultaneously at all-time high levels. According to the NBS, poverty incidence grew to 69% in 2010 and projected to be 71% in 2011, with unemployment at 24%. This is the worst record in Nigeria’s history, and the paradox is that this happened during the unprecedented oil boom.
One theme I picked up listening to the campaign rallies as well as to some of the propagandists is the confusion about measuring government “performance”. Most people seem to confuse ‘inputs’, or ‘processes’ with output. Earlier this month, I had a dinner with a group of friends (14 of us) and we were chit-chatting about Nigeria. One of us, an associate of President Jonathan veered off to repeat a propaganda mantra that Jonathan had outperformed his predecessors. He also reminded us that Jonathan re-based the GDP and that Nigeria is now the biggest economy in Africa; etc. It was fun listening to the response by others. In sum, the group agreed that the President had ‘outperformed’ his predecessors except that it is in reverse order. First, my friend was educated that re-basing the GDP is no achievement: it is a routine statistical exercise, and depending on the base year that you choose, you get a different GDP figure. Re-basing the GDP has nothing to do with government policy. Besides, as naira-dollar exchange rate continues to depreciate, the GDP in current dollars will also shrink considerably soon.
We were reminded of Jonathan’s agricultural ‘revolution’. But someone cut in and noted that for all the propaganda, the growth rate of the agricultural sector in the last five years still remains far below the performance under Obasanjo. One of us reminded him that no other president had presided over the slaughter of about 15,000 people by insurgents in a peacetime; no other president earned up to 50% of the amount of resources the current government earned from oil and yet with very little outcomes; no other president had the rate of borrowing; none had significant forex earnings and yet did not add one penny to foreign reserves but losing international reserves at a time of boom; no other president had a depreciating exchange rate at a time of export boom; at no time in Nigeria’s history has poverty reached 71% (even under Abacha, it was 67 -70%); and under no other president did unemployment reach 24%. Surely, these are unprecedented records and he surely ‘outperformed’ his predecessors! What a satire!
One of those present took the satire to some level by comparing Jonathan to the ‘performance’ of the former Governor of Anambra, Peter Obi. He noted that while Obi gloated about ‘savings’, there is no signature project to remember his regime except that his regime took the first position among all states in Nigeria in the democratization of poverty—- mass impoverishment of the people of Anambra. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, poverty rose under his watch in Anambra from 20% in 2004 (lowest in Nigeria then) to 68% in 2010 (a 238% deterioration!).
 Our friend likened it to a father who had no idea of what to do with his resources and was celebrating his fat bank account while his children were dying of kwashiorkor. He pointed out that since it is the likes of Peter Obi who are the advisers to Jonathan on how to manage the economy (thereby confusing micromanagement which you do as a trader with macro governance) it is little wonder that poverty is fast becoming another name for Nigeria. It was a very hilarious evening.
My advice to President Jonathan and his handlers is to stop wasting their time trying to campaign on his job record. Those who have decided to vote for him will not do so because he has taken Nigeria to the moon. His record on the economy is a clear ‘F’ grade. As one reviews the laundry list of micro interventions the government calls its achievements, one wonders whether such list is all that the government could deliver with an unprecedented oil boom and an unprecedented public debt accumulation. I can clearly see why reasonable people are worried. Everywhere else in the world, government performance on the economy is measured by some outcome variables such as: income (GDP growth rate), stability of prices (inflation and exchange rate), unemployment rate, poverty rate, etc. On all these scores, this government has performed worse than its immediate predecessor— Obasanjo regime. If we appropriately adjust for oil income and debt, then this government is the worst in our history on the economy. All statistics are from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Despite presiding over the biggest oil boom in our history, it has not added one percentage point to the growth rate of GDP compared to the Obasanjo regime especially the 2003- 07 period. Obasanjo met GDP growth rate at 2% but averaged 7% within 2003- 07. The current government has been stuck at 6% despite an unprecedented oil boom. Income (GDP) growth has actually performed worse, and poverty escalated. This is the only government in our history where rapidly increasing government expenditure was associated with increasing poverty. The director general of NBS stated in his written press conference address in 2011 that about 112 million Nigerians were living in poverty. Is this the record to defend? Obama had a tough time in his re-election in 2012 because unemployment reached 8%. Here, unemployment is at a record 24% and poverty at an all-time 71% but people are prancing around, gloating about ‘performance’. As I write, the Naira exchange rate to the dollar is $210 at the parallel market. What a historic performance! Please save your breathe and save us the embarrassment. The President promised Nigeria nothing in the last election and we did not get value for money. He should this time around present us with his plan for the future, and focus on how he would redeem himself in the second term—if he wins!
Sadly the government’s economic team is very weak, dominated by self-interested and self-conflicted group of traders and businessmen, and so-called economic team meetings have been nothing but showbiz time. The very people government exists to regulate have seized the levers of government as policymakers and most government institutions have largely been “privatized” to them. Mention any major government department or agency and someone will tell you whom it has been ‘allocated’ to, and the person subsequently nominates his minion to occupy the seat. What do you then expect? The economy seems to be on auto pilot, with confusion as to who is in charge, and government largely as a constraint. There are no big ideas, and it is difficult to see where economic policy is headed to.
 My thesis is that the Nigerian economy, if properly managed, should have been growing at an annual rate of about 12% given the oil boom, and poverty and unemployment should have fallen dramatically over the last five years. This is topic for another day.
So far, the Government’s response to the self-inflicted crisis is, at best, laughable. They blame external shocks as if we did not expect them and say nothing about the terrible policy choices they made. The National Assembly had described the 2015 budget as unrealistic. The fiscal adjustments proposed in the 2015 budget simply play to the gallery and just to pander to our emotions. For a $540 billion economy, the so-called luxury tax amounts to zero per cent of GDP. If the current trend continues, private businesses will come under a heavy crunch soon. Having put economics on its head during the boom time, the Government now proposes to increase taxes during a prospective downturn and impose austerity measures. Unbelievable!
Fortuitously, just as he succeeded Shagari when Nigeria faced similar situations, Buhari is once more seeking to lead Nigeria. But times have changed, and Nigeria is largely different. First, this is a democracy and dealing with corruption must happen within the ambit of the rule of law and due process. Getting things done in a democracy requires complicated bargaining, especially where the legislature, labour, the media, and civil society have become strong and entrenched. Second, the size, structure and institutions of the economy have fundamentally altered. The market economy, especially the capital market and foreign exchange market, impose binding constraints and discipline on any regime. Third, dealing with most of the other issues— insecurity, unemployment/poverty, infrastructure, health, education, etc, require increased, smarter, and more efficient spending. Increased spending when the economy is on the reverse gear?
If oil prices remain between 40- 60 dollars over the next two years, the current policy regime guarantees that foreign reserves will continue the precipitous depletion with the attendant exchange rate depreciation, as well as a probable unsustainable escalation in debt accumulation, fiscal retrenchment or taxing the private sector with vengeance. The scenario does not look pretty. The poor choices made by the current government have mortgaged the future, and the next government would have little room to manoeuvre and would inevitably undertake drastic but painful structural adjustments. Nigerians loathe the term ‘structural adjustment’. With falling real wages and depreciating currency, I can see any belated attempt by the government to deal with the bloated public sector pitching it against a feisty labour. I worry about regime stability in the coming months, and I do not envy the next team.
The seeming crisis is not destiny; it is self-imposed. However, we must see it as an opportunity to be seized to fundamentally restructure Nigeria’s political economy, including its fiscal federalism and mineral rights. The current system guarantees cycles of consumption loop and I cannot see sustainable long term prosperity without major systemic overhaul. The proposals at the national conference merely tinker at the margins. In totality, the outcome of the national conference is to do more of the same, with minor amendments on the system of sharing and consumption rather than a fundamental overhaul of the system for productivity and prosperity. President Jonathan promises to implement the report of the national conference if he wins. I commend him for at least offering ‘something’, albeit, marginal in my view. I have not heard anything from the APC or Buhari regarding the national conference report or what kind of federalism they envisage for Nigeria.
In Nigeria’s recent history, two examples under the military and civilian governments demonstrate that where the political will exists, Nigeria has the capacity to overcome severe challenges. The first was under President Babangida. Not many Nigerians appreciate that given the near bankrupt state of Nigeria’s finances and requirements for debt resolution under the Paris Club, the country had little choice but to undertake the painful structural adjustment programme (SAP). I want to state for the record that the foundation for the current market economy we operate in Nigeria was laid by that regime (liberalization of markets including market determined exchange rate, private sector-led economy including licensing of private banks and insurance, de-regulation, privatization of public enterprises under TCPC, etc). Just abolishing the import licensing regime was a fundamental policy revolution. Despite the criticisms, these policy thrusts have remained the pillars of our deepening market economy, and the economy recovered from almost negative growth rate to average 5.5% during the regime and poverty incidence at 42% in 1992.
Under our democratic experience, President Obasanjo inherited a bankrupt economy (with the lost decade of the 1990’s GDP growth rate of 2.2% and hence zero per capita income growth for the decade). His regime consolidated and deepened the market economy structures (consolidation of the banking system which is powering the emergence of a new but truly private sector-led economy and simultaneously led to a new awareness and boom in the capital market; telecommunications revolution; new pension regime; debt relief which won for Nigeria policy independence from the World Bank and Paris Club; deepening of de-regulation and privatization including the unbundling of NEPA under PHCN for privatization; agricultural revolution that saw yearly growth rate of over 6% and remains unsurpassed ever since; sound monetary and fiscal policy and growing foreign reserves that gave confidence to investors; establishment of the Africa Finance Corporation which is leading infrastructure finance in Africa; backward integration policy that saw the establishment and growth of Dangote cement and others; established ICPC and EFCC to fight corruption, etc). The economy roared to average yearly growth of 7% between 2003 and 2007 (although average monthly oil price under his regime was $38), and poverty dropped from estimated 70% in1999 to 54% in 2004. Obasanjo was his own coordinating minister of the economy and chairman of the economic management team— which he chaired for 90 minutes every week. I met with him daily. In other words, he did not outsource economic management.
We expected that the next government after Obasanjo would take the economy to the next level. So far, we have had two great slogans: the 7-point agenda and currently, the transformation agenda. They remain empty slogans without content or direction.
Let me suggest that the fundamental challenge for the next government on the economy can be framed around the goal of creating twelve million jobs over the next four years to have a dent on unemployment and poverty. The challenge is to craft a development agenda to deliver this within the context of broken public finance, and an economy in which painful structural adjustments will be inevitable if current trends in oil prices continue. Most other programmes on corruption, security, power, infrastructure, etc, are expected to be instruments to achieve this objective.
So far, neither the APC nor the PDP has a credible programme for employment and poverty reduction. The APC promises to create 20,000 jobs per state in the first year, totalling a mere 720,000 jobs. This sounds like a quota system and for a country where the new entrants into the labour market per annum exceed two million. If it was intended as a joke, APC must please get serious. On the other hand, President Jonathan targets two million jobs per annum but his strategy for doing so is a Job Board— another committee of sort. Sorry, Mr. President, a Job Board is not a strategy. The principal job Nigerians hired you to do for them is to create jobs for them too. You cannot outsource that job, Sir. Creating 3 million jobs per annum under the unfolding crisis would task our creativity and audacity to the limits.
I heard one politician argue that once we fix power, private sector would create jobs. Not necessarily! Well, this government claims to have added 1,700MW to the national grid and yet unemployment soars. Ask Greece, Spain, etc with power and infrastructure and yet with high unemployment. Structural dislocations play a key role. For example, currently in Nigeria, it is estimated that more than 60% of graduates of our educational system are unemployable. You can understand why many of us are amused when the government celebrates that it has established twelve more glorified secondary schools as universities. I thought they would have told us how many Nigerian universities made it in the league of the best 200 universities in the world. That would have been an achievement. Surely, creating millions of jobs in this economy would, among other things, require ‘new money’ and extraordinary system of coordination among the three tiers of government plus the private sector. Unfortunately, from what I read, the CBN is largely likely to be asleep at this time the country needs the most revolutionary finance. This is a topic for another day. Only the President can lead this effort. Moreover, we are waiting for the two parties/candidates to spell out HOW they will create jobs, whether it is the 20,000 jobs per state by APC or 2 million per annum by President Jonathan. Let us know how you arrived at the figures. Whichever of the two that is declared winner will have his job cut out for him, and I expect him to declare a national emergency on job creation.
Surprisingly, none of the parties/candidates has any grand vision about African economic integration, led by Nigeria. There is no programme on how to make the naira the de facto currency of ECOWAS or the international financial centre that can attract more than $100 billion per annum. Where is the strategy for orchestrating the revolutionary finance to power the economy during this downturn? For President Jonathan, I find it shocking that the most important initiative of his government to secure the future of the economy by Nigeria refusing to sign the ruinous Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union is not even being mentioned. President Obasanjo saved Nigeria from the potential ruin of an ECOWAS single currency while to his credit Jonathan safeguarded our industrial sector/economy by refusing to sign the EPA. Or does the government not understand the import of that? It will be interesting to know the APC’s strategy for exploiting strategic alliances within Africa, China, and the world for Nigeria’s prosperity.
If Buhari wins, he will ride on the populist wind for “change”. Most people I have spoken to who have decided to vote for Buhari do not necessarily know the specifics of what he would offer or how Nigeria would be different under him. I asked my driver, Usman, whom he would vote for President. He responded: “If they no rig the election, na Buhari everybody go vote for”. I asked him why, and his next response sums it: “The man dey honest. In short, people just want to see another face for that villa”. But if he wins, the honeymoon will be brief and the pressure will be immense to magically deliver a ‘new Nigeria’ with no corruption, no boko haram or insecurity, jobs for everyone, no poverty, infrastructure and power in abundance, etc. As a first point, Buhari and his team must realize that they do not yet have a coherent, credible agenda that is consistent with the fundamentals of the economy currently. The APC manifesto contains some good principles and wish-lists, but as a blue print for Nigeria’s security and prosperity, it is largely hollow. The numbers do not add up. Thus, his first job is to present a credible development agenda to Nigerians.
The second key challenge for Buhari and his team will be to transit and transform from a group of what I largely refer to as aggrieved people’s congregation to build a true political party with a soul from the patchwork of political associations. It is surely easier to oppose than to govern. This should not worry us much. After all, even the PDP which has been in power for 16 years is still an assembly of people held together by what I refer to as dining table politics. I am not sure how many members can tell you what their party stands for or its mission and vision for Nigeria. The third but more difficult agenda is cobbling together a truly ‘progressive team’ that will begin to pick the pieces. The lesson of history is that the best leaders have been the ones who went beyond their narrow provincial enclaves to recruit talents and mobilize capacities for national transformation. In Nigeria’s history, the two presidents who made the most fundamental transformation of the economy, Babangida and Obasanjo, were exceptional in the quality of the teams they put together. I therefore pray that Buhari will be magnanimous in victory – if he wins—to put together a ‘team Nigeria’ for the rescue mission.
If Jonathan wins, then God must have been magnanimous to give him a second chance to redeem himself. Most people I know who support Jonathan do so either out of self-interest or fear of the unknown. As a friend summed it: the devil you know is better than the angel you do not know. One person assured me that we would see a ‘different Jonathan’ if he wins as he has been rattled by the harsh judgment of history on his presidency so far. I just pray that he is right. In that case, I would just draw the President’s attention to two issues:
First, beside the coterie of clowns who literally make a living with the sing-song of transformation agenda, President Jonathan must know that it remains an empty slogan. His greatest challenge is how to save himself from the stranglehold of his largely provincial palace jesters who tell him he has done better than God, and seek out ‘enemies’ and friends who can help him write his name in history. Propaganda won’t do it.
Second, Jonathan must claw back his powers as President of Nigeria. He largely outsourced them, and must now roll his sleeves for a new beginning. I take liberty to tell you this brutal truth: if you are not re-elected, there is little to remember your regime after the next few years. On 7th January 2004, I made a special presentation to an expanded economic management team to set agenda for the new year (as chief economic adviser). The focus of my presentation was for us to identify seven iroko trees that would be the flagship markers for the administration as well as how to finance them. I use the same framework to evaluate your administration. What I say to you, Mr. President, is that your record of performance so far is like a farmland filled with grasses. Yes, they are many but there is no tree, let alone any iroko tree, that stands out. Think about this. The beginning of wisdom for every President in his second term is to admit that he is racing against time to cement his legacy. So far, your report card is not looking great. You need a team of big and bold thinkers, as well as with excellent execution capacity. So far, it is not working!
Under the executive presidential system, Nigerians elected you to manage their economy. You cannot outsource that job. Our constitution envisages a federal coordination of the economy, and that function is performed by the National Economic Council (NEC) with Vice-President as chairman. Indeed, the constitution and other laws of Nigeria envisage the office of the VP as the coordinator on the economy. All major economic institutions of the federal government are, by law, chaired by the Vice-President including the national planning (see functions of the national planning commission as coordinator of federal government economic and development programmes), debt management office, National Council on Privatization, etc. As chairman of National Planning (with Ministers of Finance, Agriculture, CBN governor, etc as members), the VP oversees the federal planning and coordination. Then the Constitution mandates the VP as representative of the federal government to chair the NEC, with only CBN governor and state governors as members—to coordinate national economy between federal and states. No minister is a member of NEC. Many people do not understand the logic of the design of our constitution and the role of the VP. Of course, the buck stops on the desk of Mr. President. Only the President and VP have our mandate to govern us. Every other person is an adviser/assistant. I bet that you will only appreciate this article AFTER you leave office. Now that you are in power, truth will only hurt! Be assured that those of us who are prepared to die for Nigeria will never spare you or anyone else this bitter truth.
Nigeria must survive and prosper beyond Buhari or Jonathan!
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Read President Goodluck Jonathan's New Year speech.

Dear Great People of our nation, 
1. I greet and felicitate with you all as we enter the New Year today. As we mark the beginning of this New Year, 2015, a new nation is being born. A new nation is being born because of the foundations we have all laid, working together for the good and progress of our dear fatherland. 
2. I join you all in thanking God Almighty who has brought us this far, for continually bestowing His Grace upon us and for guiding our great nation safely through all the challenges of the past year. 
3. This year, as in the year past, I reaffirm my commitment to work to ensure a secure future for our dear country and the generations yet unborn. 
4. Last year, we celebrated our hundredth year of nationhood. The year brought us further progress, challenges and fresh opportunities. 
5. We have contended with the normal challenges of nation-building and the unusual challenges of terrorism.
6. But we have continued to vigorously confront those who seek to destroy the bonds of unity that hold us together. 
7. On this first day of the New Year, I want to pay special tribute to the gallant officers, men and women of our Armed Forces and other security agencies who have been in the forefront of the war against terrorism and violent extremism in our country and sub-region. 
8. I also commend all Nigerians who have remained vigilant and cooperative with our security agencies in the fight against the common enemy. 
9. We are re-equipping and re-positioning our armed forces to enhance their capacity to win the ongoing war against terror and insurgency. 
10. Regrettably, terrorists have unleashed much pain and agony on our land. They have made widows of our mothers and sisters and orphans of our children. They have shut down businesses, desecrated places of worship and brought untold hardship to both men and women. They have violated the culture and peaceful way of life in our country, which took generations to build. 
11. They have destroyed countless schools and displaced people from their communities, driving them into exile. 
12. I want to assure you that the terrorists will not get away with their atrocities: they will not win; they will be routed. As President, I feel the pain of all affected communities and families. I hear their cries and share their sorrow and pain. 
13. We will not forget; we will not look the other way. We have done a lot of painstaking planning and work to resolve the current security challenge. We will bring justice to the savage terrorists known as Boko Haram. They will be defeated. 
14. That is the solemn commitment I make today as President of the Federal Republic, and Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces. 
15. By the Special Grace of God, the Federal Government, under my leadership, has continued, in the past four years to lead our country forward, even under the most trying circumstances. 
16. The progress we have made in priority areas bears us testimony. 
17. Amongst other achievements, we have rehabilitated and expanded our rail transportation network, successfully privatized power generation and distribution, significantly reformed and increased local participation in our oil and gas industry, and improved nationwide access to potable water from 57% in 2010, to 70% at present. 
18. We have also made significant progress in improving access to primary, secondary and tertiary education by building and equipping more schools, including special Almajiri schools, and establishing additional universities to ensure that each state of the nation now has at least one Federal University. 
19. Our national economy maintained a steady growth rate of close to seven per cent in the past four years and millions of fresh employment opportunities were created for our people as a direct consequence. 
20. Recently, we launched the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP) and the $100 million dollars Government and Donor Fund for Agriculture Finance in Nigeria (FAFIN) to fast-track the positive transformation of our agricultural sector. 
21. The Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme (YEAP) targets 750, 000 market-oriented young agricultural producers while the $100 million dollars Fund is to provide affordable long-term financing to support the development of small and medium agribusinesses in the country. 
22. This is in addition to a N50 billion Farm Mechanization Support Fund set up by the Central Bank to establish 1,200 agricultural equipment-hiring enterprises. 
23. Both funds will become fully operational this year. Policies and programmes such as these to boost agricultural production remain topmost on the agenda of this administration. 
24. Being very conscious of the inherent perils of our over-reliance on income from crude oil exports for national development, we have focused on accelerating the diversification of our economy. 
25. The non-oil Sector which has grown by an average of 8% in the last few years, is now a major driver of growth in our economy. 
26. The 2015 national budget, which is now before the National Assembly, is targeted at deepening our efforts at becoming a non-oil economy. 
27. The budget also includes measures to ensure that the downturn in the price of oil does not affect our development plans and our national economy too adversely. We are adjusting our financial processes to safeguard our economy. We are also taking steps to ensure that the poor and the low and medium incomeearners do not bear the brunt. 
28. In 2015, this administration will continue to lay the foundation for a vibrant economy that attracts significant Foreign Direct Investment and promotes policies that ensure economic stability. 
29. We will ensure stability in the value of the Naira by striving to take away speculative behaviours that cause market exchange pressures.
30. We will continue to build and maintain a healthy external reserves position and strengthen fiscal buffers. We will ensure the Naira remains strong, and gives foreign investors the clarity and certainty that they need, to guide future investment decisions. 
31. We will continue to improve our payment systems and strengthen risk-based supervision mechanism for Nigerian banks to ensure overall health and stability of the banking system. 
32. We are introducing a broad spectrum of financial instruments to boost sector-specific enterprise areas in agriculture, Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs), manufacturing, and oil and gas to enhance our aggregate supply capacity, reduce poverty, promote job creation and increase the general well-being of our people. 
33. These efforts and other measures being spearheaded by relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies, are geared to ensure a secure future for Nigeria and create a much more prosperous country, where people live more peaceful and fulfilled lives. 
34. As we enter an election year, I assure you that our administration will remain fully focused on providing good governance and the delivery of better public services to our people.
 
35. The coming campaigns and elections will not distract us from our ongoing work to significantly improve the living conditions of our people. And I urge all tiers of government not to be distracted as well. 
36. The elections are very important for us as a country. Their successful conclusion will further strengthen our democratic institutions and place our beloved country even more firmly in the comity of truly democratic nations.
37. Given the challenges that have characterized some previous electoral contests in our country, the eyes of the world will certainly be on the conduct and outcome of our fifth post-military rule general elections. 
38. I reassure all Nigerians and the international community of our firm commitment to free, fair and credible elections. My commitment to free elections and one man, one vote remains unwavering. 
39. Our administration has worked hard in previous elections to prepare all key stakeholders including the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security agencies and the electorate optimally, to ensure a progressively improved electoral process in the country under my watch. We will continue to do so for the coming elections. 
40. We will continue to provide adequate funding to INEC and maintain the Commission’s independence and isolate it from any form of interference or meddling in its day-to-day affairs. This shall continue to guarantee its impartiality and ability to conduct more credible and acceptable elections. 
41. National security agencies will also be given all necessary support to enhance their ability to ensure that the elections are peaceful and violence-free. The Nigeria Police has already established an Elections Security Planning and Monitoring Unit. 
42. I am optimistic that with the cooperation of all law-abiding citizens of the country, our commitment to have a peaceful and violence-free election will be actualized. 
43. I will like to say this, once again, to my fellow politicians and political leaders. None of our political ambitions is worth the blood of any of our countrymen, women and children. The improvement of their lives and living conditions ought to be our primary motive and the driving force of our quest for political power and leadership positions. 
44. Let us not promote sectionalism, disunity, intolerance, hate, falsehood or the malicious abuse of political opponents. Whatever we feel or seek, we must have a nation and a people before we can dream of political ambitions. Let us put the nation and the people first. 
45. Let us all conduct our electoral campaigns with the highest possible decorum and civility towards political opponents. Let us give INEC the fullest possible support and cooperation it requires to conduct credible and violence-free elections in 2015. 
46. After the 2011 general elections, some unpatriotic elements embarked on an orgy of violence, resulting in the destruction of lives and property. That will not be allowed to happen this time around. This government will act decisively against anyone who disrupts the public peace, before, during or after the 2015 general elections.
47. All Nigerians, of voting age, are free to vote based on their convictions. It is our duty to defend and protect that basic right, and let no one be in doubt, we will. 
48. Fellow Nigerians, I urge all of you to enter the New Year with renewed zeal and patriotism, to serve our fatherland with love, honesty, faithfulness and hope for a greater tomorrow. 
49. As I have always maintained, none of the challenges before us is insurmountable. We must come together as a people and work with single-minded unity of purpose to overcome them. 
50. Nigeria is a key country in Africa. We must work together to maintain our strategic position and collaborate with others to move the continent forward. I call for peace in Africa and an end to all conflicts in our continent. I urge all Africans to promote democracy in their respective countries to ensure faster development of the continent and faster economic and political integration. 
51. We will continue to pray and offer hands of fellowship and assistance to our fellow Africans suffering from the Ebola Virus Disease. I urge all Nigerians to show compassion and contribute in whatever way we can to help our African brothers and sisters. 
52. As we go into this New Year, I salute the indomitable and resilient spirit of our people in Nigeria and wherever they are in the world. Our spirit of enterprise and the doggedness to succeed amongst all odds has been our strength. 
53. With our collective prayers and efforts, we will grow our economy and our people will become wealthier. Government will continue with programmes deliberately designed to create more jobs for our youth, to enable them contribute more to the growth and development of our nation. 
54. Let us continue our march to the future, towards the attainment of our collective vision of a strong, united, prosperous and harmonious nation – a secure nation for us and for our coming generations. 
55. I wish you all a happy and fulfilling 2015. 
56. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria. 
57. Happy New Year, Nigeria! 
58. I thank you all.
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Behold the new N100 note.

‎But for President Goodluck Jonathan’s visit to Burkina Faso last week, the new N100 commemorative notes would have been unveiled at the Presidential Villa, Abuja last week Wednesday.

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The notes were unveiled by the President today November 12, 2014 during the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting. The ceremony was also witnessed by Vice President Namadi Sambo , Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
Emefiele said the design platforms on which the note was made to include security, durability, attractiveness, cultural heritage and transformation.
Credit: PUNCH 
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President Goodluck Jonathan to unveil the new N100 bank note tomorrow.

I’m sure nobody thought of seeing a new bank note this year. Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan will tomorrow, Wednesday November 5, 2014 unveil the new commemorative N100 banknote by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

In a statement made available on Monday, the Apex bank said the commemorative note was part of its contribution to the country’s centenary celebration. The new note retains the portrait of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, comes in different colours and contains other new features.

 

“The choice of the N100 denomination is to mark the centenary celebration of Nigeria and is consistent with best global practices for central banks around the world during the celebration of national events. Part of the features of the commemorative banknote is the inscription of the theme of the centenary celebration: ‘One Nigeria, Great Promise’ as a micro-text.

 “While retaining the portrait of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo on the front, the new note features Nigerian traditional dancers at the back. The commemorative note comes in different dominant colours.” The CBN wrote.

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