The re-election bid of President Goodluck Jonathan got a major boost on Saturday as the Ooni-in -Council unanimously resolved to give its total support to his desire to continue in office. In demonstration of their commitment, the Council, led by the Ooni, Oba Oknuade Sijuade held series of prayers for the President.
At the palace of the Ooni, where the President went to seek royal blessing and support for his re-election in the March 28 Presidential poll, the President addressed some of the issues that have dominated discussions in his rapport with leaders and major stakeholders in the south west since the commencement of the campaigns since January 7,
Prominent on the firm commitments included the issues of the skewed political appointments against the people from the zone, the implementation of the reports of the national conference as well as the revamping of the agricultural sector to make the country’s economy self-sustaining.
For him, coming to Osun State was like coming home, because as a young graduate, that’s where he began his working career in life because he did his one year national service at Iresi, a town near Ile-Ife.
Key highlights of the visit was the special royal prayer sessions laced with traditional invocations led by the Ooni himself, who pledged total support for Jonathan’s re-election.
Stressing the need for the implementation of the reports of the national conference as the panacea for the growth and development of the country, the President said that no matter what developmental strategies put in place without long-term solution such as enunciated in the conference reports, such efforts would always end up as short-term measure.
According to the President, “One of the key things that we must do is to ensure that we have some significant changes in the country in terms of social and political structures and we believe that for us to really have a changed society we must go beyond just infrastructure and that is one of the reasons why we set up the national conference, which they came up with some key recommendations, that if we implement it will move Nigeria forward.
“When some people talk about change, we are talking about moving Nigeria forward, and to move Nigeria forward, we believe that the implementation of that report is key. Yes, as a government we can work on our infrastructure like roads. But those clamouring for change, they won’t be able to bring about real change since they have refused to be part of the process that would bring about the change they are shouting about.
“Some political parties that are advocating for change I believe they don’t have the blueprint for the development of this country as enunciated in the report of the national conference.and they cannot give out what they don’t have because they boycotted the conference and I don’t see how they will implement that report and if they will not implement that report, where will they take this country to? “
Jonathan admitted that the issue of skewed political appointments against the south west had become a major issue he had to address in the course of his interaction with the people of the zone. But he gave firm commitment that the trend would be reversed in the next dispensation.
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
His words, “One of the matters that keeps cropping up is the issue of political appointments for people from the south west. I promise that in the exit dispensation whatever lapses we have, will be taken care of. We will sit down and make sure that while appointing people into offices, the south west is not short hanged in any way.
“We know what happened that led to that skewed distribution in a way, over the period we tried to correct it and I believe because of that major problem at the beginning not caused by me, you know the reason, I believe my good brothers and sisters, my fathers and mothers from the south west let me promise you that in my second tenure, we will make sure that thing doesn’t come up at all.
“We promise that we will do our best for the whole country and south west must play roles in government so that whatever is due to the south westerners, they will surely get it, and we promise that we will do our best for our country.”
The President, who listed the achievements of his administration, especially in the areas of roads, agriculture, health and education, noted that Nigerians would enjoy better services if given another chance to lead the country for the next four years.
“When we took over just about 5,000 kilometres of federal roads were motor able, out of the 35,000 kilometres of roads owned by the federal government. Within this period,we have added 20,000 and expanded a number of them dualised. We still have about 10,000 kilometres of federal roads still bad, but you can see the difference 5,000, now 25,000 motorable, 10,000 for the next four years will surely get repaired.
“In agriculture we have done something. You know that because of the devastating floods in 2012, people thought that Nigeria was going to suffer from cost of food items but it never went up.
“Within this period because of the drop in the international price of crude oil which has even affected the value of the naira in comparison to the dollar we have been able to maintain a level of equilibrium. In some other countries that have experienced similar problem, people are queuing up to buy essential commodities, but here in Nigeria, because we moved forward in agriculture, we are producing a lot of food items and we have reduced our import bills.
“Before now we were spending about N3.3 trillion to import food stuff alone, but now we are spending just about N600 billion. Because of that the food prices have not gone up, and have remained stable.”
