Date Published: 01/12/10

VP’s New Year Message – Litany of failed promises By Chike Okafor

That Vice President New Year Message to Nigerians on behalf of President Umar Musa Yar'dua is nothing but a litany of failed promises of the numerous problems facing Nigerians before they were sworn in on 29 th May, 2007

They are:

·                    Health care delivery services

·                    Electricity

·                    Housing

·                    Roads

·                    Electoral Reforms

·                    Civil Unrest

·                    Corruption

·                    Kidnapping/militancy

·                    Food

·                    Education

·                    Poverty Eradication

·                    Security

·                    Religious intolerance and violence

He promised in that speech that Government will adopt a mix of proactive actions, including enhanced intelligence-gathering, effective preemptive crime detection and containment as well as result-oriented investigation and law enforcement to tackle most of these problems.

Let me use this medium to remind Mr. Vice President that Nigerians are no fools. We are simply tired of being reminded how great Nigerians is abundantly blessed with human and material resources and the effort the Government is making to harness such blessings to  translate the same to touch lives of Nigerians with nothing to show for it.

We are tired of listening and reading your recycled excuses on the pages of newspapers and on television of gas pipeline vandalism by militants, and as a result the Government was unable to meet the 6000MW target promised to Nigerians.

We are tired of reading and listening to your cheap lies on effort by Government to tackle insecurity in the land and yet you said that Government will adopt a mix of proactive actions, including enhanced intelligence-gathering, effective preemptive crime detection and containment as well as result-oriented investigation and law enforcement to tackle Insecurity,and yet Bauchi Boils now and again with many Lives lost.

We are tired of answering the Giant of Africa, the sixth world oil producer and yet we keep sleeping at the filling stations in search of fuel every end of the year.

We do not want to be reminded that the Government is paying lip service to corruption and every year we keep scoring 2 nd or 3 rd position as the worst corrupt country at the Transparency International ratings. Every year our budget is poorly implemented. Every now and then our  Leaders are being flown abroad for medical treatments.

We are tired of reading and listening to yearly budget of Trillions and at the end of the year, some undisclosed unspent amount of the budget is retired back to the Treasury without any impact on the lives of the Nigerians to show for the said Budget of the Trillions.

We are tired of Asuu strike as a result of poor funding of our universities. We are tired of reading on pages of Newspapers how most high powered panel was set up to look into Halliburton ’ s bribery scandal, power probe and numerous others that did not see the light of the day. We are tired of waiting endlessly for the passage of freedom of information bill,Uwais Electoral recommendations and off course other nation building and life touching Legislative bills awaiting passage at the National Assembly just because two third majorities are privileged few.

We are tired of witnessing cabinet reshuffle with the same old men with analogue sense of approach to Governance being recycled or redeployed.

We are tired of reading from the pages of Newspapers, great efforts the Government is making to eradicate poverty completely and yet an average Nigerian can not afford three square meals per day.

Enough is enough and enough of all these. God is angry and will soon visit each of us and reward every man according to his or her work.

Chike Okafor   08033297537

Global Coalition against bad Governance

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