PRESS STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE DEMOCRATIC ALTERNATIVE IN RESPECT OF THE ACTING PRESIDENCT OF GOODLUCK JONATHAN

PRESS STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE DEMOCRATIC ALTERNATIVE IN RESPECT OF THE ACTING PRESIDENCT OF GOODLUCK JONATHAN

The Peoples Democratic Party PDP or more correctly the clique that wields powerful influence in its organisation and manifestations has finally released the country from the unnecessary political impasse in which Musa Yar’Adua impaled us for 78 days and 78 nights. It has transferred presidential authority and responsibilities to Jonathan Goodluck who actually ran the presidential race along with Yar’Adua on the platform of the ruling PDP. The unwillingness of the various cliques within the party to do the right thing at the right time and even as a late correction by lawfully transferring authority, even temporarily from a PDP president who is on sick vacation in a foreign land to a PDP vice president beats all rational imaginations.

Whilst the utilisation of the world wide broadcast text of a BBC interview with Yar’Adua in a Saudi Arabian location in place of the president transmitting a written declaration to the heads of the legislative houses severely derogates from the inherent honour of the Nigerian National Assembly as well as that of the Executive Council of the Federal Republic, we simply have to let matters lie. We need to carry on with the life of the Federation no matter the very poor performance of the PDP politicians who are in control. We have to move forward and address serious issues of the country.

The DA said publicly in the press statement of January 10 2010, The Democratic Alternative knows very well that it really does not matter whether Yar’Adua or Jonathan or Mark or Bankole is performing the functions of President; the present PDP government has no answer to the problems of development of Nigeria. The programme of privatisation, deregulation and downsizing that the government is carrying out at the behest of the International Monetary Fund IMF and the capitalist giants that run the world market will not make life better for Nigerians. It is serving the interests of international capitalism. It is indeed against the provisions of the 1999 Constitution. The issue is that they should carry on and Nigerians should be wiser next year and remove the PDP and similar political parties from power.

The 2020:20 agenda is strictly not more than what it says : it is an agenda. There is no programme. Nine years to year 2020, Nigeria is still trapped among the least developed countries in the world in spite of her enormous natural and human resources.

Nigeria is not among the 16 Third World countries that have recorded economic progress since year 2000. Instead Nigeria is in the category of countries such as Chad, Niger, Malawi, Benin, Haiti, Yemen, Bangladesh, Uganda, Nigeria and Madagascar that have been listed as stagnant. Indeed, the case of Nigeria is worse than being stagnant: industries are closing; agriculture remains in a primitive system except for the isolated island of foreign exploitation by Zimbabweans who are investing in Kwara State. The core issue is that the ruling parties and politicians are disinterested in the economic development of a country that is among the very richest in human history.

The uncoordinated and undesirable programme of privatisation, deregulation and downsizing that was handed down to the ruling right wing politicians since 1985 by the International Monetary Fund on behalf of international capitalism will never develop our economy. Instead foreign economies are sustaining their productive capacities from the poverty of our people. We import their finished products at the expense of our development.

Now that the PDP is back in government with Jonathan Goodluck at the helm of affairs, the Democratic Alternative strongly advises the Acting President to embark on the following short term programme to commence the retrieval of 140 million Nigerians from the morass of backwardness:

Commence the programme to abolishing unemployment in five years
Implementation of a minimum wage of 50,000.00 naira per month and a fixed ceiling for the highest legitimate pay in the country immediately
Rapid industrialisation and local investment in agriculture by Nigerians to create jobs and remove dependence on import of finished products
Free and compulsory education to all children at primary and secondary schools
Free tertiary education and technical training for all who are in those levels of education
Standardised roads, rail system, waterways, city subways and air transport to remove the current hardships our people suffer in the course of movement
Commence a Family Housing Ownership Programme to be available to all in ten years consequent and abolition of tenancy of residential properties
Create easy access to healthcare services for 140 million Nigerians at standardised health care institutions and immediate abolition of receiving care abroad at public expense
Commence immediately the programme of full access to potable water by the entire population in five years
To achieve these objectives, Acting President Jonathan Goodluck will have to dismantle the ongoing self seeking foreign designed programme of deregulation, privatisation and downsizing that the right wing politicians are using to put our national wealth in their own and foreign private pockets, simultaneously deepening the pervasiveness of poverty and deprivation among Nigerians. The right wing politicians willfully destroyed the public assets to come out with the phoney and self serving theory that government has no business in business.

This is only a short term programme that the government must embark upon now to improve the quality of living of our people, 150 million of them. Otherwise, the Jonathan presidency will be a waste like those of his PDP predecessors and the military autocracy that antedated the PDP.