By: Jackson Ude<\/p>\n
Call it senility or elderly rascality of the old brigades, you will not be
\ntoo far from the best adjective that befits some members of the so called
\nNorthern Elders Forum, NEF and opposition politicians whose foray into
\npolitics have yielded next to nothing for the people they claim to
\nrepresent.<\/p>\n
Succinctly put, our political landscape and airwaves have been taken over
\nby aged mischief-makers parading as elders. The same men whose politics,
\npractices, actions and inactions have knocked the engine of progress not
\njust in the North but the whole of our dear country Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Foul-mouthed old men who have shamelessly put the country in the greatest
\nabyss of development have suddenly found their voices, behaving like
\nexuberant rascals and hiding under the cover of the sectional hegemony to
\nthreaten the existence of our dear nation.<\/p>\n
With no resume of hard work and contribution to Nigeria\u2019s development,
\nthese men have continued to pollute the landscape, inciting the people
\nespecially gullible Northerners against the Government and the person of
\nPresident Jonathan.<\/p>\n
The polity, in recent times, has been so much charged, over heated by
\nthreats coming from the North by the group of old men clustered under the
\numbrella of NEF who should be in their homes churning out wise counseling
\nfor the growth and development of our dear country, Nigeria.<\/p>\n
For over thirty years, these same men and their cronies and cohorts sat,
\nnurtured and backed military coups led by soldiers from the North who are
\ntoday parading themselves as Billionaires having stolen oil blocks from
\nthe South and the treasury of the nation with reckless impunity.<\/p>\n
They trumpet the cacophony of hate, fanning the embers of disunity with
\nthe worn-out appendage on the President as \u201cclueless and incompetent.\u201d<\/p>\n
That appendage-\u201cA clueless and incompetent President\u201d has now become the
\nsingsong of opposition party members and all those who cannot stand a
\nJonathan Presidency and those who see nothing good in the administration.<\/p>\n
A former minister of the Federal Capital Territory and a latter-day
\nactivist is on the vanguard of this infamous and disingenuous branding of
\nthe President of the Federal Republic. Disrespectful, cheeky and
\nself-righteous, this accidental public servant now aspires to be governor
\nof Kaduna State. Imagine! The people of that state will decide his fate
\nassuming he manages to secure the ticket of his party.<\/p>\n
Professor Ango Abdullahi, a former Vice President of the Ahmadu Bello
\nUniversity, an elite university, a supposedly educated Northerner who
\nshould shine academic light on the people having attained the highest
\nlevel of academic qualification, debased himself and champions the group
\nthrowing tantrums at the President.<\/p>\n
But as the opposition struggle to convince Nigerians that President
\nJonathan is clueless and incompetent and that only a Northern Presidency
\nhas the solution to Nigeria\u2019s problems, let us take a peep into the
\nsuccesses of the man from the creek who is our President:<\/p>\n
It is President Jonathan, a southerner, from the creek who initiated the
\nbuilding of over 100 Almajiri schools in 13 Northern States of Nigeria.
\nThe decision was to take children from the streets who most of them have
\nbecome willing tools in the hands of terrorists.<\/p>\n
We have had over 35 years of Northerners as leaders and none considered
\nthe huge number of children from the North without education, a priority.<\/p>\n
And to further encourage education in the North that have often enjoyed
\n\u201csoft landing\u201d in terms of admission to tertiary institutions, President
\nJonathan established Federal Universities in Lafia, Nasarawa
 State;
\nLokoja, Kogi State; Kashere, Gombe State; Wukari, Taraba State;
\n
Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State; and Dutse, Jigawa State.<\/p>\n
For the past years the Railway system had shut down, no one remembered it
\nas a veritable means of transportation. But under President Jonathan, the
\nrailway system is back. The Lagos-Kano line is back, the Port
\nHarcourt-Maiduguri line is being rehabilitated
. Kano-Maiduguri,
\nKaduna-Abuja and Lagos-Port-
Harcourt rail-lines are also under
\nconstruction and will be available before the end of the year.<\/p>\n
But the so-called Northern leaders and opposition politicians do not see
\nall these. They rather want Nigerians to believe that we have \u201can
\nincompetent and clueless President.\u201d<\/p>\n
The President has also not turned blind eyes to the many death traps
\ncalled roads. He has since his administration continued to develop new
\nroads and rehabilitated old ones among which are: Onitsha-Owerri and the
\nVom-Manchok road, which has as at today been completed. There is
\nsignificant progress on the Apapa-Oshodi expressway in Lagos; the
\nBenin-Ore-Sagamu dual carriage-way; the Onitsha-Enugu-Port Harcourt
\ndual carriage-way; the
 Kaduna-Maiduguri dual carriage-way; Lokoja \u2013
\nBenin road; Lagos-Ibadan 
Expressway; Mokwa-Bida road; Akure-Ilesha
\nroad; Sokoto-Tambuwal-Jega road; 
Enugu- Abakaliki- Cross River
\nroad; Ogoja \u2013 Ikom road; Vandekiya-Obudu 
road; and the East-West
\nroad.
 Work on the dualization of the Kano-Maiduguri and the
\nAbuja-Abaji-Lokoja roads have reached advance stage.<\/p>\n
The Onitsha Head-Bridge Flyover (Ojukwu Gateway)
 and the Oweto
\nBridge across River Benue have been completed. The Second 
Niger
\nBridge is under construction and the government is also undertaking

\nthe dredging of the River.<\/p>\n
Seaport construction and 
the expansion of existing ports, including
\nWarri, Baro, Calabar, Onne, Owerri and Onitsha are also on the list
\nof achievements recorded under President Jonathan.<\/p>\n
These cabals have shown high degree of disdain, disloyalty and hatred for
\na man who has not done anything wrong to them other than being born from a
\nrelatively unknown geographical entity not recognized by \u201cNorthern
\nleaders\u201d as qualified to produce a President of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
It is on record that never in the history of Nigeria, has a President from
\nthe hitherto unknown Otuoke, Bayelsa State, South-South of Nigeria,
\nsucceeded in laying the foundation for the nation\u2019s economic boom,
\nenduring all the name calling and insults hauled at him.<\/p>\n
What baffles my mind is that most of the so called Northern elders hauling
\ninvectives and warning of consequences should President Jonathan seek a
\nreelection, supervised and backed the 38 year usurpation of the Military
\nthat produced many coup-plotting Generals among whom are General Muhammadu
\nBuhari, General Ibrahim Babangida, General Abdulsalami Abubakar and the
\nrest.<\/p>\n
They forced Nigeria into the Organization for Islamic Countries, OIC,
\ncreated lopsidedness in employment where Northerners both qualified and
\nunqualified dominated Federal Civil Service and the Military and yet have
\nnothing in the North in terms of developments to show for it.<\/p>\n
Now that a minority from the South-South has seized the opportunity to
\nright the many wrongs, he is being disparaged and called \u201cclueless and
\nincompetent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The vilification is just nauseating, the unwarranted attack malicious at
\nbest. Whether they like it or not, Nigeria is moving forward. All the
\nindicators point to the fact that we are still the giant of Africa and
\nPresident Jonathan\u2019s administration has succeeded in placing Nigeria back
\nto the zenith of the international community with prospects.<\/p>\n
Ude, a Journalist and Strategic Communications expert has a Masters Degree
\nin Political Management.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Jackson Ude Call it senility or elderly rascality of the old brigades, you will not be too far from the best adjective that befits some members of the so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n