Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe has spoken passionately about the speech presented to the nation on her 52nd independent anniversary Monday.<\/p>\n
Speaking\u00a0 on African Independent Television, AIT, monitored by our correspondent, Dr. Okupe said, significant progress has been recorded in several sectors such as power, agriculture and rural development, manufacturing, security among several others.<\/p>\n
He pointed out that even though Nigerians have all the right to know what happens in governance, they should exercise the right with the right frame of mind.<\/p>\n
In power generation which he regarded as the backbone of the economy, the SSAPA described the journey as very impressive hence the ten National Independent Power Projects, NIPP are gradually getting round the situation with the only two at 80% conclusion while the remaining eight are presently at more than 90% completion.<\/p>\n
\u201cPower is enjoyed longer than now\u201d not because of abundant rainfall but because of the deliberate effort injected into the initiative by President Jonathan who has declared a state of emergency which has seen the hydro, gas plants and thermal stations to be operating at an encouraging level.
\nOn the recently conducted privatization bid process where winners have emerged in the power plants, Dr. Okupe pointed out that, there was no basis for any section of the society to raise any eyebrow over the matter since, \u201crule of law and due process were followed\u201d whereupon only multi- million dollar companies won. According to him, \u201cThat is really not an issue to worry about\u201d.<\/p>\n
On employment generation for the youth, Dr. Okupe noted with concern that the present administration has made it possible for any qualified person to participate in the initiatives put in place. He cited the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria, YOUWIN, where those who emerge are not connected to anybody in authority. \u201cThere are open testimonies for this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first time the country has practically attempted to diversify the economy of the country from the oil sector\u201d as \u201cenabling environment has been created for investors, both locally and internationally\u201d maintaining that the face of hospitality has been facelifted and that jobs have accrued to the nation and its teaming youths.<\/p>\n
While making a passionate appeal for the nation to repose maximum confidence in the ability of the president to better the lot of the nation, he called for those who described the independent speech as empty as those who have lost grasp of reality of things.<\/p>\n
He highlighted salient areas in the speech as such as paying of due reverence to the past leaders, social contract governance structures, unity in diversity, electoral reforms, diversification of the economy among others as very key points to the achievements of the present administration which were comprehensively captured in the speech which he argued must not be said to be empty.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is only a jaundiced person that can describe such speech as empty. What I think is the problem here is that, the psyche of many Nigerians has become battered like that of the Jews who were taken into captivity by one king or the other but when the Messiah came, they were still looking the other way in disbelief\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one politician (leader) that is not making noise but is bent on delivering dividends of democracy by delivering on his promises\u201d, he emphasized.
\nOn fuel scarcity noticed in some places, he said it was the handwork of those who were \u201cangry with the government\u201d and have issues to answer concerning fuel subsidy as well as people with \u201ccourt cases hanging on them. At any point in time, the country has fuel reserve that can last for 42 days\u201d.<\/p>\n
As regards the state of security, Dr. Okupe said, the security forces are on top of the situation but hasten to point out that, \u201cthe fact that you have secured your house does not mean that someone cannot throw stones to it from outside\u201d describing Boko Haram as a recent development which is a creation of forces against the Jonathan administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe has spoken passionately about the speech presented to the nation on her 52nd independent anniversary Monday. Speaking\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n