Nigerians Be Prepared: The Dollar Will Sell Above N220 After February Elections

The President, Association of Bureau de Change Operators, Mr. Aminu Gwadabe has added more pressure on the already weakened and devalued Naira by predicting that the Nigeria currency will take a very big hit after the February general elections.

The Naira has been under pressure since the fourth quarter of 2014 after the price of crude oil sales began to fall rapidly. And with elections campaigns reaching its highpoint within the next eight days, the naira is even in for more pressure and devaluation.

According to Gwadabe, "We cannot rule out the fact that politicians are fuelling the demand at the street market because most of them prefer to provide their gratification during this election period in dollars".

"And it is ... noteworthy to say that the CBN will devalue the naira again after the February elections. The reason is due to the falling oil prices and the current demand pressure we are witnessing on the dollar," he added.

Gwadabe, in his final summation, made a prediction: "after the elections, the naira will sell above 220 against the dollar at the parallel market."



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Femi Aribisala: Why President Jonathan Is A Superior Presidential Material To Buhari

Between 1983 and 1985, Peter Onu of Nigeria was Acting Secretary-General of the OAU. At the 1985 Summit in Addis Ababa, statesmen like Julius Nyerere, President of Tanzania, lobbied for his election as substantive Secretary-General. However, there was a major stumbling block to Peter Onu's candidature: his Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, was campaigning against him.

Buhari claimed: "This generation of Nigerians and indeed future generations have no other country than Nigeria." But when the crunch came, his allegiance to Nigeria disappeared. In the election of the OAU Secretary-General in 1985, Buhari voted against Nigeria and for Niger instead. He secured the election of Ide Oumarou, a Fulani man from Niger; as opposed to an Igbo man from Nigeria. By so doing, Buhari became the first and only Head of State in the history of modern international relations to vote against his country in favour of his tribe.

Years later, General Buhari marched all the way from Daura to Ibadan to demand of Oyo State Governor, Lam Adeshina: "Why are your people killing my people?" Again, he was not referring to Nigerians as his people. Instead, he was an advocate for the rights of murderous Fulani herdsmen who killed Yoruba farmers that objected to their cattle grazing on their land and damaging their crops. This same Buhari who voted against Nigeria in 1985, and said in 2003: "Muslims should only vote those who will promote Islam," is now shopping for votes nationwide. He should be rejected outright.

Ignorance running riot

If APC had wanted to be taken seriously, it would have come up with a better presidential material than Buhari. There is something anomalous about a party whose mantra is change, recycling a 73 year old man as its candidate for the president of modern Nigeria. Buhari has little or no understanding of public policy. That is why APC will always come up with some excuse or the other not to have him participate in a debate with Jonathan. Buhari fought corruption by imposing ridiculous 300-year sentences on offenders. He fought exam malpractices by imposing 24-year prison sentences on school children.

He dealt with indiscipline by flogging people to queue at bus-stops. He dealt with food shortages by sending soldiers to break into private warehouses and shops. He fought trade imbalances by taking Nigeria back to the stone age of trade by barter (counter-trade). He sought to extradite a Nigerian from Britain by drugging and crating him.

There is so much about Buhari ending the Boko Haram insurgency as he did the Maitatsine insurgency in the 1980s. But the General needs to be advised that Boko Haram is not Maitatsine. Maitatsine was in two towns: Boko Haram is in three states with spillover effects into others. Maitatsine fought with bows and arrows: Boko Haram fights with sophisticated weapons. Maitatsine was a local insurgency, Boko Haram is an international phenomenon.

Anti-corruption hypocrisy: Buhari does not know what corruption means and how to fight it. He became Nigeria's Head of State through the corruption of a coup d'état and he then tried to fight corruption with corruption. Imposing retroactive decrees and killing Nigerians under them is corruption. Putting an Igbo vice-president in Kirikiri, while placing the Fulani president under palatial house arrest, is corruption.

Detaining people like Michael Ajasin in jail, even after they were discharged and acquitted by kangaroo courts, is corruption. Jailing journalists for telling the truth is corruption. Putting pressure on a judge in order to jail Fela Anikulapo-Kuti is corruption. Shepherding 53 suitcases of contraband unchecked through Customs during a currency change exercise is corruption. Swearing an affidavit that your school-leaving certificate is with the military when it is not, is corruption.

Transforming Nigeria: Buhari's shameful past is dwarfed by the achievements of Goodluck Jonathan. Under Jonathan, Nigeria has emerged as by far the largest economy in Africa with a GDP of $503 billion; nearly double the previous estimates. South Africa now comes a distant second with $350 billion. With the unbundling of PHCN after 52 years of gridlock, and with now the realizable target of 20,000 megawatts of electricity by 2020, Nigeria's GDP will soon double that of South Africa.

CNN Money projects that the fastest growing economy in the world in 2015 will be China (7.3% growth rate); followed by Qatar (7.1%); and then followed by Nigeria (7%). This belies all the misinformation about the Nigerian economy dished out by the APC and attests to the astute management of the economy by the Jonathan administration. The seemingly ambitious Vision 20 2020, proclaimed under the Abacha regime to make Nigeria one of the 20 largest economies in the world by 2020 is now well in sight. Today, Nigeria is already the 23rd largest economy in the world. Kudos to Jonathan, we have overtaken such European countries as Austria and Belgium.

Life expectancy

In 2010, when Jonathan became acting president, life expectancy in Nigeria was 47 years. Today, it is 54 years; an improvement of seven years. Adroit application of SURE-P funds has reduced the maternal mortality ratio in Nigeria by 26%. Under Jonathan, Nigeria has become Guinea Worm-free; a disease previously affecting 800,000 Nigerians yearly. In the last six months, there has been no new case of polio in Nigeria. If this goes on for another two and a half years, Nigeria will be declared polio-free.

Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, hailed Nigeria's fight against polio as one of the great world achievements of 2014. He said: "The infrastructure Nigeria has built to fight polio actually made it easier for them to swiftly contain Ebola. The fact that Nigeria is now Ebola-free is a great example of how doing the work to fight things like fighting polio also leaves countries better prepared to deal with outbreaks of other diseases."

Investors' haven: In the last three years, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has ranked Nigeria as the number one country for foreign investments in Africa. We also receive more home-remittances than any other African country; a vote of confidence in our economy by Nigerians living abroad. They remitted $23 billion in 2013, a figure far more than the $18 billion received by Egypt; the country with the second highest home remittance in Africa. It is a testament to Goodluck Jonathan's adroit management of the Nigerian economy that the richest African is now a Nigerian.

In 2010, when Jonathan came to power, Aliko Dangote was the 463rd richest man in the world, with a total fortune of $2.1 billion. Today, he is the 23rd richest man in the world, with a total fortune of $25 billion. Dangote's billions are "made in Nigeria." Indeed, under Jonathan, Nigeria now has the fourth highest rate of returns on investments in the world, according to UNCTAD.

Crisis of unemployment

The big challenge has to do with jobs. Every year, another 1.8 million people are offloaded into the job market. However, while the APC says Buhari will create 720,000 jobs a year if elected, Jonathan created 1.6 million jobs in 2013. He has established such innovative programmes as Nagropreneurs and YOUWIN that support young farmers and entrepreneurs with grants, training and mentorship. He has also instituted internships schemes to enhance the capacity of university graduates to secure gainful employment.

The unemployment problem is compounded by the more than doubling of the education budget under Jonathan. Every Nigerian child now has the opportunity to go to school. Indeed, there has been a 10 million increase in school enrolment in Nigeria under this government. There has also been a 75% increase in O' Level credit pass in Maths and English. Jonathan established 125 Almajiri schools in 13 northern states. He also established 14 new federal universities. There is now a federal university in every state. Indeed, the kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls derives from the disenchantment of the Boko Haram that many Northern girls are now going to school.

Dealing with corruption: According to Transparency International, Nigeria has not become more corrupt under Goodluck Jonathan. Out of 178 countries ranked in 2010, Nigeria was the 134th most corrupt country. In 2014, Nigeria was ranked 136th. Unlike Buhari, Jonathan understands that corruption has to be attacked institutionally, from the roots. Therefore, he proposed the abrogation of the petroleum subsidy; one of the biggest avenues for corruption in government. However, Nigerians refused. Jonathan has sanitized the corruption in fertilizer distribution. The Minister of Agriculture, Akinwunmi Adesina, lamented that between 1980 and 2010, Nigeria lost 776 billion naira to corrupt fertilizer racketeering.

Fertiliser  racketeering

That effectively came to an end under Jonathan. Through the innovative e-wallet system, farmers are given cell-phones through which they now have direct and easy access to government-provided fertilizer, chemicals and seedlings. Jonathan has also sanitised the banking system by removing dinosaur managing directors, recovering indigent loans and using AMCON to mop up bad loans. By instituting e-payment systems, he sanitized the civil service by removing 50,000 ghost-workers in one fell swoop. He has equally got rid of ghost voters from the electoral register; over 1 million ghost voters were removed from the Zamfara INEC register alone. Under Jonathan, we have had free and fair elections one after the other; in Edo, Anambra, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun.

Agriculture has been transformed under this administration. Thanks to Jonathan, agriculture now accounts for 22% of Nigeria's GDP, more than oil and gas which only account for 15.9%. Under Jonathan, Nigeria has recorded a more than 50% reduction in food imports. Prior to his presidency, we had a food import bill of 1.4 trillion naira. But now, it is less than N700 billion. With the innovation of dry season rice-farming, Nigeria has reached 60% self-sufficiency in rice production. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), Nigeria is now the largest producer of cassava in the world. The Jonathan government built six strategically-located perishable cargo airports in Ilorin, Jalingo, Jos, Lagos, Makurdi and Yola; in close proximity to Nigeria's food baskets.

It is remarkable that Northern farmers were able to donate five million tubers of yam in order to raise 5 billion naira for Buhari's presidential election campaign. If Jonathan's transformation agenda in agriculture was not working as planned, they would not have been able to do this.

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Femi Aribisala is a scholar and international affairs expert. He is currently an iconoclastic church pastor in Lagos. He is also a syndicated essayist for a handful publications in Nigeria.
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Opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author
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Buhari: If I Am Elected, Basic Items Like Rice And Tomatoes Will Be Banned From Being Imported

Gen. Muhammad Buhari (retd), on Monday said if elected as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he would ban the importation of basic items like rice and tomato, which Nigeria has the capacity to locally produce.

He also said his administration would focus on agriculture, mining, infrastructure and job provision at the top of its economic agenda.

He made this known during a meeting with the Organised Private Sector in Lagos, which was hosted by the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola.

"How can Nigeria be importing virtually everything? How can we be importing even tomatoes? If I am elected, basic items like rice and tomatoes, which we have the capacity to produce, will be banned from being imported," Buhari said.

"We expect a revival of all the interstate economies to thrive across Nigeria, providing support to travellers by way of canteens, restaurants, farm produce etc," he added.
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Arewa Consultative Forum Warns Ex-Militants Against Threatening Former Chief Of Army Staff

The northern socio-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum, has warned Niger Delta ex-militants not to threaten a former Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.).

The northern group said neither Danjuma nor any citizen of the country for that matter should be threatened with attacks by the ex-militants, who have been threatening fire and brimstone should President Goodluck Jonathan loses the February 14 presidential poll.

The ex-militants had threatened to attack Danjuma's business interest in the Niger Delta for daring to ask that security agencies should arrest leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari;and other ex-militants.

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Source: The PUNCH
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President Jonathan Receives Forensic Report On NNPC

The number one citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Jonathan, yesterday received the forensic report carried out on the activities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

The forensic report was presented to the president by an accounting firm referred to as PriceWaterHouse.

The PUNCH reports that the Nigeria Country Senior Partner of PriceWaterHouse, Uyi Akpata, ... presented the report to the President on behalf of the firm saying, "It is a privilege for us to have carried out this exercise on behalf of the government and I hope that you will find this report useful."

Reacting to the report he received, President Jonathan noted that the media, in particular, and Nigeria as a whole would be interested in the findings.

"...I am quite pleased that you have undertaken the forensic audit. Though it is voluminous, I will give it to the professionals, he said.

"In government work, there are people that have the statutory responsibilities to handle such assignment which is the Auditor-General of the Federation.

"So, the Auditor-General will look at it and within the week, let us have key highlights because the media will want to know the key findings vis-a-vis the Senate's findings and figures being bandied around in the newspapers."


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Specially For Bloggers: Alexa Ranking Sucks and Here's Why. By Insidelab

Why Is My Alexa Rank So Low?

As a member of the Web Design & Search Engine Optimization industry, Alexa is one of my least favourite topics of discussion with clients. I pride myself on being a man who has the answers.

I'm more than comfortable answering questions like: How can I get more traffic to my web site?
What can I do to improve my conversion rate?
Can you explain the different online advertising companies to me and tell me which one would be best for my business?

But one of the few questions I just can't answer is, why is my Alexa rank so low?

The best answer I can come up with is, because Alexa Sucks.

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Alexa Sucks, The Case Study
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I was recently hired by a Japanese toy store to run a social media campaign. Their store gets a good amount of traffic (3,500+ unique visitors per day) and their Alexa rank is terrible (1,042,039 at the time of this article). They were very concerned about their Alexa rank, apparently some of their potential investors wanted to justify the investment based on their rank alone.

I explained to them that at best Alexa provides a biased, incomplete, seemingly arbitrary review of most web sites, and that it's ridiculous that any professional would give any credibility to a web site's rank.

The conversation went over well and they decided to give up on the idea of improving their rank. That is, until we launched a small forum for their customers and with only 200 or less hits a day, the forum's Alexa rank sky-rocketed to 500,000.

Granted, by necessity, Alexa is an imperfect service. However I think that it is inexcusably flawed and biased. Here is where Alexa is flawed beyond repair:

1. Alexa gathers its data from people using the Alexa Toolbar. Who uses the Alexa toolbar?
Web Developers, Administrators, Geeks like myself. This means that a website like mine with very little traffic can rank in the low 400,000's while an extremely popular toy store like Gundam Store and More ranks over 1,000,000.

2. Although the majority of bloggers are based out of the United States, many (perhaps unreliable) statistics project that over 60% of Alexa Toolbar users are based in China. Is your web site catering to people in China? Mine sure isn't.

3. No one uses the stupid toolbar. It doesn't come pre-installed on any major browser, and the majority of the internet-surfing public doesn't go out of their way to download add-ons. Especially one's they can't use for anything.

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Why Does It Matter That Alexa Sucks?
-------------------------------------------------------

Here's the thing. As a company, Alexa is actually fairly innocent and doesn't deserve much of the contempt I have. The real problem comes from third party applications using a web site's Alexa rank as a reliable means to grade the web site. Companies like BuySellAds, WebsiteGrader, and (rumoured) Google use the Alexa's ranking system in their own algorithms to determine popularity.

So, the real problem is that other, important companies take Alexa's ranking system as a reliable means to learn about a web site when it clearly is not.

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Your Thoughts
---------------------

I'd love to hear your thoughts if any of you have had experiences with Alexa's ranking system whether they've been good or bad. I'd like to update this post with a few more case studies and try to figure out if I've just had bad experiences or if there really is a problem that needs to be addressed.

Source: www.insitedesignlab.com
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Election2015: Eight PDP Governors In secret Alliance With APC

Barely two weeks to Nigeria's presidential election, what can best be described as high-wire politics is playing out in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with about eight of its governors now in a secret alliance with sections of the leadership of the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), reports Saturday Sun.

Saturday Sun gathered that the PDP governors went into the alliance in their individual capacity and not as a group in order to get the sympathy or soft landing from the leadership of the opposition party should power change hands after the February 14 elections.

According to an impeccable source close to one of the affected governors, "the political climate is so cloudy and hazy that the leadership of our party (PDP) is not showing any sign of confidence that we can win the coming elections, especially the presidential election. The wise thing any smart PDP governor can do in this circumstance is to play safe and have a kind of working understanding with the leadership of the opposition party (APC) so that if power eventually goes to them, one can actually feel safe and welcome in case there is the need to change political platform immediately."

Some of the governors, it was learnt went into the secret pact after the national leadership of PDP denied them control of the party's structures in their states and as a result, their hopes to pick their successors and equally go to the senate were dashed. Others, it was further learnt, had to go into the partnership to save face after discovering that Buhari has huge following in their states.

The PDP had, in November 2013, lost five of its governors, in a major political earthquake, to the APC. The PDP governors that defected to the APC then were Mr. Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers), Alhaji Ahmed Abdulfatah (Kwara), Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Alhaji Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), and Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto).

Two other governors — Dr. Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu (Niger) and Alhaji Sule Lamido (Jigawa) — declined to move with their colleagues to the opposition party after they had shown initial signs of defection.

Over a year later, eight more governors who appear disenchanted with the party may not be defecting formally but might be working to mobilize votes for the APC presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari instead of the PDP flagbearer, President Goodluck Jonathan.

According to some details of the alliance, while some of the eight governors agreed to mobilize total support for Buhari, which will get him majority of total votes cast in their states, others are working on giving minimum backing which will enable the APC candidate to secure the required 25 per cent of total votes cast in their states.

Saturday Sun gathered that two of the governors in the alliance are in the South South region, two in the South East, two in North East and two in North Central. An indication that all is still not well within the PDP emerged last week when the Deputy Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Ahmed Ibeto, and over 200 political office holders defected from the ruling PDP to the APC.

Announcing his defection to newsmen in Minna on Monday last week, Ibeto said: "I am on my way to welcome our party leader and presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, at Minna airport for his campaign rally in Niger State."

One of the governors from a northern state, who justified the support he may be giving Buhari at the polls, told Saturday Sun: "Whatever support my people and I will give Gen. Buhari is informed by the reality on ground in this part of the country. There is no need denying the fact that Buhari is a phenomenon in the North and his kind of followership is fanatical. To secure this state from any post-election violence and the anger of our people, we have to be seen as supporting Buhari even though we are in different political parties. The situation is also not made easy for us at the state level because of these Abuja politicians who stay there and tell the president different lies which prevent him from knowing the truth about the reality on ground."

When contacted to have his view on the secret alliance, National Publicity Secretary of APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed neither denied nor confirmed the development. "I am not personally involved in such talks but I can tell you we are getting enormous support from every stratum of the society and in this case, every support that will give effect to the change the nation so much needs at this critical time is a patriotic effort", he added.

Dismissing this as a ruse, National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh denied any deal between aggrieved PDP governors and APC leadership to ensure victory for Buhari.
Speaking with Saturday Sun on phone, Metuh stated that the idea was being orchestrated by what he called the APC propaganda machinery.

"We don't engage in wishful thinking. We don't indulge in falsehood or propaganda. Even some of our governors that lost senatorial tickets are working with us. All our governors are with us. So, how can they do a deal with APC? We challenge them to mention our governors working against us, publicly. It is APC's wishful thinking", he argued.

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Buhari Is Set To Become The Next President of Nigeria, Says Dele Momodu

Renowned journalist, social critic and former presidential candidate, Dele Momodu, has categorically stated that he envisages a landslide victory for the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd).

He made this statement in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES' Michael Abimboye.

When asked if he was sure General Buhari (rtd) would emerge victorious in the February 14 presidential election, Mr Dele Momodu replied by saying: "Oh, I have no doubt that General Buhari is set to create an upset in Nigeria's political configuration."

"If Buhari wins this election, it is not going to be a close election because he is going to win by a wide margin.

Despite the violence-free peace pact signed in Abuja by President Jonathan, Buhari and others, there are still cases of electoral violence. As a result of this phenomenon, he was asked to give his opinion on whether a violence-free election was possible in Nigeria?

"Oh, we can," he replied. "What usually happens is that once a particular candidate is overwhelmingly popular and the mood of change permeates the entire society, it becomes difficult for people to fight because it becomes oblivious that one candidate was more popular than the other.

"That's what happened in 1993. Nobody fought when Chief Abiola won. People expected that there was going to be violence, but there was no violence because it was clear that Abiola was way ahead of Tofa. How will you fight when your own people are supporting your opponent?

"Jonathan's supporters who think they can fight now, by that time [if Buhari wins the presidential poll], it would have dawn on them that even in their own village, Buhari has supporters and in situations like that who are you going to fight?

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Reference: Premium Times
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President Jonathan Builds Roads To The Future by Uko and Murphy

The Nwokolo family in Lagos had just lost their patriarch. For convenience sake, a decision was taken to promptly take the corpse home to the South-East and take care of its embalming there pending the fixing of the burial date. A vehicle was chartered and two kinsmen accompanied the body. By 11 am, they were at Ore. They found themselves in a traffic jam and assumed that in a matter of minutes, they would get out of it. Six hours later, they had not moved an inch. Then they realized that they were trapped in Ore because of the terrible state of that portion of the Shagamu-Benin Expressway. Both sides of the dual carriage way were blocked by vehicles. Their vehicle could not even reverse and seek an alternative route inside Ondo State because of the long rows of vehicles behind.

Soon it was nightfall. The two men and the driver got worried. They ended up sleeping in the vehicle with the corpse. Then it was daybreak again. Still no progress. Another nightfall came and went. Then the corpse started to deteriorate. The men knew that their custom frowned at the body of a kinsman being buried away from home, but it made no sense to continue to stay with a decaying corpse in a vehicle. They consulted with their family members on the phone and it was agreed that the most practical thing to do was to ask for space in any bush nearby and bury the corpse. And that was what they did.

This is not fiction. This happened many times in Ore between 2005 and 2009. That portion of the road was so bad that when the then Minister of Transport, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, visited it in 2007, she wept profusely. It was a touching moment. Yet that road remained in a deplorable state until the emergence of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as President.

When President Goodluck Jonathan took office in May 2010, he was faced with numerous obstacles. Among those was Nigeria's crumbling infrastructure. It was not only the roads that were in such a sorry state. The railway was dead, the aviation was mediocre. Agriculture was abandoned. Education and health were stagnant. Local production was virtually non-existent. While some programmes were already in place when President Jonathan took office, he has taken strides that his predecessors never realized. He and his administration have made vast improvements on the roads, rail, power, aviation, and port systems. President Jonathan looks towards the future, hoping to achieve even greater feats.

Prior to President Jonathan's emergence, Nigeria's infrastructure had long been neglected. One focus of the president was to improve the roadways. Prior to President Jonathan taking office, several projects were conceived, but none was completed. Some of the projects are the Loko-Oweto Bridge, the Onitsha-Owerri roadway, the Vom-Manchok roadway, as well as over half a dozen other roadways that are still being reconstructed. Before the president got involved most of these projects had not gotten any further than the planning stages.

On March 10, 2014, President Jonathan performed the groundbreaking ceremony on the Second Niger Bridge that would link the cities of Onitsha and Asaba. This was another project that had previously been planned, but it remained in the cooler until President Jonathan stepped in. This is a major project, with the bridge itself measuring over 1,590 metres and forming part of an 11.90 km road project. At the ceremony, President Jonathan addressed the crowd, saying, "Today, I have come, as your President, to flag off of this vital Bridge project, in order to move that solemn pledge, from sincere promise to concrete reality."

The railway system was another major area of concern when President Jonathan initially took office. For more than 15 years, three major railways were moribund. Now, those lines are undergoing major rehabilitation. Work on several other lines has been completed, and the number of passengers that use the railways has increased from 1 million to over 5 million, on a yearly basis. Prior to the Jonathan administration, Nigeria's cargo freight services were nonexistent, but work has also now commenced in this area.

President Goodluck Jonathan has initiated a 25-year Railway Strategic Plan. This plan will allow the railway system to be revamped and revitalized now and well into the future. And for the first time in 100 years of railway in Nigeria, the eastern part of Nigeria will be connected to the west with a rail line that runs from Calabar through Onitsha, Benin City, Ore, to Lagos. On December 15, 2014 President Jonathan wrote on his Facebook page that, "I received the news that Nigeria's Inter-state High Speed Rail Project has been listed amongst the world's top 100 infrastructure projects with a sense of fulfilment that this administration's desire to link our commercial and administrative capitals is receiving global affirmation."

The power system in Nigeria is another area of the infrastructure that needed to be overhauled. President Jonathan launched the Roadmap to Power Sector Reform to design a strategy for improving service delivery, expanding capacity, and reforming a system that, in the past, has been one of the nations most stunted areas. President Jonathan states that these reforms will go a long way to determining whether Nigeria, "remains in darkness or joins the rest of the world in the race for development."

One major step in the power sector was privatization. The Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) has been divided up into 11 Local Distribution Companies (LDC), 6 generation companies, and 1 transmission company. Two solar plants are under construction in Yobe and Kano, and the president has also managed to secure $3 billion for investments in expansion in the power sector through the year 2018.

During Jonathan's administration, the National Aviation Masterplan was developed and implemented. Under his watch, air safety has continually been improved with the implementation of cutting-edge navigational aids, Instrument Landing Systems (ILS), and Total Radar Coverage (TRACON). President Jonathan, since his term began, has overseen 22 airports being remodelled and 16 airports being designated for perishable cargo, where none of these existed in the past.

Among other things, Jonathan has developed five international airport terminals. There has also been the installation of an Accident Investigation and Analysis Laboratory in Nigeria, only one of four labs in Africa. Nigeria has now also earned a US Category 1 Certification, which implies that Nigerian registered aircraft can fly direct into USA destinations without any inhibitions.

The ports in Nigeria have always been hampered by government restrictions. President Jonathan has cut bureaucratic red tape and financial requirements, leaving 7 agencies at the ports, as opposed to the 13 prior agencies. Prior to the Jonathan administration, the clearing time for trouble-free cargo was 39 days. It has now been dramatically reduced to only 7 days. Daily Port Operations were consistently only 8 hours long, but now they operate 24 hours a day, the first time this has happened since 1970.

Before Jonathan came into office, less than half of Nigeria had access to portable water. Now more than 70% of the population (4.3 million Nigerians) enjoy clean water. 9 dams have been completed. The dredging of the Lower River Niger is done: number of passengers on the waterways has increased from 250k per year to 1.3 million passengers per year, and cargo shipments have increased from 2 million to 5 million.

President Goodluck Jonathan has initiated, improved, or built upon many different programmes to help revive and revitalize the infrastructure of Nigeria. The introduction of the SURE-P (The Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme) enabled an economic intervention designed to reduce the amount of subsidy paid on petroleum products. The savings realized through this programme are invested into improving the lives of all Nigerians by stimulating the economy and alleviating poverty through infrastructure programmes, human resource empowerment projects, and safety net projects.

Looking at the facts, it is easy to see the number of improvements that have been made to Nigeria's infrastructure since President Jonathan took office. As well as improving Nigerians' quality of life, the ongoing progress has created new jobs and helped to fund essential social and economic programmes. The greatest enemy to policies and projects is lack of continuity. Every new regime wants to discontinue the policies and programmes initiated by its predecessor. Most of President Jonathan's programmes are at foundation levels that a new government may truncate them and pull Nigeria backwards again. That is why another term for him will be in the interest of the growth and development of Nigeria.

With the upcoming election, President Jonathan has tried to stress the importance of continuing to improve Nigeria's infrastructure. In his eyes, he wants to continue with the progress until "Nigeria's infrastructure, be they roads, schools, airports or hospitals, are listed amongst the best in the world. And by God's grace, this will happen in the not-too-distant future."

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Aziza Uko is Executive Editor of The Trent. She is also Chief Executive of Ziza Group, a company she founded in 2009. She can be reached on Twitter at @azizauko.

Wayne L Murphy is an American writer who was born and raised in New York. Murphy can be reached on Twitter @WayneLMurphy

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ChibokGirls: It's Ten Months Now BY Abdulbaqi Jari Katsina

It is now Ten months since the abduction of over 200 girls in Chibok town, Borno state. Going by the song "four week, make one month", it has been Ten months since their abduction ( 280 days). But going by the counts using actual days of each month since April 14, then by 2nd of February, that will be Ten months since their abduction (194 days). But if using the Average of 30 days, then by 8 of February when the presidential debate is expected, then that will mark Ten months since their abduction.
    
Just like the Aboke girls abducted by the LRA in 1994, Chibok girls are gradually been forgotten  as election is drawing nearer, and the public attention has been diverted to the much discussed, controversial Presidential scheduled of 14 of February. The attention of the world is now on Nigeria now. A prosperous, secured and stable Nigeria means a stable Africa. While a chaotic, anarchist Nigeria is no doubt a serious concern to Africa and global security.

     
While insecurity is still at its zenith, the government should intensify its effort to make sure that those girls and all other Nigerians abducted are set free, protected and secured. The parents and relatives of people killed, abducted, wounded, uprooted fro their homes should not despair and loss hope, God willing, this shall come to pass and things will return normal.

    
Violence should have no more place in Nigeria. Whether pre or post election violence should not be allowed to happen or should it be encouraged. A road to a secured Nigeria can be through our votes. Disciplined, upright leaders should be elected at all levels irrespective of party affiliation. That will see us through and make our motherland proud and allow it to take its rightful place in the community of nations.
 
    
The counting, prayers and protest will not stop until #Chibok girls are set free, peace return to Nigeria, and until when Nigerians can sleep with both eyes closed.

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Comrade Abdulbaqi Jari Katsina
Katsina State
@littafi  
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