During the current 2015 election season, a number of claims have been made about the President by both opposition politicians and members of the public. These allegations include claims that the president hates Northerners as well as claims that he did not care about the Chibokkidnappings.I’ve highlighted six of the most popular allegations and provided a fact-based response below:
“ In election season, parties make claims. Some are
true. Some are not, and some are brazen distortions that can easily be checked
” - LiorDattel
1. The President does not care about Boko Haram victims - FALSE
The president set up a $400m Victim’s Support Fund to provide relief
and shelter to victims of Boko haram’s terrorist atrocities. In addition, to
prevent allegations of corruption being levelled against him, he appointed the
respected General Danjuma and FolaAdeola to serve as Chair and Vice Chair of
the fund. In addition, representatives of Nigeria’s Christian and Muslim communities
are members of the board. The board also has representative from the PDP and
APC as well at the United Nations and the UK Department for International
Development.
2. The President did not care about the Chibok kidnappings – FALSE
The officer responsible for providing
security to the Chibok area was summoned by his GOC to clarify whether any
girls were missing. He told the GOC that none of the girls were missing. That
information was passed to the President and that led to the confusion within
the Presidency about the authenticity of the missing girls story.
As soon as it was discovered that the
officer lied, he and 15 other officers were Court martialled and imprisoned for
dereliction of duty and lying to their superiors.
3. The President hates Northern Nigerians – FALSE
The President built universities in every
state of the North that did not have a federal university. He is building 125
(103 already completed)Almajiri schools in Northern Nigeria despite the fact
that primary and secondary education is the primary responsibility of State
Governments. In addition, over 50% of Federal Government subsidies for farmers are
concentrated in the North West and North East of Nigeria.
Also the President has appointed Northern
Nigerians to important offices of the state. The Chief of Defence Staff (Alex
Badeh), ADC( OjogbaneAdegbe), National Security Adviser(SamboDasuki), Defence
Minister(Aliyu Mohammed), Principal Private Secretary(AwwalTukur), Foreign
Affairs Minister (AminuWali) and Education Minister(Ibrahim Shekarau) are all
from Northern Nigeria.
4. Corruption has gotten worse under the President’s administration –
FALSE
Transparency International which is the
internationally recognised body for measuring countries corruption perceptions
gave Nigeria her highest ever ranking (136 out of 174 countries) under Goodluck
Jonathan’s administration.
5. The Rail Transport reforms are a sham – FALSE
GEJ’s administration rehabilitated the
colonial rail network which had been rendered obsolete by past governments. As
a result, ordinary Nigerians can travel by rail from Lagos to Kano for 1,900
Naira as opposed to 5,000 Naira by road.
In addition, the administration has signed
a contract with the Chinese Government to build a fast rail network across the
country. The Kaduna to Abuja Standard rail line which is the first phase of the
project has been completed. Also, the global accounting firm KPMG has ranked
the fast rail project as one of the world’s top 100 infrastructure projects.
6. The President has been in office
for six years – FALSE
This is one of the easiest to disprove,
yet at opposition rallies across the country and on social media, the false
claim has been repeated so often that it has begun to sound like the truth.
Let’s do the maths: Jonathan became
president of Nigeria on 6th May, 2010, which was a day after ex-president Umaru
Musa Yar’adua died after his long battle with an illness. May 2010 to March
2015 is just 4 years and 10 months – not even up to 5 years.
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