A Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abia state, Barr. Friday Nwosu has called on Nigerians to be patient with President Goodluck Jonathan as he seeks to transform the country.
In an interview with newsmen in Aba on his assessment of President Jonathan’s midterm report, Nwosu said “People should understand that things were so bad at the time Jonathan assumed office. This was as a result of many years of neglect of infrastructure. I enjoin our people to be patient, the president has kept to his word, many roads have already been rehabilitated, the power sector is being attended to, Aviation and others. He is a man of his words, it is a gradual process. Within reasonable time, everything will take shape,” he said
The legal practitioner described the president as a man who has the interest of Nigerians at heart.
“President Jonathan means well for Nigeria. If you check his achievements within the two years period he has been in office; there have been improvement in the power sector, rule of law, Aviation, electoral reforms, oil industry, roads, among others. Again, there are remarkable differences in the ways things were done in the past. Take your mind to the state of emergency proclamations in the past where all democratic structures where usually sacked by previous governments, It took a man like Jonathan to effect the required changes. Above all, Jonathan has been very tolerant of the opposition and sees them as partners to build a greater nation. This was lacking in previous administrations. I think this is the difference between him and his predecessors,” he said.
Nwosu stated that Jonathan deserves commendation for the giant strides he has recorded in the past two years.
“President Jonathan has done very well in the past two years. He has been more democratic than other leaders. He delivered an independent electoral body to the nation. There are visible developmental projects. You can see the hand book on midterm report of transformation agenda. He introduced U win programme, Sure P, 35% affirmative action for women, amongst others. Jonathan has done well, I score him 80%. He is more democratic than past leaders. Nigerians have enjoyed all their fundamental human rights and freedom under Jonathan. He deserves a second term to consolidate gains,” he said.
On the ongoing merger of some opposition parties leading to the formation of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Nwosu maintained that the APC does not pose any threat to the PDP in the next elections in 2015.
“The merger is a welcomed development, but I don’t see how they pose any threat to the PDP. Election is not all about propaganda, APC is all about the personal ambitions of Buhari and Tinubu. Already, we started seeing signs of crack in the APC; let’s see if they can hold on till 2015. PDP is the only true national party and will still retain the presidency and a good majority of the states in 2015.”
He called on the opposition parties to be constructive in their criticisms of the Jonathan administration rather trying to pull him down, stressing that they have a duty to support the president to advance democracy in Nigeria.
