… Say He Is Only Commander-in Chief of TV Adverts
Former Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso blasted President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration for its failure in containing the Boko Haram insurgency in the North.
The two leaders who spoke at the 3rd Progressives Governors Forum lecture series held in Owerri the Imo State capital with the theme “Dealing with the Challenge of Building Physically Healthy Nation through preventive, protective and Innovative medicine”,also knocked the Jonathan’s government for failing to provide good health care system in the country.
Atiku however hailed the federal government’s effort in the management of the Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, saying for the first time in the life of the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration has exceeded his expectation and that of many Nigerians.
He however said the federal government was able to contain the spread of the deadly disease because the APC-led Lagos State government led the way while the federal government took a cue from it.
Atiku, who was the chairman of the occasion, lamented that the arrival of Ebola in Nigeria had exposed the deficiencies in the nation’s health sector such as lack of health facilities to take care of the citizenry and the mind rending one-doctor-to-6400-patients ratio.
With the positive manner the Lagos State government had fought Ebola and the astute way the APC states had managed the resources available to them, the former vice president called for more resources to be allocated to the states, which he said had shown more faithfulness to Nigerians than the federal government.
“From what the state governments have done in Lagos, Sokoto, Kano, Imo, Rivers, Osun, Edo and so on, the federal government has no business managing education, agriculture and road infrastructure. The states should be given more resources to manage these things. The federal government should only have regulatory bodies to supervise to regulate them,” Atiku said.
He called for more investment in the primary health care system, the country should as a matter of policy, identify the few illnesses that affect the population most and invest possible ways of attacking them.
Atiku added that prevention of illnesses such as malaria, HIV, influenza and tuberculosis should be possible only if the nation begins to experience good governance that could attack the illnesses head on as that would reduce mortality rate in the country.
On his own, Kwankwaso described Jonathan as the weakest president the country had ever had, saying he proved it by not being able to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East.
Kwankwaso added that rather than perform as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Jonathan had taken the first position in being the Commander-in-Chief of Television Adverts, saying on daily basis, the president’s team was feeding the citizens with lies.
He called for Nigerians not to allow Jonathan remain in power beyond 2015 as that would be more catastrophic for a country like Nigeria that is in a serious need of change.
In his keynote address, the national chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie Oyegun lamented that despite the fact that Nigeria had enough to stand as the one of the strongest economies in the world, its health sector was in comatose.
He added that the situation had reached a stage where people in government would travel out of the country for the treatment of headache.
The APC chairman told Nigerians to continue to bear pains of bad governance currently foisted on them by the PDP-led federal government, assuring that the situation would get better once the party takes over in 2015.
Oyegun boasted that the good leadership the APC governors were delivering in their various states would be replicated across the nation in 2015, adding that corruption, poor health infrastructure, agriculture and dwindling economic situation were some of the issues the APC government at the centre intends to tackle.
He maintained that every Nigerian, including the PDP members, needed a change and they were seriously looking up to the APC for that change to be made possible in 2015.
He said APC is just one year old and was already making serious positive impacts in the lives of Nigerians. This, he said, is despite the fact that the party had been under sustained attacks and propaganda by the PDP.
The APC chairman told Nigerians to reject the PDP in next year’s elections as, according to him, “Nigeria can’t survive another four years of the PDP”.
Earlier in his welcome address, the host governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha said the governors gathered to tell the world the difference the APC and others, saying while their oppositions used propaganda as their main force, the party APC governors used performance to showcase how positive the country would look like if the party takes over at the federal level next year
He noted that one of the propaganda machineries the opposition had been using against the party was that it is a Moslem and Boko Haram party, saying that the party is just one year old, 10 years after Boko Haram came into existence.
Okorocha maintained that the party remained the best national party in Nigeria that takes into consideration, the interest of both the Christians and Muslims.
He reminded those tagging the APC a Muslim party to be informed that the National Chairman, John Oyegun, leaders like Chief Ogbonnaya Onu, Governors like Chibuike Amaechi, Adams Oshiomhole, John Kayode Fayemi, and himself are all Christians.
The governor called on Nigerians to give the APC a chance to lead the country out of the trenches.
Speaking on behalf of the Progressives Governors Forum, Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi told Nigerians that the lecture series was not mere talk shows or workshops where the governors gather and then disperse., but that the proceedings of the earlier lectures had been harnessed and developed into policy briefs drawing on the experiences of the APC states and global best practices.
He stated that the expectation was that the APC states and even PDP states who want to move forward would adopt the whole or a part of the policy briefs in accordance with the prevailing circumstances in their states.
Aujmobi said despite the noteworthy efforts being made to improve the health sector, the nation’s health system seemed to be on stand still.
He stated that that the three health-related Millennium Development Goals of reduction in infant and maternal mortality rate and occurrence of HIV, malaria and tuberculosis had not been met, lamenting that Nigeria’s health sector stands at 187 out of 191 countries in the world.
He expressed hope that the lecture would proffer solutions with to tackle the nation’s health sector problems.
