Shame On You: Jonathan to 12 Northern Governors

1. Accuses Them Of Non-performance, Bad Leadership

2. Says Govs Failed On School Enrolment Despite FG’s Support

3. ‘Manage Your Insecurity; I Handled Mine As Governor In Bayelsa’

BARELY two weeks after 12 Northern governors, who visited the White House in the US, accused him of escalating the Boko Haram crisis ahead of 2015 presidential election, President Goodluck Jonathan, Saturday, reacted with a counter allegation, saying the governors have failed in school enrolment and other parameters of governance.

   Blaming them for the security challenges that have bedeviled the Northeast region since 2010, the President, who was in Bauchi for his People Democratic Party’s (PDP) North East Zonal unity rally at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium, said the governors have performed poorly and failed to send their “children to school.”

    The President pointed to non-performance in viable projects that would have improved the income of the common man.

    “I feel disappointed when a governor that spent eight years in office and the children in the state could not attend primary and secondary schools comes out publicly to blame the Federal Government on insurgency,” Jonathan said.

     “It is the duty of the Federal Government,” he said, “to provide all states with tertiary education, which we have done in the last four years by establishing additional 12 Federal Universities in Nigeria (10 of them are in the North, and nine in the North East). We made sure that all states in Nigeria have University; so, who is the bad leader?”

     He continued: “We are facing some issues today because of bad leadership, (because) this insecurity challenge is caused by lack of education of those children that do not go to primary and secondary schools and they are recruited by criminals, who use them to cause trouble.

   According to the president, rather than accuse the Federal Government, state governors should be ashamed for not supporting their children in primary and secondary education, a situation that fuels illiteracy and the attendant carrying of arms.

   “We had insecurity challenges in Bayelsa when I was deputy governor and governor but we handled it; it is not the duty of the Federal Government to send children to primary and secondary schools; but it is the constitutional right of the Federal Government to make sure children attend tertiary institutions, which we have done. 

  “How did we build up these unemployed youths? The Federal Government does not control primary or secondary schools; so, who is the bad leader in Nigeria? 

  “Governors must make sure our children go to schools, somebody stays eight years in leadership and opens his mouth and say bad leadership. Is it the Federal Government that will make your children go to primary schools? State governors that do not send their children to schools (and they carry arms) should be ashamed to say ‘bad leadership.’ We are into this madness because people refused to do their work and people carry arms and engage in insurgency.”

     Expressing condolences to families that lost loved ones to the insurgency, Jonathan gave the assurance that the insecurity challenge in the North East would soon be over, saying “we must bring this problem to the level that Nigerians will move freely.”

   “Whether it is Boko Haram in the North, militants in South South or armed robbery in South West, we must get to where we are going, we must, as a government, bring this to an end.”

    Jonathan said that PDP will retain all its states in 2015, adding that “nobody will take away our states from us; we must reclaim Adamawa State, while Borno and Yobe state will come to us in 2015”.

    National Chairman of PDP, Alahji Ahmed Adamu Muazu, described the PDP as the largest and most transparent party in the country.

    He said the party would continue to reconcile members in all states to ensure fairness, commitment and success of the party in 2015.

    Mu’azu appealed to all members vying for elective offices to go back to their wards, villages and states and convince their people to support them and their party. “This party has opportunity for everyone, and you don’t need Godfather; all you need is Almighty God, the God of Adam and Eve.

   “Our party remains the best in all states, because in terms of delivering job to the common man, PDP is still the best.

     Speaking on the intervention of President Jonathan in the North East zone, Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, said, out of 13 the federal universities established in the last four years, 10 are located in the zone.

  He also disclosed that the Federal Government established 125 Almajiri schools in the North East zone, which, according to him, have been furnished and handed over to state governors for management to enable Almajiri children have access to modern education.

   Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Godswill Akpabio, called on insurgents in the North, especially the North East zone, to support President Jonathan’ s administration by laying down their arms and allow peace reign in the country.

     He also called on elders and leaders in the North to talk to their youths in order to bring the insecurity challenge to an end. “We are a peace-loving country, this is not our behavior in this country, because we are God fearing people. So, we must live in peace with one another irrespective of our culture and religious differences. We can not enjoy Nigeria without peaceful coexistence,” Akpabio said.

       He expressed the determination of the PDP to reclaim all opposition states in the North East  come 2015. “We must reclaim all these states to ensure peace in this country, because the insecurity we are experiencing comes from the states controlled by opposition parties.

   He assured President Jonathan of their support in 2015, saying, “ Mr. President, our people must decide in 2015. We must support you and go with you because you are a trustful and peaceful man”.

    In his address, Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State described PDP as a peaceful and united family. 

     He commended President Jonathan for his transformation agenda in the North East zone, saying “Mr. President, you have done your best to ensure we have our own fair share of the transformation agenda.”

      Yuguda, therefore, solicited Federal Government’s support in completing the Kafin Zaki Dam, which, according to him, will provide over two million jobs to the teeming youths in the region. “Peace will be guaranteed immediately this dam is completed, because everybody in the region will have job”.