PRESIDENT
Goodluck Jonathan, on Saturday, slammed some state governors for their
comments that bad leadership at the Federal level was responsible for
insecurity in some parts of the country.Speaking at the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) North-East unity rally held at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium in Bauchi State, President Jonathan declared that those governors were not doing what was expected of them in their states, adding that they were only trying to shift the blame on the Federal Government.The President, who stated that he was a deputy governor and governor of Bayelsa State for eight years and knew the responsibilities of a state governor, declared that some governors, had been in office for about seven years now and had not been able to ensure that children in the state attend primary and secondary schools.
These children, the President stated, were the ones being used by some people to cause troubles in the North-East zone, declaring that, “You should be shameful of talking about bad leadership.”
According to the President, “ I spent eight years at the state level and handled security challenges in Bayelsa State. It was the state where the first commercial kidnapping took place. More than 70 per cent of the state is slums, I was deputy governor and governor in that state and we know how we handled things.
“A governor will come and say bad leadership, the question to ask is, bad leadership from who? If we have security issues, whether Boko Haram or kidnappers or whatever, these are people who could not have primary school education; could not have secondary education and they have no hope. And miscreants, criminals recruit them and use them. If you see what they wear, they wear rags, they don’t wear normal cloths. All they put on is not worth N10 but they carry assault rifle with bullets that are worth more than N250,000. Somebody give them food to eat so that they will have strength to kill.
“You ask, how do we build army of unemployed youths? The Federal Government does not control primary and secondary education and a governor has been on seat for almost eight years and he has people in that state that can’t go primary or secondary school, he so many children who do not go to school and he opens his mouth and say bad leadership.”
He appreciated the fact that the zone had more security issues, saying that his administration would change its approach to tackling the challenge in the zone, saying that, “we must bring this security challenges to the level that Nigerians must move freely. Whether Boko Haram in the North-East, kidnapping in the South-South and South-East, armed robbery in the South-West, we must and we are changing things and we must get to where we want to go. We must as a government bring it to a reasonable control.”
He assured that his administration would keep faith with its electoral promises, saying that, “we must create wealth through agricultural value chain.” He stated that PDP was the only party that members did not need godfather to be anything, saying that the party was still the dominant party in Nigeria.
He attributed the loss of some states to the leadership decision to field some unpopular candidates in those states, assuring that the party would reclaim Adamawa State and win in Borno and Yobe States.
In his address, the National Chairman of PDP, Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Muazu described PDP as the largest in Nigeria and Africa, saying that it remained the most transparent party in the country.
Muazu assured of the readiness of the National Working Committee of the party and his leadership to continue to reconcile members in all states to ensure fairness, commitment and success of the party at the 2015 elections.
He appealed to all members of the party vying for elective offices to go back to their wards, villages and state and convince their people to support them and the party.
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