The leading opposition political party in Nigeria, All Progressives Congress (APC) may not be the best Nigerian Dream, but it is better than the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) that has failed to guaranty the national security and welfare of majority of Nigerians and turned the Nigerian Dream into the Nigerian Nightmare since 1999 to date.
Forget the statistics of the political spin doctors of President Goodluck Jonathan and his hired crowds of sycophants on his so called achievements. The facts on the realities in Africa's most populous country are contrary to his claims of success.
Every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five year olds and 145 women of childbearing age. This makes the country the second largest contributor to the under–five and maternal mortality rate in the world.
Underneath the statistics lies the pain of human tragedy, for thousands of families who have lost their children. Even more devastating is the knowledge that, according to recent research, essential interventions reaching women and babies on time would have averted most of these deaths.
Although analyses of recent trends show that the country is making progress in cutting down infant and under-five mortality rates, the pace still remains too slow to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of reducing child mortality by a third by 2015.
~ UNICEF Nigeria, http://www.unicef.org/nigeria/children_1926.html
If President Goodluck Jonathan has done well in health care, he and his family and more than 5,000 Nigerians will not need to spend more than N78 billion to travel to India and other countries every month on medical trips. If he and his family are afraid of using our hospitals, then it means he has failed to provide good and safe health care services.
Education:
With approximately 10.5 million kids out of school, Nigeria holds the world record of having the highest number of its young people out of school according to current reports.
The quality of secondary school and post secondary school education is deplorable with many unqualified teachers and lecturers, because of the appalling deterioration of colleges of education in Nigeria and out-of-sync academic curricula of the universities and terrible campuses with horrible living conditions.
None of the children of President Goodluck Jonathan and his public officials attends public schools in Nigeria, because they know they are bad.
They have misappropriated public funds and with ill gotten riches from over-invoiced government contracts, illegal oil blocks and fuel subsidy contracts they have built their own private schools after neglecting the public schools.
Agriculture and food security:
In spite of the commendable agricultural projects of the federal government, Nigeria is still spending more than N600bn annually on food importation, including N991bn on Rice and Wheat Importation.
Roads and Transportation:
The PDP government brags about road construction, but Nigerian roads are still among the worst in the world with the second worst record for road accidents.
Nigerian airports have been renovated, but they are still rated among the worst in the world.
Nigeria has no national carrier whereas other African countries like South Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia have well managed airlines.
The rehabilitation of railways is commendable, but still a far cry from modern rail transport system in the 21st century.
Economic Development and Employment:
Lagos state is actually the success of the fast developing Nigerian economy that made the country the largest African economy. Lagos is the largest employer of labour with 90% of foreign investors in Lagos, the safest place in Nigeria. The Lagos state model of economic development should be copied by the Federal Government instead of the PDP making childish and foolish allegations against the APC government.
See The New York Times: "Nigeria is “the Worst Run of the World’s Most Populated Countries” | Can Lagos Save Her?" - Seth D. Kaplan, a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, writes on “What Makes Lagos a Model City“.
Lagos State transport system alone creates more jobs than the entire PDP states.
Lagos is the most populated state, because millions of jobless youths from the PDP states come to Lagos where they have more job opportunities.
National Security:
Lack of executive experience and political expertise made President Goodluck Jonathan to fail woefully in national security.
He forgot that a stitch in time saves nine and failed to deal with the Boko Haram insurgency since 2009 and preferred to point accusing fingers at the opposition until his own kinsman, the late General Owoye Azazi (retd) discovered that the PDP was responsible for the worsening situation of the Boko Haram insurgency. President Jonathan sacked him and the great general was later killed on December 15, 2012 in a mysterious helicopter crash in Okoroba Village of Bayelsa State whilst on the way back to the Port-Harcourt Airport.
President Jonathan's glaring cowardice and incompetence have caused the mismanagement of national security from the Niger Delta to Lake Chad.
The most shocking is the lackadaisical manner President Goodluck Jonathan handled the case of the kidnapped Chibok school girls since April 14, 2014. He lived in denial of the incident with his wife, First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan disgracing Nigeria by her childish and foolish reaction to the missing school girls. And her husband was even scared of visiting the school! But he was not afraid of later going to Maiduguri for his presidential campaign. He has abandoned the search to rescue the over 200 missing Chibok school girls.
Cases of oil theft have increased under President Goodluck Jonathan with stolen crude oil from Nigeria sold openly in Togo and offshore with full knowledge of the Nigerian Navy and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA)
http://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/files/chathamhouse/public/Research/Africa/0913pr_nigeriaoil_es.pdf
The APC's presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammad Buhari (retd) has the proven record of crushing insurgents in northern Nigerian in 1984 and 1985 and also tackling the menace of oil theft. His military expertise gives him the advantage that he will be a more pragmatic Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. He has the military experience, intelligence and expertise to guaranty his executive competence.
The fact is, things can be better with a more accountable and responsible government that can reduce the rampant corrupt practices destroying Nigeria. And the APC is the only party that can guaranty the national security and welfare of the citizens of Nigeria.
God bless Nigeria!
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