Jonathan’s performance: Opposition not fair in their judgement – Okupe

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, has said the repeated claims by the opposition that President Goodluck Jonathan is clueless is baseless.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja, Okupe said: “The repeated false claim by the opposition that the President is incompetent is not only untrue and obviously cannot be supported by facts, but is also part of the opposition strategy to present the government as not been effective so as to advance their selfish cause.
“Nigerians should therefore ignore this wild and baseless comment and team up with the silent and effective achiever, in the person of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
“The background of President Jonathan does not fall into the mould of incompetence or cluelessness that the opposition tries too hard to sell to the Nigerian populace.”
Okupe said the transformation agenda of the present administration cannot be “judged by noise making, propaganda and deception, which are the hallmarks of the activities of the Nigerian opposition.”
The presidential aide said Jonathan inherited several challenges in areas such as power, infrastructural decay, youth unemployment, inability to diversify the economy, economic instability, insecurity and corruption.
He said most of these issues have been largely addressed.
In the power sector, Okupe, who went down memory lane and x-rayed the challenges that bedeviled the sector before Jonathan came into power,.
He identified the issues before Jonathan’s entrance as low generating capacity, which he put at less than 3000; abandoned National Integrated Power Projects; unavailability of gas to service the NIPP projects; transmission challenges; inability to unbundle the Power Holding Company of Nigeria; and failure to privatize the sector.
Okupe said: “Most of the above have been achieved and improved upon 100 per cent.
“The challenge of transmission will be overcome before the end of 2013.”
In the area of infrastructural decay, he said: “The roads were in states of disrepair nationwide.
“The Nigeria Railway Corporation was not functional.
“Airports were in state of total dilapidation, most of them without any maintenance for decades.”
According to him, as at today, “Benin-Sagamu road has been awarded and presently the commuting time has been reduced from 12 hours and above to four hours.
“The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway concession was decisively dealt with and immediate rehabilitative efforts were carried out by Julius Berger and RCC, which reduced the burden on commuters on that road during the Christmas holidays.
“Abuja-Lokoja Expressway is progressing steadily while Kano-Maiduguri Road is in progress.
“The East-West Road, despite the negative reports by detractors, has made significant progress, with most of its concrete works and bridges nearly completed.
“Onitsha-Enugu-Port Harcourt dual carriage way, a distance of 1664km, is due for completion in 2013.
“The 2nd Niger Bridge – N5 billion, has been set aside for commencement of works.”