Yesterday at a Chatham House lecture
series held at the Royal institute of International Affairs in London, the
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe,
while speaking on the various milestones attained by the administration of
President Goodluck Jonathan in the last three years, Dr Okupe said the
reduction of Nigeria’s food import bills by half as well as successful
implementation of reforms in critical sectors of the economy are crucial to the
attainment of social and economic stability.
He said, “Consequent upon the faithful implementation of
the transformation agenda, by the end of 2013 Nigeria’s nonoil exports had increased
tenfold over two years, reaching almost 3 billion dollars from 276 million
dollars in 2011. Nigeria is once again the world’s largest producer of cassava,
a major raw material in the European and Asiatic food markets, and also
accounted for thirty six per cent of the total global cocoa exports in 2013″
While describing the reforms carried out in the
transportation sector in the last three years as unprecedented, Okupe said,
“President Jonathan inherited a road transport network that was near total
collapse. Critical economic roads, such as the Lagos Ibadan expressway, the
Shagamu Ore Benin road; the Kano Maiduguri expressway, the Abuja Abaji Lokoja
expressway, the Enugu Port harcourt road, and the East West road, were in a
state of total or near total disrepair resulting in countless accidents and
needless loss of life with the attendant extreme frustration of commuters who
spend countless hours travelling across the country but massive reconstruction
and rehabilitation which were embarked upon ensured that well over 60 per cent
of Nigeria’s total existing road network have been repaired or are undergoing
rehabilitation.”
According to him, that train services which were almost
nonexistent in 2011 had been revitalised with old rail lines rehabilitated and
new modern ones being constructed, adding, “The trains now provide means of
transportation to over four million Nigerians annually. There are new gauge
lines under construction from Ajaokuta to Warri, Abuja to Kaduna while the
Eastern axis of railway from Portharcourt to Maiduguri is nearing completion”
On the reforms carried out by the Jonathan administration
in the Power sector, Dr Okupe said it was significant that Nigeria rose from a
power generation capacity of less Than three thousand megawatts in 2011 to
almost five thousand megawatts in 2013.
He said the completion of ten new power plants as we’ll
as successful privatisation of the power infrastructure have increased the
capacity of the Nigerian power sector to gradually meet the needs of the 165
million Nigerian population and that within the next few years most Nigerian
cities would be having a minimum of 18 hours uninterrupted power supply.
On the forthcoming 2015 general elections, Okupe said
President Jonathan remains committed to ensuring that the vote of every
Nigerian counts in deciding who occupies which elective office and that the
President would not waiver in his resolve to maintain the independence and
integrity of the Electoral Body.
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