PDP, Jonathan have failed Nigerians, says Tinubu

President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration is confused about how to tackle Nigeria’s challenges, especially poverty and insecurity, a leader of the newly-formed All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has said.

He said the Federal Government promised peace and security, but under its “unwatchful eye” insecurity has grown and Boko Haram “has turned large tracts of northern Nigeria into no man’s land”.

But, a bright future, he said, is on the horizon as the APC, which he called “the government in-waiting”, would rescue Nigeria from its confused state.

“As leaders of the new party and government in-waiting, we intend to pursue dynamic, time-tested and bold policies that will liberate our people by making sure our wealth works for us,” Tinubu said.

Nigerians, said Tinubu, have become increasingly divided as a people because the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government continues to take faulty steps in addressing poverty and injustice.

“They have ignored the cause and gone after the symptoms,” the former Lagos State Governor told a packed audience inside the Grand Committee Ballroom, Westminster Hall, House of Parliament, London on Monday. He identified failed policies on power, employment, economy and security as evidence of bad leadership.

Tinubu, the keynote speaker at the British African Diaspora Conference, spoke on “Leadership, national development and the people”.

He urged the Federal Government to apply a consistent policy of targeted law enforcement operations along with an active programme of economic development, negotiations and potential amnesty for penitent Boko Haram members.

He said rather than take this step, the nation has been treated to series of government inaction and indiscriminate use of force, which culminated in the declaration of a state of emergency in three states.

“The Jonathan government set up a special Committee on Boko Haram and Security matters, but sadly before they could perform, he declared State of Emergency in three Northern states: Yobe, Borno and Adamawa.

“This is symptomatic of a confused leadership. If there is security in this jumbled policy, neither I nor the majority of Nigerians can find it!”

To the fomer Lagos governor, if Nigeria is to mature as a democracy, its electoral system must be improved. He decried the fact that those who control the system manipulate elections with such impunity that they now see misconduct without sanction as a normal way of life.

Said he: “Look at the recent controversy surrounding election of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) chairman… A group comprising all the nations’ governors could not even conduct a simple 35-person election without a disputed outcome.

“With this recent experience, I fear the length those in power would go and the means they would employ to manipulate results when the battleground is the entire nation and the stakes are the general elections in 2015.

“The NGF debacle symbolises a disdain for democracy and the popular will. If we are to save Nigeria, we must rescue the electoral process from its abusers,” Tinubu said.

In his view, a great philosophical gulf separates the government from the progressives. “This current Nigerian government is a retrogressive one. Much of what they claim as growth is but the harsh redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top. The bottom gets squeezed while the top expands. They are serving us the salad of corruption.

“They consume our today and squander the nation’s tomorrow. For 14 years, the PDP-led government cannot turn anything around. A new leadership is required to put a stop to this.”

Tinubu criticised Nigeria’s economic policies, saying the economy is being reconstructed “as an oasis for a small few and a stark desert for the many” while the government pretends to endorse the same budget-cutting austerity policies as much of Europe.

“We are not Europe; we are a Third World economy. That these policies have failed in European nations with higher standards of living than Nigeria gives our leaders no concern.”

Tinubu said the people live in dire straits, yet the government would rather waste the money than spend it on public benefit because they do not believe the people deserve it.

He said the progressives would bring pragmatic solution to the country’s woes because in their approach to the political economy, they do not rely on textbook answers as they do not “live in textbooks.

He said: “We live in the real world and thus seek answers from real world experiences. Here is a real world fact: No large nation has ever attained sustained growth without government running budget deficits to build the required infrastructure and without other government policies promoting development of the key industries that would become the spine of national development.

“Here is another such fact: No populous nation ever attains prosperity solely by extracting its raw material to exchange them for the finished goods of other large nations. We must industrialise and diversify our economy

“It is for this reason – to save the nation from the stranglehold of permanent poverty and poor governance – that the members of the progressive opposition political parties have decided to put aside personal ambition (including my own ambition) to form a new party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). We do this because Nigeria has entered a critical state of economic depression.”

According to Tinubu, because of the unfair nature of the electoral processes and the gross imbalance of its political economy, the people have been props in a drama for which they should have been the main characters. “We must change this,” he said.

He said the progressives must move Nigeria away from a place where the whims and narrow wishes of self-centered reactionary elite dictate the fate of over 150 million people.

“On our side, we will take our chances with a free and fair election, for we shall offer the people an innovative programme consisting of a national industrial policy that includes radical infrastructural development and employment targets,” he said.

The former Lagos governor spoke of “the Glorious Nigerian Revolution”, which he said has nothing to do with force of arms.

His words: “The Revolution of which I speak has two major parts. First, is the peaceful conversion of our quasi-democracy into a full-fledged one. Second, is the implementation of policies turning the political economy away from its retrogressive, elitist bearings.

“We seek policies pointing in a progressive direction affording the average person a chance at a dignified life. This will be through the provision of gainful employment, quality education and essential social services for those who need the helping hand of government to survive.

“I see no shame in believing progressive government can improve the political economy and the lives of the people.”

Groups and personalities at the event included representatives of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Business Council for Africa , the British African Business Alliance, Ministers from Nigeria High Commission UK7; an association of Nigerians in top British government employment – British Nigerians in Government (BIG) and Chairman, the African Professionals in the Diaspora (TAPID), Tope Olodo.