A writer, Tunde Leye, on Sunday stressed the need for the Nigerian government to make sure the military is adequately equipped to fight insurgency in the north east both with arms and intelligence.
Commenting on President Goodluck Jonathan’s performance in the last three years, Leye scored the President ‘really low’, insisting that the president had not showed necessary urgency in response to security breaches.
He pointed out that those in governance had the responsibility of ensuring safety of lives and property but stressed that people that would ensure Nigerians were safe were security agencies.
“But we hear all sought of things about then, like the mutiny that occurred few days ago.
“We need the presidency to take the soldiers seriously. Equip the army, provide proper logistical support and proper intelligence. These are dependent on the structures that are on ground. We need to make sure that our soldiers can fight. We need to defeat Boko Haram militarily before we can think of engaging them in negotiation,” he stressed.
He also said that “what the president says when there is security breach does not show you that the government is taking the issue as they should”.
“I expected that as the President, he should take charge of security situations and respond with urgency.”
Leye pointed out that the security situation in Nigeria had deteriorated to the point that people were not sure they would go out and come back alive, explaining that the situation had become so because the President had a particular way of looking at security issues.
“He always sees oppositions against his government whenever there are security breaches and this affects his response to issues.
“The president needs to come out from a position where he sees this as an act perpetrated by opposition to a position where he will see things as a threat to Nigerians and Nigeria.
“The president of the country should be in charge in all parts of the country, whether states are ruled by opposition or not,” he stated.
Power Sector Performance
On President Jonathan’s performance in the power sector, Leye commended the President for ensuring the implementation of the power sector roadmap – sales of the government’s stake in the Power Holding Company of Nigeria to the private sector.
He, however, stressed the need for the new owners of the generation companies to engage more in Public Relations through dissemination of adequate information to the public concerning developments in the sector to ensure that there would not be a disconnect with the public.
“There are lots of happenings in the macro level of power but Nigerians are not getting information about happenings in the sector. Proper Public Relations’ campaign aimed at informing the people about what the new companies are doing.
“The power sector issues should be handled in bits. I think they should first of all concentrate on generation of power because if generation grows, transmission problem will be solved.
“We need a government that will let people know what is going on before people become restive,” he said.
Solving Unemployment With Agriculture
In the agriculture sector, Leye said that the government was trying its best but pointed out that more needed to be done to make the sector generate jobs as needed.
“There is a good part of agriculture but to solve the problem goes beyond what we are doing. Agriculture creates job periodically. It may create jobs but will not end the problem of unemployment.
“Looking at the possibility of storing farm produce will help create more jobs. We can start doing cargo that could be refrigerated to store produce.”
He urged the Nigerian government to make concerted effort in harnessing the potentials that had not been properly tapped, as it would solve the unemployment problem.
Leye cited the Aba market where he said all sought of goods were made and stressed the need for the government to harness the potential.
He pointed out that the made in Nigeria products could be sold to neighbouring countries.
