Rating of President Goodluck Jonathan performance in two years in office by WorldStage Survey
The survey had asked, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of Nigeria will mark his second year in office on May 29, 2013. How will you rate his performance so far?
The result complied from the survey showed that 3.125% adjudged that the President had performed Excellently; 9.375% rated him Good; 34.375% rated him Average and 53.125% rated him Poor.
President Jonathan had on Wednesday May 29, 2013 marked his second year in office.
He was first sworn in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 6 May 2010 following the death of President Umaru Yar'Adua on 5 May 2010. He was sworn in again for a full first term of four years on May 29, 2011 after winning the general election against General Muhammadu Buhari and Nuhu Ribadu with 59 per cent of the votes.
President Jonathan as part of the occasion marking his second year in government in Abuja on May 29, presented his mid-term assessment report, pleading with those who wanted to assess and write about it to develop criteria “because without a marking scheme, you cannot mark any student’s paper.”
His words: "Only on Monday, one of the dailies did an assessment of the ministries and performance of ministers. The first thing I looked for but didn't see is the criteria that were used to access the performance of the ministers. Because when people mark, you mark with marking scheme.
"A number of comments about the performance of this administration are based on the heart beat of people. Sometimes people access governments based on their heart beats, two ministries - National Planning and Trade and Investment were given average, these two ministers performances in the last two years is unprecedented.
"In terms of businesses he has attracted to the country, in spite of our security challenges. So many investors want to come to Nigeria. Before now trade of investment ministry was like dead end, but that has change. Until Shamsudeen came on board before 2011, we never even knew we had a planning ministry, that is why I asked what was the criteria.
"I plead with those who want to write and assess to prepare marking scheme compare us with previous government and so on and so forth. Develop your marking scheme and mark us."
Presenting a report on the Economic Policy Framework (2011 -2013) at the occation, the Coordinating Minister for Economy and Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that remarkable progress had been made in the economy.
Stressing that Nigeria economy was strong and growing, she said that Nigeria's foreign reserve was $50 billion from $32.08 billion in May 2011.
Due to the foreign reserve attained, she said that the foreign exchange in the country had remained stable in the past two years.
According to her, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was one of the fastest growing in the world and that the GDP growth in 2013 is expected to be at 6.5% (NBS) or 7.2% (IMF).
Inflation rate, she said, had slowed down to 9.1% from 12.4% in May 2011.
She said: "Our economy has been growing. Inflation has been coming down. Our focus is to complete ongoing projects. The government is concerned about keeping our debts low. We have started retiring existing debts. We want to keep our debts at very manageable level."
Noting that Nigeria's export was shifting from oil to non-oil products, she said that oil export was 70 percent while non-oil exports 30 percent.
The Excess Crude Account (ECA), component of external reserve, she said rose from $4 billion in May 2011 to $9 billion in 2012 and $6 billion in May 2013.
She maintained that ECA was now helping the economy as oil production had fallen from the projected 2.53 million barrel per day to between 2.1 and 2.2 million barrel per day.
According to her, the cost of government was reducing as the government embarked on a policy to reduce recurrent expenditure and complete unfinished capital projects.
To this end, she said that recurrent expenditure dropped from 74.4% of total budget in 2011 to 68.7% in 2013.
She explained that annual borrowing had reduced from N852 billion in 2011 to N588 billion in 2013.
The Minister also claimed that aggressive monitoring of contract threshold, encouraging whistle blowing, introduction of stiffer penalties and introduction and take-off of e-procurement has led to savings of N420 billion at the end of 2012.
She also disclosed that the government had put in place systems to increase efficiency in public financial management.
On the expenditure side, she said that Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) has resulted in N118.9 billion savings on the payroll cost, and that 58% of the budget is now being executed through Introduction of the Government Integrated Financial Management and Information System (GIFMIS).
Through the Treasury Single Account (TSA), she said that the government’s overdrawn position had dropped from N102 billion in 2011 to N19 billion in 2012.
To prevent corruption in the various pension schemes, she said: "All the pension schemes are now coming under one roof to check abuses. “
From the Subsidy Re-Investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), she said that in 2012, the Federal Government got N180 billion, States - N154 billion and Local Governments - N76 billion for various projects.
While stating that Nigeria had become the highest destination of investment, she noted that 22 airports were being refurbished simultaneously in the country.
On power and water, she said: “There have been tangible improvements in our power sector. The privatisation that is going on now will at the end boost the power sector. Seven water projects have been completed across the country.”
Source: Worldstagegroup
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