Group faults Jonathan’s visit to Switzerland, Ethiopia

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, Latest Politics Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

A lagos-based group, the Movement for Revolutionary Change
(MRC) has picked holes in the proposed week-long visit of
President Goodluck Jonathan to Switzerland and Ethiopia,
describing it as a jamboree.

The MRC said the achievement of the Jonathan administration will
not be measured by the number of foreign trips embarked on by the
President while in office, but the progress made to address and
solve the several national problems.

The group noted that the Presidency can achieve a lot more in the
discharge of its constitutional responsibilities if it concentrates on
tackling the plethora of developmental challenges confronting the
country instead of globe trotting for merely diplomatic
aggrandizement.

“It is our wish that when the President returns, he will stay more at
home and focus his energies on improving power supply, tackling
corruption, solving insecurity and reducing national infrastructural
decadence; thereby making the country attractive to foreign
investors”, the group said in a statement issued yesterday.

The MRC further lamented that it is a failure on the part of the
Jonathan presidency that the Federal Government is unable to
marshal out a plan or programme to address Nigeria’s nagging
national problems almost two years after its inauguration.

The group also observed that the present administration has been
largely ceremonial and a failed presidency in terms of derivables,
adding that Nigerians deserve to know how much the trips is costing
the nations.

The MRC however pointed out that there could be derivable
positive outcomes from foreign trips, noting that Ethiopia, one of the
countries to be visited by the President has successfully managed a
100 percent government owned Ethiopian Airline presently with 54
aircraft in its fleet for almost a century now.

“The MRC) hopes that the Nigerian President would use the
opportunity of his trip to Ethiopia to carefully study how the
Ethiopian government has been able to efficiently manage a public
enterprise even in the complex aviation sector”, the statement
added.

The group also frowned at the heightened political activity in the
country ahead of the 2015 elections, especially when viewed
against the backdrop that governance at most levels has been
characterized by broken promises, greed, irresponsibility, myopism
and ineptness.

The MRC also described political leaders hoping to stay forever in
government as living in a fool’s paradise, as the Nigerian people,
according to them, are presently mobilizing to take hold of their
destiny through a revolutionary change.
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