The Nation Newspaper

Tag: The Economist

  • The Economist tips Buhari for victory in 2019 election

    President Muhammadu Buhari will win next year’s election, The Economist has reported.

    The respected magazine has also predicted that the opposition coalition may collapse before the general election.

    But Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar yesterday said the forecast of the London-based magazine failed to meet the attributes of objectivity, balance and fairness.

    According to The Economist in its latest edition, “The World in 2019”, there is little hope that Islamist insurgency in the Northeast will end.

    In a country appraisal for Nigeria under “The world in numbers”, the magazine said:  “The president, Muhammadu Buhari, will win re-election in February, as a new opposition coalition may collapse before the vote.

    “Given the outlook for continuing political weakness, there is little prospect of progress in the fight against the Islamist insurgency in the north, nationalism in the oil-producing Delta and secessionism in the Biafra region.

    “Market-based reforms will languish, holding back growth yet again.”

    The magazine’s other predictions for Nigeria are: GDP growth (1.9%); GDP per head-$2, 410(PPP: $6,020); inflation (13.6%); Budget balance (5GDP) is -2.0 and population (201.0m).

    In a separate report, the Foreign Correspondent of The Economist, Aman Rizvi, distanced himself from the official position of his magazine.

    He said the election will be close, with the PDP having a slight edge.

    Rizvi said: “Mr. Buhari’s approval ratings have languished below 50 % for most of 2018. Ominously, he has been hit by a wave of defections to the PDP.

    “Desertions to the APC four years ago, by many of the same people, felled ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.

    “Mr. Buhari’s electoral opponent in 2019, Atiku Abubakar, is one such double-turncoat. He is also a septuagenarian, billionaire businessman, former vice president and three-time presidential aspirant.

    “With Mr. Abubakar distrusted for his wealth and opportunism, the election will be close. Its outcome will hinge on who arouses less apathy.

    “So, who will win? Many Nigerians do not care. The back-and-forth floor-crossing has convinced them that the same people will be in charge either way. The PDP holds a slight edge, if only because expectations for Mr. Buhari were higher and his failure to meet them was more recent.”

    But Atiku has rejected the latest prediction of The Economist.

    A statement by the Special Assistant on Public Communication and Strategy to Atiku, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, said the forecast was a “poorly-executed hatchet job”.

    The statement said: “The political camp of the PDP presidential candidate has described as a poorly-executed hatchet job, the prediction by The Economist of London, in which the magazine put on the garb of a partisan and made no pretenses to professionalism while predicting that President Buhari will win next year’s poll.

    “With the tacit endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term, in its current edition, the erstwhile influential news magazine has hit a new low by throwing all pretences to the wind to take up the job of presidential spokespersons.

    ‘’It is common knowledge that the Economist’s fortunes have taken a nosedive in recent months with its flip- flop on issues, especially as it pertains the upcoming presidential election in Nigeria.

    “But the magazine hit a new low in its current edition , The World in 2019, where it made projections of issues and events that will shape the year 2019 across many countries including Nigeria.”

    Shaibu said even if the All Progressives Congress (APC) or President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokespersons had written that story, it could not have been so recklessly partisan, so undisguisedly biased and so devoid of any shred of professionalism.

    He said the story, which says “the president, Muhammadu Buhari, will win re-election in February, as a new opposition coalition may collapse before the vote” failed to meet the attributes of objectivity, balance and fairness.

    Shaibu said it was scandalous that the magazine went ahead to predict a victory for the APC candidate even when it said  Buhari’s second coming portends disaster for Nigeria.

    He said it was equally strange that the magazine whose Intelligence Unit predicted that Atiku will lead the new government come 2019 has now made a U-turn to endorse President Buhari.

    ‘’But we hasten to say that with or without the endorsement of The Economist or any news medium for that matter, we will defeat Buhari fair and square,” he said.

    Shaibu said when on May 29, 2019  Atiku Abubakar is sworn in  as the President of Nigeria,  The Economist will have to look elsewhere for patronage, since there will be no more room for cash and carry forecasts, and fully-paid for endorsements.

    He said that the PDP candidate was aware that “when fake news materials are planted in big news outlets, they often help to lay the groundwork for rigging in elections but warned that members of the opposition party and their supporters will resist the rigging of next year’s elections”.

    Speaking with our correspondent, the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Lanre Issa Onilu, said: “I will say that The Economist is just living up to its reputation. What the magazine has said is not new to most Nigerians; it is a report of the reality.

    “I am not surprised that PDP did not find the report palatable. For a political party that has been living in denial, instead of addressing issues as copiously enumerated by The Economist, PDP has chosen to behave like a baby whose toy has just been taken away from him or her.

    “PDP lacks credibility and any publication that is worthy of its own reputation will be taking a huge risk by making any attempt to dress PDP in a borrowed robe. PDP is a damaged product that has thrown up a discredited candidate. We can only commend The Economist.”

    Asked if the 2019 presidential poll will be a close race, Onilu said: “We think if The Economist conducts further research, they will come to the conclusion we have already reached  to the effect that next year’s presidential election is a no-contest.”

    He dismissed insinuations that PDP might have a slight edge over APC.

    “No. PDP cannot have a slight edge,” Onilu added.

  • PDP welcomes The Economist’s verdict on 2019 poll

    Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has welcomed the independent reports by The Economist and those of the renowned multinational body, HSBC that it will defeat President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 general election.

    A statement yesterday by spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan said the verdict confirmed its position that Nigerians have rejected President Buhari ahead of the presidential election.

    According to the PDP, Buhari’s perceived rejection was predicated on his “abysmal failure and the deception” of his All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last three years.

    The party said the findings by the two foreign organisations that President Buhari stands no chance in the general election and that his winning portends danger for the nation, is in tandem with the stand of the majority of Nigerians, irrespective of their party affiliations, ethnicity or creed.

    It noted that in line with the reports, “Nigerians are fed up with President Buhari due to the incompetence and unprecedented corruption in his Presidency, resulting in the ruining of our once robust economy, with attendant mass job loss, ravaging hunger, starvation and disease, as well as escalated insecurity, with documented mass killings, violation of human rights and daily bloodletting in various parts of our country, a development that has put the unity of our great country at risk.

  • The Economist disowns publication on Buhari

    The Economist disowns publication on Buhari

    The Presidency on Thursday said the Economist, a London-based magazine, has disowned a publication which claimed that Nigerians have shown unprecedented patience with President Muhammadu Buhari.

    A statement issued by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Femi Adesina, noted that the publication has been making rounds on the social media and on some websites in the country, and beyond.

    A  letter dated  January 18, 2018,  written  and signed by Jonathan Rosenthal, the  Africa Editor  of the magazine , reads: “It has come to my attention that an article has been circulating on social media and been published on various websites that purports to have been written or published by The Economist.

    “The article with the headline: “The Unprecedented Level of Patience Shown to Buhari” was not written nor published by The Economist. Any claims connecting it to The Economist are false.”

    The Presidency enjoined Nigerians to be very watchful and circumspect about the kind of information they are exposed to, and share, especially in this period when purveyors of fake news abound.

  • Ambode, Danfo drivers and The Economist

    First, we must observe that Lagos is a mega city with the associated mega-city problems similar to those you find in New York, Los Angeles, Cairo, Sao Paulo or Mumbai. It attracts all manners of people with deviant behaviour. In nearly all cases, most immigrants are out to eke out a living by taking advantage of the opportunities the city offers. In pursuant of their objectives, they often exhibit deviant behaviours. The immigrants despite their lack of sense of commitment to their host communities often exhibit sense of entitlement. But something positive has always come out of productive engagements between successive past Lagos State governments and the urban poor.

    As Governor, Jakande doubled the number of schools in Lagos, introduced free education and built low income houses. Former Governor Tinubu expanded the free education and free health programmes building General Hospitals in nearly all the Local Government Areas. He integrated the once notorious ‘Molue’ drivers through Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) ownership structure or as members of LASTMA. Fashola sustained this by turning the urban miscreants known as ‘area boys’ to environmentalists. There is no doubt the ongoing encounter between ‘Danfo’ drivers and their senior partners LASTMA, whose members according to Mike Akinyuli, a security consultant, own about 70% of the buses we see on the roads’, will produce identical result.

    The current encounter between Ambode’s government, ‘danfo’ drivers, LASTMA, their senior partners, and The Economist is about Lagos traffic gridlock which has become a source of nightmare to Lagos motorists.

    First, long before The Economist’s report on state of insecurity  and traffic in Lagos, Governor Ambode, a man said to be very cerebral, had during a retreat for his new team, identified ‘traffic congestion as a daily challenge with highly undesirable socio-economic and environmental effects, increasing stress and pollution levels which reduce several productivity’ for Lagosians. As a response he was also quoted to have said the state was ‘set to introduce a world-class traffic information and management system to drastically change the face of Lagos traffic’.

    But The Economist says  ‘the increased traffic gridlock was due to the governor’s new traffic policies which has encouraged a culture of impunity in Nigeria’s most populous city’, and went to aver that the policy was ‘being sabotaged by the traffic controllers banned from impounding cars’. In the opinion of the newsmagazine, that was a failure of governance.

    The government has spent the greater part of last week engaged in needless defence describing the report as “reckless”, “slanderous” and “ill-conceived.” But Joe Igbokwe, the Lagos APC spokesman admitted that the governor’s directive that the traffic managers be more humane was abused and sabotaged by the traffic officers leading to traffic snarls. He added the governor’s expression of ‘deep concern about the feedback from Lagosians whose worries range from security, traffic gridlock and environment itself’; it was obvious the new policies designed to alleviate the sufferings of Lagos residents were yet to yield dividends.

    As at the time of the report, ‘danfo’ drivers had turned the highways into bus stop and traffic officers were nowhere to be seen leaving motorists at the mercy of lawless ‘danfo’ drivers. The only thing the governor and his team can therefore quarrel with was The Economist’s conclusion that the shaky take off of the policy amounts to failure of governance. And in this regard, the magazine is entitled to its opinion despite Lagos State’s argument that such conclusion did not indicate application of sufficient intellectual rigour. That the governor said “We are repairing potholes and we are deploring more men to ensure the free flow of traffic”, or that “We have already hit the ground running’, did not preclude The Economist from expressing its cynicism or oblige it to share the governor’s optimism until those efforts bring forth dividends.

    It is as if the government expects sympathy from The Economist even after its own admission, that ‘recalcitrant traffic officers refused to carry out a directive by their employer”, or expects the defeated PDP looking for relevance not to exploit the current traffic crisis to declare triumphantly that “the worsening traffic situation in the state is a reflection of Governor Ambode’s inability to manage the state and a reflection of his unpreparedness to lead”.

    Since it is not likely that Lagosians will write off the governor they elected shortly after constituting his team based on jaundiced report of a magazine or comments of opposition looking for relevance, the government should be more concerned with finding answers to the deviant behaviour of ‘danfo’ drivers. Why for instance will a ‘danfo’ driver with full compliments of passengers take one way while oncoming vehicles scramble to avoid head on collision?

    Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who initiated the laudable LASTMA scheme back in 2000 had initially thought some of the deviant motorists especially “Molue drivers” were sick and doomed inmates of psychiatric hospitals. Not a few I was told, were forced to visit such hospitals. Fashola saw heavy unreasonable fines as deterrence. An exasperated ex-Governor Fashola once reminded the LASTMA traffic officers that their primary responsibility was to make the traffic flow and if impounding cars will derail that objective, the deviant motorist should be let off the hook. But both the ‘dreamer and the actualiser’, by applying inputs of intellectuals changed their perception at the end.

    It might be useful for the Ambode’s government to borrow a leaf from the findings of Vidal de la Blache a French Cultural Geographer and Lucien Febvre, a French Historian who in their theories of ‘environmental determinism and environmental possibilism,’ tell us that man is the master of his environment. Nature advises us of options available before us which we exploit to our own advantage or ignore at our own peril and eternal damnation. The ‘danfo’ driver is a thinking animal and not a caged goat. If he needs to make 30 runs between Ojota and Berger bus top, a distance of about five kilometres which should naturally take about 10 minutes in order to meet his obligation to the owner of the bus and gets his own extra to take care of his family as one who survives on a subsistence primitive consumption, he is not likely going to spend two hours on 10 minutes journey. As a rational being, he will look for alternative and that may include taking one-way if he can get away with it.

    If however we think he is not mad, but on a suicide mission, his passengers who held on to their breath as he manoeuvres dangerously facing an oncoming vehicle are not about to commit mass suicide. Among the passengers, we probably have a young nursing mother scheduled to pick her four months toddler from a day-care centre that has a closing time; a newscaster programmed to be on air at a scheduled time or a poor miracle-seeker rushing to meet evening service in one of the numerous churches dotting slum areas of Lagos who will fit the identity of a man apprehended by the governor driving on ‘one way’ and claimed he was rushing to church.

    ‘Danfo’ drivers, their LASTMA senior colleagues, share the same fate with peddlers of fake products on the streets of urban centres and the AK47-wielding cattle herdsmen marooned in the forest for over 10 months. It is all about the struggle for the survival of the fittest. And in this struggle, the privileged often define the state of sanity or insanity of the underprivileged.

    There is however a promise of hope in the ongoing engagement since those who worked along with Tinubu and Fashola to decree the sanity of those once regarded as mad ‘Molue’ drivers who are today part owners of BRT buses and the wasting away miscreants called area boys who are today celebrated environmental ambassadors. The team can ensure those currently proclaimed mad ‘danfo’ drivers get integrated into the Light rail system or aided to own their own commercial farms.

  • The Economist’s faux pas

    The Economist’s faux pas

    Journalism is an interesting and exciting profession. Perhaps, it is in keeping with the exciting aspect that The Economist, a weekly newsmagazine published in London since 1843, recently focused its binoculars on the city of Lagos. I do not have anything against the choice of Lagos as the focus of the magazine because doing this was in tandem with the magazine’s philosophy that “it is not a chronicle of economics. Rather, it aims to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress”.

    Writing under the caption Paralysed, the magazine attempted to explain “why Nigeria’s largest city is even less navigable than usual”. The magazine described the ubiquitous traffic snarl on the streets of Lagos and pronounced the city as the most notoriously congested place in the world. That is not news. Yet, it did not stop there. It went ahead to say that the lengthy, snail traffic had raised safety concerns as hoodlums are cashing in on the ugly situation to rob people who are held in traffic. Still, no news. It then laid the blame on “a new and less competent state government”. That is news!

    To further drive home its point, the magazine drew a comparison between Babatunde Fashola, the former governor of the state and Akinwumi Ambode, the incumbent governor. It lauded Fashola, now a Minister of the Federal Republic, for improving traffic and security during his tenure as governor as well as curbing the excesses of okada riders, and taming street urchins otherwise known as area boys. In what amounted to self-contradiction, it also pointed out that “cars were terrified into order by a state traffic agency, LASTMA, whose bribe-hungry officers flagged down offending drivers”.

    Not done yet. The magazine said that the situation of things, under Ambode is different because Ambode is “full of excuses, but few solutions, for the worsening gridlock”. Now, the final coup de grace: “Yet the root of the problem is in policy: Mr Ambode cut the powers of traffic controllers by banning them from impounding cars. In retaliation, officers have refused to enforce the rules”. So, who is actually responsible for the gridlock: Ambode or the recalcitrant traffic managers? Again, which one is better, to let loose bribe-hungry traffic officers to harass motorists or ban them from impounding vehicles?.

    There is this belief that the streets of Lagos are paved with gold hence the daily rush or migration to Lagos from all parts of the country including the West African sub-region. Unfortunately, when these people get to Lagos and discover that the streets are not strewn with naira notes, they easily resort to all manners of pranks, including stealing and robbery. This may be partially responsible for the prevalence of all crimes of imaginable proportion in the state.

    However, ssuccessive administrations in the state -military or civilian- have not been unaware of this, especially the security implication of the influx of people. To bring it under control, a number of measures had been put in place in the past. The security bar was raised under the current democratic dispensation. This witnessed the birth of a Security Trust Fund to address the issue of insecurity in the state. Lagos has the heaviest investment on security amongst the states in Nigeria. In fact, it is the first state to set up a security trust fund, a sort of government-public partnership which has become a model in the country. Truly, Fashola did not toy with it; and Ambode is not about to toy with it either.

    In fact, in anticipation of an increase in crime rate during the forthcoming yuletide, the state government recently purchased more than 100 patrol vans to be distributed to security agencies in the state to strengthen their operational capacity. The governor is also tackling the issue of unemployment. Towards this end, the governor recently forwarded a bill to the state House of Assembly for the establishment of a N25 billion Employment Trust Fund, ETF. The fund will be used for job creation and employment opportunities through the state’s newly created Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment.

    Of course, the governor knows the enormity of task his office has placed on his broad shoulders. Immediately he was sworn in on May 29, the Governor swung into action by outlining his governance blueprint and meeting with relevant public service stakeholders. He commenced by engaging the Permanent Secretaries and Chief Executives of MDAs on Saturday, May 30. That same day, he relocated to Lagos State House, Alausa, Ikeja, the official seat of government from Marina, Lagos, which his predecessor had used. This act was carried out in order to ease and reduce the cost of governance.

    The meetings with the public service, corporate organisations as well as NGOs continued for about one-and-a-half weeks to enable him have a good grasp of issues and reel out his own governance strategies. On June 3, he held a crucial meeting with top officials of LASTMA, Vehicle Inspection Officers, VIOs, as well as officers of the Kick Against Indiscipline, KAI. He donated over 300 patrol vehicles to all the traffic control and management agencies and admonished them to be civil in their operations. He categorically declined a request for the acquisition of more parks for impounded vehicles. Reason? He did not want to add to the economic problems of Lagosians as a better approach needed to be deployed.

    Therefore, the recent traffic gridlocks experienced in the state and attested to by The Economist was actually an indication of sabotage on the part of these traffic officers. Several of them have faced and are still undergoing disciplinary actions as a result of various acts of corruption and gross misconduct traced to them. Besides, there are other actions which the governor has taken in order to make governance in Lagos more meaningful to the citizens. These include: Reorganisation, restructuring, reordering and realignment of MDAs in order to have more efficient, effective and robust service delivery organisations. This not only reduces cost of governance, but also ensures deliverables to the citizenry.  The governor is also institutionalising grassroots governance by setting up a Local Government Reforms Committee.

    In addition, bidding has just been completed for 144 roads, two in each of the 20 local government councils and LCDAs. This is in line with the governor’s policy of aggressive road construction in all strata of the state without focusing only on elite areas. The state’s Public Works Bureau has also been energised and reorganised to be up to this task while continuity of several uncompleted and ongoing projects by his predecessors is also given concerted attention. This is in addition to the engagement of the different security organisations in dialogue in order to tackle the hydra-headed security challenges facing the state. Many other innovative measures have also been undertaken with the aim of reducing cost of governance while ensuring efficient public service delivery in line with international best practices.

    Now, with all these, it is quite easy to see the faux pas in The Economist’s story. While the magazine prides itself as a publication to be reckoned with, its recent story on Lagos was more or less a calculated attempt to deliberately malign Ambode. Only a visitor from the moon will be sucked in by the jaundiced report as the story bore all the imprimatur of a hatchet job. It is a remarkable departure from the magazine’s philosophy of taking active part “in a severe” contest involving intelligence by delving into “unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress”. It negates the magazine’s claim that “it targets highly educated readers and circulates among an audience of many influential executives and policy-makers”. Above all, in this “new age of Mass Intelligence”, the magazine has regretfully displayed an “unworthy, timid ignorance” designed to obstruct the progress of Lagos state. Too bad!

  • Lagos APC to The Economist – your opinion on Ambode jaundiced, faulty

    Lagos APC to The Economist – your opinion on Ambode jaundiced, faulty

    MORE knocks yesterday came from the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for The Economist over its scathing opinion on the performance of Governor Akinwumi Ambode.

    The party said the newspaper erred by going to press with a jaundiced and faulty assumptions that has no linkage with the reality.

    In a statement by its spokesman, Joe Igbokwe, the party faulted the The Economist for its haste in passing a judgment on a governor that has a four year renewable mandate just after kick-off.

    He said it was wrong of the newspaper to give a damning verdict on flashes of incidents that are not only correctable but already being corrected by the governor.

    The conclusions drawn by the magazine about the capacity of Governor Ambode was pedestrian and clearly in sync with the street lingo of the opposition in Lagos, the APC alleged.

    According to it, the governor has been displaying a deep commitment to governance that will rank Lagos among the best states in the country.

    The statement reads: “We wonder how a reputable institution like The Economist could rush into quick judgment on the capacity of a governor elected for four years on traffic and security hitches that have traceable origins and are therefore solvable.

    “The traffic and security glitches have endured for few weeks and the governor has openly identified the causes and had gone cracking while, as at today, results have come in as the traffic hitches have gone down while security has greatly improved.

    “We did state last week that the traffic snarls were as a result of the governor’s directive to traffic managers to be more humane and considerate in dealing with motorists.

    “The abuse of this directive and the sabotage of the traffic officers led to increased traffic snarl which has made the governor to wield the big stick and effect changes at the echelon of the traffic management agency.

    We can report today that the traffic situation has significantly improved and promises to get better in the coming days. We did also report that the momentary upsurge in crimes was an attempt to dare the good natured face of Ambode’s regime. The governor has not only beefed up the security manpower in the state, but has procured numerous security gadgets, including helicopters and raided numerous black spots in the state to deal with the issue. It is noteworthy that the security glitches have given way to better security of lives and properties in Lagos.

    “Because The Economist did not go further in its analysis beyond these two issues, we believe that other critical sectors of governance do not matter to it. But we can tell The Economist and other naysayers that Governor Ambode is fully meeting the huge challenges of governance in Lagos.

    “Such areas that are witnessing huge activity such as road construction, employment, education, infrastructure maintenance, health and judiciary among others are receiving the energetic attention of the governor in line with the tradition of good governance in Lagos.

     

    “We want to assure The Economist that Governor Ambode is fully wedded to his demanding job and is making great impact on governance in Lagos.

     

    “We recognise The Economist as a strong and dynamic institution, a reputation built over the years through dint of hard work and commitment. We therefore expect that it should do everything humanly possible to defend this hard-earned respect and recognition. It amounts to great a disservice to this well-respected institution when it goes into sensational publications to score cheap political points.”

     

  • Lagos faults The Economist’s report on traffic situation

    Lagos faults The Economist’s report on traffic situation

    … Article reckless, slanderous – Ayorinde

    The Lagos State Government on Wednesday described the article published in the latest edition of The Economist Magazine as reckless and slanderous, insisting that the issues were ill-conceived.

    The state’s Commissioner for Information, SteveAyorinde, while reacting to the publication via a statement he personally signed, said the government deemed it necessary to write a rebuttal to the article titled- “Paralysed: Why Nigeria’s largest city is even less navigable than usual,” because there were several bias judgment in it.

    The commissioner wondered why the article, published just about the time the State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, read the riot act to traffic offenders on the readiness of his government to carry out comprehensive enforcement effort on traffic management, was latched on by traditional and social media.

    Attributing the publication to the handiwork of fifth columnists, Ayorinde said the article failed to take into account the bigger picture of an emerging reform policy, designed to address the larger concerns in the management of security, traffic and the environment.

    “If we were to conclude hastily, like the article did, we would have described the magazine’s effort in the same words it once famously used as ‘an unpleasant nose-to-stranger’s-armpit experience.’

    “It was inaccurate and preposterous for the article to suggest that Governor Ambode cut the powers of traffic controllers by banning them from impounding cars which it concluded that it had made officers reluctant to enforce the rules,” the commissioner said in the statement.

    Ayorinde noted that what the Governor did instead was to encourage the officers to consider other options to apprehend traffic offenders by adopting the ticketing system backed by the same type of technology used in licensing and tracking vehicles instead of impounding the vehicles as first option.

    He continued:  “That The Economist sees nothing wrong in recalcitrant officers refusing to carry out a directive by their employer is as surprising as it is shameful. Shockingly still, the veil finally came off this curious article when it stated that by choosing a compassionate approach to enforcement, Governor Ambode is less competent and has deviated from his predecessor’s template.

    “But what legacy has The Economist bequeathed to former Governor Babatunde Fashola? Cars were terrified into order by a state traffic agency, LASTMA, whose bribe-hungry officers flagged down offending drivers.

    “This is clearly an uncharitable summation of traffic management under the last administration. It is disrespectful, even more condescending to the officers of LASTMA and to Lagosians in general for whom the magazine purports to be fighting.  In any case, if indeed some officers were corrupt in LASTMA, by The Economist’s damning verdict, should Governor Ambode continue to maintain such a tainted template? Is this the magazine’s idea of the end justifies the means or it is negligible because this is Africa?”

    “Perhaps, it is high time that this vaunted magazine learnt to restrict itself to strict journalism rather than seeking to impose jaded views in a volatile political climate where, we dare say, the gluttonous lot can choke on their own bile, almost hoping that the elections leading to the emergence of the governor could be held over again.”

     

  • Patriotic Nigerians will re-elect Jonathan – Abati

    Patriotic Nigerians will re-elect Jonathan – Abati

    Reacting to the endorsement of General Muhammadu Buhari by The Economist for the forthcoming Presidential Election, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Dr. Reuben Abati said that it is patriotic Nigerians that will vote and not the magazine.

    According to a statement issued by him on Friday, Nigerians are aware of the achievements of the administration in the last six years.

    He said: “We have noted with surprise, The Economist’s tongue-in-cheek endorsement of General Muhammadu Buhari in the run-up to Nigeria’s general elections and the international magazine’s baseless, jaundiced and rather malicious vilification of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who retains the trust and confidence of majority of Nigerians as the outcome of the Presidential elections will undoubtedly show.

    “We are sure that many Nigerians and other readers of the usually urbane, thoughtful and well-reasoned editorial opinions of the Economist will be shocked that the magazine has taken the very ill-considered decision to throw its weight behind a candidate who, as a former military dictator, curtailed freedom of speech, ordered the kidnapping of opponents and jailing of journalists, and is accused of incitement to violence and grave human rights violations in Nigeria’s current democratic dispensation.

    “The Economist may feign ignorance of President Jonathan’s remarkable achievements as leader of his country in the past six years, but Nigerians who, unlike the magazine’s opinion writers, will actually vote in the country’s forthcoming presidential elections, know that President Jonathan has worked very hard to fulfill all the major promises he made to them on assumption of office.”

    He said that Nigerians know that President Jonathan has developed Nigerian economy, created more jobs, and has given policy support to the real sector of the economy.

    He added: “They know that he has encouraged locally owned enterprises to take advantage of our resources in growing the domestic economy and they also know that he has successfully attracted greater foreign direct investment to the country.

    “Nigerians are also aware that President Jonathan has worked tirelessly to improve power supply across the nation, rebuild and expand national infrastructure, improve public transportation and provide greater access to quality education for all Nigerian youth.”

    Speaking further he said; “They know very well too that President Jonathan has significantly improved healthcare services in the country, revolutionized agriculture, promoted gender equality and women empowerment, and done his very best to stem corruption in government.”

    Despite insurgency and other challenges, he said that contrary to the Economist’s assertions, Nigeria, under President Jonathan has made very considerable progress.

    “President Jonathan has ensured that Nigeria has become a more vibrant democracy with free media, an independent judiciary, free, fair and credible elections, and greater respect for human rights.

    “The Economist is entitled to its erroneous opinion on who represents the best leadership option for Nigeria in the coming elections, but happily for the country, it is not the magazine’s lead writers, but more knowledgeable and patriotic Nigerians who actually work and live in the country, that will vote and re-elect President Jonathan for a second term in office.

    “They will do so, because unlike the Economist’s opinion writers, they understand that a Buhari Presidency will, for their beloved country, represent a stark setback and retrogression from the tremendous ongoing positive transformation of Nigeria under President Jonathan’s leadership,” he stated