Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has come out in full support of Governor Sule Lamido’s (PDP, Jigawa) presidential ambition for 2015. The ex-President was conspicuously absent at the Democracy Day event held by the Federal Government and hosted by President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja. Obasanjo’s absence came despite a formal invitation from President Jonathan.
Only Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd.) and Chief Ernest Shonekan attended the event, despite an invitation being sent to all former heads of States including retired Generals Buhari, Babangida and Obasanjo.
Instead Obasanjo spent Democracy Day in the company of Governor Sule Lamido and was quasi-campaigning for the Jigawa State governor’s 2015 ambition.
Speaking at the First Jigawa State Investment Forum in Dutse, Obasanjo bestowed accolades on Lamido. He said, “You can help someone to find a job but you can’t help the person to do the job. In this case, we found a job for Sule Lamido and Sule Lamido was ready, willing, able and competent to do the job.”
Speaking at the Democracy Day event, President Jonathan officially presented his scorecard to Nigerians.
He said: “Only on Monday, I looked through a particular publication in one of our dailies, which gave an assessment of the performance of the ministers.
“The first thing I looked for that I did not see was the criteria they used to assess the performance of the ministers. As a teacher, I know that for you to mark a student, you must have a marking scheme. Because, assessment could be very subjective, and if a fellow politician is assessing another politician, you assess the person based on heartbeats.”
“Since I came to the centre in 2007, I have worked with three ministers of National Planning and three ministers of Trade and Investments. They have never done what is being done today.
“In terms of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) attracted to this country by activities of that ministry, it has never happened. In spite of our security challenges, there is so much interest from business men wanting to come to Nigeria.
“Before now, that Ministry of Trade and Investments was a dead end, but now they are very active. Talk about Ministry of Planning, people say that until Shamsudeen came on board, we did not even know that we had a Planning Ministry.
“But these two ministries were scored average and I asked what are the criteria? That is the purpose of today, our elders, ladies and gentlemen. The idea is to formally present a document to all Nigerians about the activities of the government these past two years.
“I plead with all of us especially those who want to assess and write about it to develop criteria because without a marking scheme, you cannot mark anybody’s paper. Develop your own, compare with previous governments. Develop your marking scheme and mark us.”