It seems too fast and too soon for it to hit terra firma but that is just the way it appears headed. Simply put, the pristine image of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan prior to his taking office a mere 137 days ago appears to have taken a huge dent in the consciousness of Nigerians in all strata of society and across the country.
To be sure, the high expectations of a better tomorrow whipped up in the citizenry by the President’s coming on May 29, 2011 has started to wane; no thanks to the parlous state of virtually all sectors of national life, especially the economy and the growing sense of insecurity nationwide occasioned by sectarian bombing, resurgent militancy and armed banditry, and the seeming incapability of government to tackle them headlong.
The Guardian opinion Poll (GoP) conducted to gauge the mood of the nation across the six geo-political zones on the performance of the President over his 100 days in office appears to indicate that Nigerians are yet to feel the positive impact of the government in most sectors of the economy and are of the view that much still needed to be done, and swiftly too.
Most of the respondents submitted that contrary to the President’s promise at his inauguration to hit the ground running, the reality is that of a government that is slow to action and lacks policy direction to drive the economy to achieve its pledged Transformation Agenda.
With 53 per cent of respondents expressing dissatisfaction with the President’s performance to 47 per cent in favour, President Jonathan, it seems, would need to squeeze more out of the constitutional cum institutional resources at his disposal to meet the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians.
The GoP was conducted between September 7 and 18, 2011. It elicited responses from Nigerians above 18 years with the question: “Are you satisfied with the performance of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s government in the past 100 days?”
The zonal breakdown of the dissatisfied respondents shows Abuja leading the pack with 67 per cent; South-West, North-East, Lagos, South-South, South-East and North-East recorded 62, 62, 54, 51, 46 and 46 per cent in that order while the North-Central returned 45 per cent.
Twenty-eight per cent of the dissatisfied respondents were of the opinion that the President has not shown a clear commitment to fulfilling his campaign promises. To them, the country’s power, education, labour, health and agricultural sectors are still in shambles. They also opined that the President is slow in the implementation of his policies.
Also, 24 per cent of the respondents in this category believed that the President has failed so far especially in the area of security. Perhaps more tellingly, they believe that he does not have the will power to deal with rising spate of insecurity in the country.
The Poll also attempted to find out how Nigerians rate the performance of the President in some sectors of the economy by posing this question: “How would you assess the achievement of President Goodluck Jonathan in the last 100 days in the following key sectors viz: power, electoral reform, education, agriculture, Niger Delta, health, employment and security.” The respondents were given the following options: Excellent, Good, Fair and Poor in rating each of the sectors.
In assessing the power sector, 35 per cent of the respondents rated the President ‘good’ ostensibly because of the slight improvement noticeable in power supply while 33 per cent scored him ‘fair’. But 23 per cent of the respondents were not impressed at all and as a result rated his performance ‘poor’ on that score. However, nine per cent gave him the ‘excellent’ rating in the power sector.
Although, majority of the respondents gave the President a pass mark on the power sector, industry chiefs and other stakeholders said with the power generation still below 4,000 mega watts, the darkness which currently envelopes Nigeria leading to stunted industrialisation and chronic unemployment will persist. They argued that for a nation of 140 million inhabitants, the current pointer generation level does not augur well for rapid economic development.
The education sector, which has received a lot of knocks from public affairs analysts in the recent past, also came into the purview of the survey. The President got a ‘fair’ score of 39 per cent in this sector. Respondents who rated his performance ‘good’ formed 29 per cent of those polled while 10 per cent said he has performed ‘excellently’. However, it was not all smooth sail for the President as 22 per cent rated his performance in this area, ‘poor’.
It appears that the good showing of the President in the education sector has to do with the seeming strike-free academic environment across the country’s educational institutions rather than a manifestation of efforts to revamp the decay in this sector. But the threat by the various unions in the nation’s higher institutions to embark on strike due to the failure of government to honour agreement reached with them last year on various issues as well as the resolve of organised Labour to call out workers for a nation-wide strike over the planned removal of subsidy on petrol may likely drain off remains of the goodwill the President currently enjoys in reference to the Education Sector.
If there is any area where the President actually scored well above average, it is on the Niger Delta issue, where he recorded an impressive 41 per cent ‘good’ rating. Respondents who rated him ‘excellent’ were 26 per cent while those who scored him ‘fair’ topped 21 per cent. The rest percentage of 12 rated his performance ‘poor’.
In contrast to the President’s high rating on the Niger Delta issue, he received an overwhelming 60 per cent ‘poor’ score on the unemployment situation in the country. In reaching this verdict, the respondents opined that the lackluster showing of the government on the job creation index negated the essence of good governance, which ordinarily should make the citizens the primary focus of its activities. Twenty-four per cent of the respondents gave the President a ‘fair’ score in this area. A meagre 11 per cent scored him ‘good’ while only five per cent believed the President performed ‘excellently’ on job creation.
It is no surprise that an overwhelming number of respondents gave the President his lowest score on the unemployment index, as many citizens hold this responsible for the abject poverty in the country, which is currently put at 70 per cent. In fact, critics have argued that with the planned removal of subsidy on petrol next year, the unemployment situation, albeit poverty, would worsen.
The Electoral Reform Policy of the government was also assessed. Forty-one per cent believed that the President lived up to the billings with a rating of ‘good,’ followed by 26 per cent who scored him ‘fair’ and 17 per cent ‘poor.’ But then, 16 per cent of the respondents gave him an ‘excellent’ rating.
The favourable rating of the President on electoral reform appears traceable to his non-interference in the activities of the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), during the general elections held earlier in the year.
In the Agriculture Sector, 38 per cent rated the President ‘fair’, 31 per cent scored him ‘good,’ 23 per cent gave him a ‘poor’ score while eight per cent rated his performance, ‘excellent.’
The poor rating of the President in this sector, which used to be the mainstay of the Nigerian economy in the early years of independence, should have been expected, as the sector has since taken a backseat, no thanks to successive administrations who gave priority to the petroleum sector, which, according to stakeholders, cannot comparatively provide the quantum of jobs needed in the country as the agriculture sector does.