Ben Agande, Abuja.
President Goodluck Jonathan Tuesday explained why most Nigerians believed that his administration was slow in implementing and responding to some of the people-oriented policies and projects of the government.
Accoring to him, this was because of his resolve to avoid taking hasty decisions that may be fraught with mistakes and which might be more difficult to correct.
The president who stated this during the Christmas Day service at the Diocese of Abuja Anglican Communion, the Cathedral Church of the Advent Life Camp, Gwarinpa, Abuja added that the foundation being laid for infrastructural development would stand the test of time.
According to the president, “By human thinking, our administration is slow, I won’t say we are slow but we need to think through things properly if we are to make lasting impact. If we rush we will make mistakes and sometimes it is more difficult to correct those mistakes.
File photo: President Goodluck Jonathan addressing the Nation at The State House in Abuja
“I want to assure Nigerians that any step we take whether little or giant, we won’t go back. And where we need to act fast we will do so, that we demonstrated with the flood disaster because it required immediate response.
“Democracy must be dictated by ballot papers and I think we have achieved that with electoral reform. We will not go back but will continue to improve.
“For our transformation to be sustained we Nigerians must be reformed. We must not see our country as where we make money only and build walls and live as prisoners because of the criminal activities of few” he said.
The president who was accompanied to the church service by his family members reiterated that his administration is committed and will keep faith with its promises.
“At least what we are doing in agriculture, transportation and power has been noted by the Primate. We have laid solid foundation for power, agriculture and transport sectors and I can assure you we will not go back again.
The President also underscored the need for re-orientation in the country, noting that a situation where some criminal minded Nigerians vandalise government properties to sabotage government’s effort must be condemned as such actions are tantamount to the transformation plan of the government.
“People play politics with things that affect even their own lives. You wonder why a person that carries saw to go and cut down a conductor carrying cables that produce electricity, because you want a government to fail. This happened somewhere in Enugu. You begin to wonder if they are humans. That is why we need to reform if we must transform” he said.
While emphasising the crucial role of the church in mobilising support for government, the president said; “The church has a great role to play if the transformation must succeed because you can’t transform without reformation and is the role of the church to do so.
“I urge the church to come up with various programmes to talk about how we Nigerians can be reform.”
