Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim, on Tuesday claimed that the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan created the opposition movement in a deliberate move to deepen democracy in the country.
The SGF made this known at a Presidential dinner organized by the University of Port Harcourt, UNIPORT, Alumni Association in honour of President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja on Tuesday.
Anyim, who stood in for President Jonathan at the dinner, noted that Jonathan’s objective in politics was not to remain perpetually in power but to expand the political space for wider participation.
His words, “We created the political opposition movement. The opposition movements owe their existence and activities to President Goodluck Jonathan.
“I can assure you that President Goodluck Jonathan has vowed to deliver the dividends of fundamentals of democracy in Nigeria.”
While claiming that neither the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, nor the Jonathan administration is scared of the rising opposition movement, he said, “We are enjoying what is happening. We created it. The enhanced political environment is what the opposition is enjoying.
“If they abuse it, do not mind. It does not matter. It does not challenge us,” Anyim said.
The former Senate President further pointed out that one thing that the transformation agenda of the administration had introduced “is that we not only work for today. We plan and work for the Nigeria of tomorrow”.
Anyim, who recalled that he has encountered three presidents, Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, and Jonathan since 1999, asserted that it was only the Jonathan administration that offered what people wanted to advance the nation.
According to him, “Since the beginning of democracy in 1999 I have played an active role. I have encountered three presidents.
“My tenure as Senate President was greeted by the struggle to guarantee the independence of democracy.
“Under Jonathan, I played a role in the democratisation process of our polity, which is actually the content that democracy brings to what one asks for,” he said.
The SGF continued that Jonathan had instituted the fundamentals of democracy, adding that what Nigerians often demanded were the “incidentals of democracy” which could only thrive under good foundation.
He said Jonathan had engraved all fundamental freedoms into the lives of Nigerians even when the opposition tried to trivialize them by heaping undeserving insults on the person of the president.
“If you do not have the freedom to speak, the basic idea of achieving the fundamentals will be lacking,” Anyim noted.
While noting that the present administration had transformed virtually all spheres of the economy, he stressed that for the nation to consolidate on the recorded gains, the electorate should re-elect Jonathan whom he described as a man of vision.
For the Education Minister Ibrahim Shekarau, who chaired the occasion, Jonathan “has been an achiever”. This was as he claimed that the Jonathan government had provided unfettered access to education and raised the quality tremendously.
The minister said under the administration, no fewer than 130 functional Almajiri schools, 12 new universities with nine in the north and new polytechnics had been created in the past four years for even development.
He maintained that the creation of TETFUND by the administration had raised the quality of infrastructure and training in tertiary institutions to an unimaginable level.
He said that with the level of training of academics in the university “the target is that in no distant future all lecturers in the university will have minimum of doctorate degree.
In an earlier remark, President of the UNIPORT Alumni Association, Chief Sampson Ngerebara, disclosed that aside the turnaround witnessed in the economy, Jonathan, in spite of attacks had remained humble and worked for peace and security of the nation.
“Your administration has a human face. You have created an atmosphere of peace and love for all Nigerians in spite of the Boko Haram insurgency, which you are also winning.
“You are an exemplary leader. You are a man of the law. Nigerians cannot afford to change your leadership now,” Ngerebara added.
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