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.
“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.”