MS. ANN KIO BRIGGS: ‘JONATHAN HAS DISAPPOINTED NIGERIANS’
Nigerians are disappointed with
President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, civil rights activist and
spokesperson of the Ijaw Republican Assembly (IRA) Ms Ann-kio Briggs said in
Abuja yesterday. She spoke at the 10th Daily Trust annual dialogue held at
Transcorp Hilton Hotel.
Briggs said “a lot is expected of
this President Goodluck Jonathan-led government and rightly so. This is one government
that was backed by the people of Nigeria with a lot of expectations. To say two
and half years into this government that Nigerians are lost and disappointed so
far by this government is an understatement.”
Ms Briggs said Nigerians suffered to
bring this government to power but got nothing in return. “We can’t forget the
crisis Nigeria faced in 2009, where the people of Nigeria from north to south
to east to west rose up with one voice and said no to a situation where self-
styled political leaders almost took Nigeria to the cleaners.”
She added that “we are yet to
conclude on the issues of corruption that has emerged from the fuel subsidy
expositions and pension scandals, neither can we run away from the reality that
since the 2009 crisis… the nation is yet to move into the change that we all
expected when we went to the polls in 2011.”
Briggs said since 2011 when Jonathan
was elected, “a lot of promises were made, a lot is still expected, we can
neither run away from the reality that Nigerians have waited for two and half
years since 2011 to get what they voted for- change.” She also said Nigerians
“are growing increasingly desperate that maybe the changes may not come, that
promises and excuses are no longer acceptable to the people who are suffering
under the weight of politicians who seem just as lost as the citizens they are
leading in delivery of democracy and change.”
She faulted the federal government’s
planned centenary celebrations, saying “there is nothing to celebrate. Nigeria
has sent a satellite to space but we are still looking for it. It is the same
country that can’t even manufacture a bicycle. This centenary celebration is
nonsense.”
Speaking on federalism, Briggs said
“Nigerian federal system is too faulty and must be dismantled.” She added that
“if the government of Nigeria is honest with the citizens of Nigeria, and the
so-called political class is truthful when they say Nigeria will never break
up, they should show us what they are doing towards ensuring that Nigeria will
not break up.” She said the “days of leadership based on numbers is gone,”
adding that “if Nigeria is to stay together as one nation we need each other
not as master and slave or minority and majority but as brothers in one
nation.”
Source: Daily Trust
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