Opposition misinforming Nigerians on Jonathan’s performance – FG

The Federal Government has accused opposition parties  of  deliberately misinforming Nigerians  about  the performance of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, who  made the allegation  on Tuesday, however said Jonathan was determined to pursue and actualise his administration’s transformation agenda   in spite of the tendency of the opposition to feed the public  with   wrong information.

Anyim  said this in an address he sent to the opening of a one-day workshop on Effective Information Management and Public Communication as a Key Component of the Transformation Agenda.

The workshop was organised for Special Assistants on Media and Directors of information of Federal Government ministries, departments and agencies by the office of the Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Dr. Doyin Okupe, in Abuja.

The address was read on behalf of the SGF by his Special Assistant, Mr. Ferdinand Agwu.

Anyim asked those entrusted with the responsibility of managing information for government to rise to the challenge of dispelling  misinformation from the public.

He said, “President Jonathan’s commitment to transforming  this country remains unshaken despite the growing tendency of the opposition to misinform the public. It is your responsibility to stem this unwholesome trend. Make deliberate efforts to debunk the misinformation and campaigns of calumny against the government.

“You can achieve this in a coordinated and professional manner that leaves no one in doubt that this administration is living up to the promise it made to the people when it was inaugurated on May 29, 2011.”

But the nation’s main opposition parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria andCongress for Progressive Change –  said the accusation  was a  grand deception to deal in conjectures.

National Publicity Secretary of the ACN,   Alhaji Lai Mohammed,  said  it was inconceivable for the  Federal Government to expect the opposition to be singing its praises.

Mohammed, in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents, noted that the  government  which he described as incompetent,  was only being emotional.

He  said, “Why would the opposition be expected to be the one to blow the trumpet of the Federal Government. Don’t they have people who are entrusted with that responsibility?

“Let them not be emotional; let them come out and say what we have said that is not true. I think they have a problem with their image and I think it is because of their incompetence.”

His CPC counterpart,   Rotimi Fasakin,  said the claim by Anyim was only   a guess meant to deceive Nigerians.

He said that the Jonathan administration had not achieved anything worthy of note apart from  increasing the rate of corruption in the country.

Fasakin stated that   government officials must not lose sight of the fact that Nigerians knew the truth about  their performance.

He said, “In two years after his purported election, what is the achievement that is worthy of note, aside from the humongous corruptive tendency associated with his regime.  The folks around the regime are under self-delusion to think Nigerians do not know the truth. The preponderant view of the Nigerian people is never again.

“Never again shall they allow such puerile campaign slogan of ‘goodluck for me, goodluck for you, goodluck for everybody’ to hoodwink them.

“They are determined not to vote for ethno-religious sentimentality anymore. They are determined to remove cluelessness. That is the irreducible minimum from Nigerians going forward.”

Meanwhile, a former senatorial candidate for the Action Congress of Nigeria, Dr. Ben Nwoye,  has  said events in the nation  since Jonathan assumed office  “show that he has no clear agenda for the country.”

Nwoye spoke shortly after the Enugu State congress of the party where Barth Ugwoke emerged as the state chairman of  the ACN and  Uche Ogbu , secretary.

Nwoye said  on Tuesday that  many members of the Peoples Democratic Party, including those in the   Senate and House of Representatives, would defect to  the All Progressives Congress once the party was registered.