In his New Year address — which aired on national television last October — Nigeria’s president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan said the focus of his administration in 2014 is progressive development of the world’s most populous black nation. On a day that marked the centenary celebration of the amalgamation of the southern and northern protectorates, the president enjoined Nigerians to unite with the goal of making the nation greater.

Prioritizing Jobs and Economic Growth

Specifically, he said his government in 2014 would be focusing on creating more jobs and achieving inclusive growth:

“We are keenly aware that in spite of the estimated 1.6 million new jobs created across the country in the past 12 months as a result of our actions and policies, more jobs are still needed to support our growing population. Our economic priorities will be stability and equitable growth, building on the diverse sectors of our economy,” president Jonathan said.

In a swift response however, the leadership of the Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC), the umbrella body of the nation’s workers, said the president and his administration are not able to discern intentions from reality.  According to Isa Aremu, vice president of the NLC, unemployment is currently a disaster in Nigeria.

“The Federal Government should avoid over simplistic self-assessment on the critical naughty issue of job creation as contained in the president’s New Year message. Unemployment is a national disaster,” NLC said in a press release. “We must name it as a disaster so that we can shame and tame it through aggressive public and real private sector job creations. Indeed we have already witnessed enough unemployment disasters in 2013,”

“Millions turned out for few thousands job advertisements and placements. Many Nigerian graduates have all the degrees namely B.Sc, B.A, M. Sc, PH.D, but they lack the real thing, JOBS! Many applicants have died through interview stampedes,” NLC continued in the release.

Also in the New Year address, the president said his administration would intensify efforts on critical sectors of the economy such as power, national infrastructure, agriculture and education. He described the efforts in these sectors in 2013 purposeful and transformational.

Electricity

Seun Akinosun, a political analyst in Ibadan said the president’s assertions are far from the truth. Concerning power, he said in spite of the privatization of the nation’s electricity company, power supply is still erratic in Nigeria in his view.

He told AFKInsider that it is still early for the president to be making such general statements about power.

“The new investors are just settling down and are yet to swing into full operation. I believe there is a long way to go and the president’s statement was quite early,” Akinosun said. “At the appropriate time, Nigerians will be the ones that would decide whether the move was transformational.”

Education and Food Security

On education, the transformation the president mentioned was the release of several billions of dollars, following a strike action embarked upon by lecturers within the nation’s universities. The strike, which lasted about 6 months, was the second longest in the history of Nigeria.

Segun Aderoju, an undergraduate student at Obafemi Awolowo University in Osun State said the president’s reference to the sector’s performance in 2013 as transformational was totally wrong.

“How can closing down the nation’s universities for six months be described as transformational? Well, it is only transformational if he is referring to the female students that got pregnant and those that went into petty trading and will not be resuming again,” he said.

Titi Sobowale, another student at Lagos State University agreed with the Nigerian president. She said the funds released by the government would go a long way in bringing about the much-talked-about positive change in education.

She said: “I think the action was phenomenal, no previous administration had released such a huge amount of money to the transformation of the nation’s education sector. The issue we should be talking about now is how we will ensure that the money is appropriately used and does not end up in private coffers.”