Jonathan Drops Seven-Point Agenda

As Nigeria's acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, inaugurates a new cabinet next week, he appears bent on carving his own legacy by dropping ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua's famous Seven Point agenda.

Mr. Yar'Adua had reduced his blueprint for the socio-political and economic transformation of Nigeria into seven sectors which his government promised to revitalise before the 2011 general election. The failure of his government in revitalising any of those sectors has been the bane of his administration.
Shortly before he dissolved the Executive Council of the Federation therefore, Mr. Jonathan was under severe pressure from influential Nigerians to dump the ailing president's agenda, which had formed the pivot of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) programme.

A presidency source disclosed that the agenda is scheduled for review once the new federal cabinet is inaugurated.
“There is a growing pressure on the acting president to review and possibly streamline the seven point agenda for a lasting and effective performance,” said the source. “A decision will be reached soon.”

The source said Mr. Jonathan will be substituting Mr. Yar'Adua's agenda with something more practical. Speaking in the same vein, Ima Niboro, the acting president's spokesman said, “Too much emphasis has been put on the seven-point agenda, particularly in the media.

It is not a living document; just a set of guidelines that the Yar'Adua administration has used to implement key strategies. It would be foolish of us not to build on the very good work that has been done in the past three years. Some of the things will be adopted by the Acting President and yes other things will also be brought in.

We are not completely discarding the ideas which have been proven to work.”
As Mr. Jonathan considers changing the policies outlined in the Seven Point Agenda, it is not known how the change will be received by the PDP whose National Working Committee continues to watch the situation in silence. The opposition Action Congress (AC) has however advised Mr. Jonathan to throw out the seven point agenda without further delay.

According to Lai Mohammed, the party's national publicity secretary, the government should concentrate on just three key areas of governance.
“Our position in the AC is that the acting president should just concentrate the government's focus on the three major areas of electoral reform, Niger Delta and power instead of continuing with seven point agenda,” he said. “While the others are no less important, he should concentrate mostly on electoral reform.

This is because electoral reform forms the basis and foundation of good governance, which is necessary for the country's development.”

Mr. Mohammed's view was echoed by Festus Iyayi, a former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, who also urged the government to concentrate on just three prime areas of governance.
“If I have to advise the acting president, especially as he has a short time to spend, he should concentrate on just two or three agendas instead of wasting time on a long list of seven points that are not achievable,”

Mr. Iyayi said. “The government should address the problem of Niger Delta within the context of energy and work towards the provision of infrastructure.

In terms of the processes leading to the formation of a government, Acting President Jonathan must address the problem of electoral reform properly.” Mohammed J. Gana, led a squad of mobile police men to the scene of the robbery but the robbers had escaped before the police arrived.