CRITICS would surely feed on President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration speech, shred it, score it and deliver a damning verdict in line with the times. We are in the campaign season; not a time to admit that the opponent has a trumpet, talk less of agreeing that he has musical skills.

Dr. Jonathan knew that nobody would blow his trumpet. He deployed maximum skills in trying to convince Nigerians that he had done well. He pulled statistics to his side.

The figures he used to make a case for the successes of his administration are impressive; particularly when they are compared to Nigeria by 2010. The attempts at spreading them to cover various sectors were a politician’s offering of his broad understanding of the needs of Nigerians.

However, what the figures do not show is that more could have been done. It is also difficult to use figures, in isolation, to assess the quality of work done, prudence, relevance of work to the needs of Nigerians, and more importantly, the opportunity costs – the things that were not done. The President manoeuvred the security challenges in the same piece-meal way that has failed to put them in perspective. Nigeria’s challenges are global, as well as internal.

The proposed solution – better equipment of the security agencies, in other words, more force – does not consider the more tasking preventive measures to these conflicts. One of the most disconcerting aspects of our national life is the unstoppable advancement of poverty for a vast majority of our people.

As the poverty scourge increases, the affluent few flaunt their holdings, mostly acquired at the expense of the rest of us. It is therefore interesting that the President mentioned corruption only when he claimed victories in reducing the inflated federal work force and eradication of the fertilizer scam that once dominated agriculture.

Is endemic corruption limited to these areas? Does the President understand that one of the factors that distance Nigerians from the affairs of their country is the gully that corruption has created between government officials, politicians, top business people and ordinary Nigerians they all pretend to serve?

Corruption is at the centre of the efficiency of the security agencies we have witnessed in the North East. It, to a large extent, bred the situation in the North East, if we excuse ideological bent. It would create other insurgencies, so long as the issues that affect Nigerians are untreated, while government officials bask in the bliss of their loot.

Nigerians want governments that would expand access to opportunities through creative leadership. Nigerians would reflect on the President’s statistics; they would wonder why they do not reflect in their lives.