President Goodluck Jonathan has stated that Nigeria isn’t his
father’s estate and as such he would return to his Otuoke home in
Bayelsa State, if he loses the March 28 presidential election. Jonathan,
however, said he was optimistic that he “will not lose the election,”
because he has performed well. “If by default somebody wins the
election, of course, I will go back to my village. The country is not my
father’s estate,” the President told AlJazeera on Monday night.
Jonathan also denied that he was scared of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its Presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari. On the insinuations in some quarters that the sudden step-up of military operations in the fight against Boko Haram was because he was scared he might lose the election on the grounds of insecurity, Jonathan said, “It is out of ignorance. “In a political environment, if one party, particularly the ruling party, is going to the left, the opposition would have to go to the right. They must find something. They must have something to tell the people.”
According to the President, Boko Haram were able to launch their
attacks on parts of the country for long because the military “lacked
certain weapons to confront them.” He, however, assured that with the
procurement of new modern weapons, the security agencies would rout the
terror group soon. He also denied that he mishandled the Boko Haram
insurgency in the country, adding that the activities of the insurgents
did not start with his administration.
Jonathan also reassured Nigerians that the rescheduled elections would not be postponed further. He, however, said the security agencies did not promise to rout out Boko Haram completely before the elections. He explained that the military said it would degrade the insurgents to a level where they would no longer have the strength to disrupt the elections. Jonahan said, “That is the key thing. In terms of taking over our territories by the sect,we will retake them and very soon, there will be no part of Nigeria where the insurgents will erect a flag and say this is a Boko Haram territory. “That we will do but what I am saying is that even if you do that, that does not mean you are isolated from terror attack, but gradually with improvement in terms of technology and monitoring we will able to bring it down.
Jonathan also denied that he was scared of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its Presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari. On the insinuations in some quarters that the sudden step-up of military operations in the fight against Boko Haram was because he was scared he might lose the election on the grounds of insecurity, Jonathan said, “It is out of ignorance. “In a political environment, if one party, particularly the ruling party, is going to the left, the opposition would have to go to the right. They must find something. They must have something to tell the people.”
Jonathan also reassured Nigerians that the rescheduled elections would not be postponed further. He, however, said the security agencies did not promise to rout out Boko Haram completely before the elections. He explained that the military said it would degrade the insurgents to a level where they would no longer have the strength to disrupt the elections. Jonahan said, “That is the key thing. In terms of taking over our territories by the sect,we will retake them and very soon, there will be no part of Nigeria where the insurgents will erect a flag and say this is a Boko Haram territory. “That we will do but what I am saying is that even if you do that, that does not mean you are isolated from terror attack, but gradually with improvement in terms of technology and monitoring we will able to bring it down.
“When we take over all the
territories they are holding, they are becoming weaker, now we will
improve our monitoring using superior technologies to monitor their
activities. We will begin to pick them and then of course, frustrate
their activities. So over the period, it will go. We cannot live with
terror.
No, we can’t. We will stop it.” He
also dismissed the allegation by some APC senators that he was planning
to remove the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission,
INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega. Jonathan said, “Except somebody is
insinuating that the chairman has done something wrong. You cannot
change an officer, except the person has done something wrong.
Government, whether at the federal or state level, president or
governor, does not wake up and change somebody, especially somebody like
the INEC chairman; except that person has done something wrong. “INEC
is a very sensitive body. For me to change the INEC chairman, Nigerians
and non-Nigerians will ask questions. So, you cannot wake up and change
the INEC Chairman.”
Jonathan also dismissed insinuations
that corruption had worsened in the country under his administration.
He said, “Even the corruption issues –even if you look at the Corruption
Perception Index…yes, people talk about corruption now because it has
become almost a political issue. And when you move something to the
level of politics, of course normally the issue is blown out of
proportion.
“Yes, we have cases of corruption
but it’s not as bad as people make it to be. Yes, we have cases of
stealing; I always say it that, call a thief a thief. I am not staying
that Nigeria doesn’t have an element of corruption or stealing. “Start
from ex-CBN governor who said $48.9bn was missing. What is the budget of
this country for God’s sake? Our budget has been about N3.something
trillion.
That’s roughly about $18 to $20bn a
year. “And someone is saying we lose N48.9bn. If we lost that huge
amount both federal and state governments would not be able to pay
salaries. I don’t know how he came about that figure. The next thing was
for him to reduce the figure. Up to this time I don’t know which is the
correct accusation.”
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