Presidential Media Chat since returning to
office in May 2011, Sunday evening answered
questions on challenges confronting the
country – insecurity, economy, corruption,
dearth of infrastructure, ASUU strike and his political intention has said that it is very wrong for anyone to declare his interest to campaign for election.
We have laws that govern this country, the
electoral law tends to regulate that.
I know what it takes to campaign. The electoral law gives INEC time frame for people to go into campaign because if you do that earlier, you will destabilize the government; you will create more problems than solve problems."
Restating, President Goodluck Jonathan said,
it is very wrong for anyone to declare his
interest to campaign for election.
Don't ever force the president to declare his interest. You can't go and declare now.
In 2011, I directed that the bill boards be
removed and if someone on his own. It is not
yet to time to declare that.
Whether I'm contesting or not shouldn't be an issue. Me not declaring my interest does not stop you from contesting. If you are
interested, go and be preparing. You go and
prepare to contest. If you want to contest,
you don't need to say Jonathan will come and
say he's contesting or not."
Describing the ASUU strike as unfortunate,
president Jonathan said: "For us to have gone for inventory at the universities, they should know that we are committed, we are saying we are starting with N100bn. We expect ASUU to work with us, for government to identify the problem with us. And it's quite unfortunate that the strike is this long.
I believe politics has come into many things, they are emphasizing on the allowance but the allowances are to be paid from the revenue of the university. Until we get to the level where the university is autonomous, the money must come from someone and the group to provide the money cannot play any role in this."
Speaking on the 2009 agreement, Jonathan said: "There are certain things they know can't b implemented and they know, the assets of the government cannot be transferred to be the assets of the university.
We are faithful with what we agreed with them because after the agreement, there have been other strikes and they have been called off. This is beyond the 2009 agreement.
For ASUU to talk about infrastructure, that
is not right. For them to say that's the key
thing, the government wasn't forced into that, we on our own decided to take an inventory, we've provided 100bn to start with.
You will agree with me that there's a significant improvement.
We still have our challenges but you still have the commitment of government."
Pleading with ASUU, he said: "The government
has been transparent and sincere, and
commitment is total to make a change and if
you see how sincere and commitment we are,
this is the first time we have done the
inventory, this has never been. We are going
to address it collectively. We should all
plead with ASUU to go back."
Continuing, he said: "In the state owned
university; is it Mr. President that should
provide the infrastructure, why should
lecturers go on strike in the state
universities? There is no where in the world
that we all get the maximum of our
expectation, you should see the commitment of the government. Why should the lecturers in the state universities go on strike?"
Emphasizing his commitment to the power sector he said, "Before the end of the 1st quarter next year, power will be reasonable stable and you can see what we will do to change the economy, we still have challenges, no doubt, everyone wants the best on standard of living.
For those who were not born in the 1960 but
for those of us, we will know that we've done well."
On the true state of the economy, Jonathan
said, Nigeria has a favorable view from
outside the country.
Sometimes people play politics with serious
issues. "Why should someone wake up to say
Nigeria is bankrupt? Nigeria as a nation in
terms of foreign interest coming to Nigeria,
Nigeria is on the focus.
Obama even mentioned it that the Nigeria
business environment is very viable. If
Nigeria is bankrupt, everybody will remove
their money over night. These people read
everybody. Anybody saying Nigeria is bankrupt is just playing politics.
If government is broken, there are parameters you use, for you as a senior citizen of this country to say Nigeria is bankrupt, there must be some parameters you use, for anyone to say Nigeria is bankrupt, it's very unfortunate.
You must be mindful of what you say whether
you like the face of the President or not."
Speaking on the security challenge in the
country, he said, "Boko Haram didn't start
last two years, sometimes, people talk about
Boko Haram as if Jonathan is the cause of Boko Haram. Yusuf, who is the founder of Boko Haram, has been there before 2009, I was the vice president then.
If you look at the excesses of Boko Haram
even before I became the vice president, the
excesses started with the Maami market, then
with the UN building and then with the police headquarters and as at that time, people were terrified but we quickly build up capacity.
But within the limit of human competence, we
will make sure that we will not have this. We promise that."
Continuing, Jonathan said: "Nigeria is a very big country but we are doing our best and even as we're talking now, I asked them to make sure that these embarrassing attacks are brought under control. No country is safe.
As sophisticated as some of these countries, they have their challenges."
However, he said the sack of nine ministers
shouldn't be an issue because before his
tenure, there has been change of cabinet.
This has nothing to do with G7 governors,
some of the ministers dropped were from people close to me. Government from time to time is like a football team. Somebody may be doing well but you need to look at how others are playing. For some reasons, you need to do something different to achieve a better result. It's not supposed not to be an issue.
From 1999 when Obasanjo was president till the time of Yar'Adua and till Jonathan, is there anytime we don't change cabinet? Why is Jonathan's own an issue?"
