Goodluck Jonathan yesterday
vehemently denied signing a one-term
agreement either officially or
unofficially with any individual or group
in 2011 as has been widely speculated.
Jonathan, who spoke during his
periodic media chat with a team of
journalists, said: “I have not signed
agreement with anybody. If I have
signed agreement, they would have
shown you.”
Similarly, the President refused to clear
the air on his intention to re-contest,
saying that it was early to comment on
2015.
According to him, early politicking was
against the spirit and letters of the
Electoral Act and could also destabilize
the polity.
His words: “We have laws in this
country. I quite appreciate that
Electoral Laws tend to regulate political
activities. If you do it earlier, you will
destabilize the country. Don’t force a
President to declare. It is against the
Electoral Law. It has time.”
He, however said that any Nigerian,
who is seeking to contest the office of
the President in 2015 should not wait
for him to declare before making his or
her intention known.
“Don’t wait for me to declare before you
declare your intention if you want to
contest”, the President added. A lot of
people are misinforming Nigerians. I
was in Addis-Ababa, that was the time I
advocated a single tenure. The way you
look at the politics of Nigeria now, the
country is just developing, in terms of
the political evolution, this is about the
first time; if you look at the way our
polity is, I suggested that probably if
the president has a single tenure of
seven years running without
interference, it will be productive.”
Electoral laws
He said that politicians declaring early
for various respective positions are
bound to over-heat the polity.
His words: “I know that our electoral
laws give people time to campaign but
if you start early, you will create more
problems for the system. I know what it
takes to campaign, for you to go round
the country, you will spend a lot of
money in campaigning. The electoral
law gives INEC the power to set time
frame for politicians who are interested
in elections to begin to inform
Nigerians. If you do it earlier, you will
destabilize the country.
Any president, whether it is Goodluck
Jonathan, as long as you still have the
opportunity to contest, if you declare it
early, you will create more problems in
the system than solving the problems…
So, don’t even force a president to
declare his interest. It is even against
the Electoral Act, even if it is not a
sitting president. The electoral law has
a time for political parties to conduct
their primaries. Whatever you are doing
is clandestine. You can tell your friends.
A lot of people have been holding
meetings silently, who has declared?”
On Apo killings
Speaking on the recent killings in Apo,
President Jonathan said ‘though
innocent persons may have died, there
were confessions from arrested Boko
Haram operatives that there were arms
in that building. “Some of the people
that were arrested confessed and they
were leading them to where they said
arms were kept and there was an
exchange of gunfire. In the process
some people were arrested some died.
I cannot say clearly that all those who
died were members of Boko Haram but
definitely there were Boko Haram
elements there” he said.
FG is committed to education
On the continued face-off between
ASUU and the Federal Government, he
said: “Some of the issues in the 2009
agreement with ASUU, maybe those
who sat down to do the negotiations
were civil servants, there were certain
things that some of them know and
agree that cannot be implemented.
How can they say that assets of
government should be transferred to
universities? The Federal Government
has so many assets, government cannot
take care of universities alone. So if we
transfer all the landed property of
government to the universities, what
about the armed forces?
“We have been faithful to the agreement
because after the 2009 agreement there
have been other strikes. So this strike is
beyond the 2009 agreement because it
is apart from those ones that talk about
transferring assets of government to
universities. You cannot just do that.
Talking about infrastructure, the
government was not forced into that
but we on our side decided to go and
take inventory of the infrastructure. So
they should not capitalize on it, you
cannot change this overnight but we are
looking at this with serious
commitment. We still have our
challenges but you have seen the
commitment of government.
On how the government plans to
resolve the ASUU logjam, he appealed
to ASUU to call off the strike saying that
government is committed to effecting
the changes.
“Members of ASUU are our brothers
and sisters, they should look at the
country, they should look at the young
men and women and they should also
look at the commitment of government.
We are very sincere and my
commitment is total to make changes
but you cannot make this overnight. If
you see the sincerity in government and
given the extra things government is
doing, we are committed. You should
not expect us to close down other
sectors of government and bring all the
money to solve the problem over night.
We’re not bankrupt
Clearing the air on whether the country
was bankrupt or not, the president said,
“People play politics because for
anybody to say that Nigeria is bankrupt,
there must be some indicators. You just
don’t wake up from your sleep and say
Nigeria is bankrupt. Nigeria, as a nation,
in terms of foreign direct investment,
shows that the business environment is
viable. More than 90 per cent of those
who invest in our capital market are
non-Nigerians. If Nigeria was bankrupt,
the investors will remove their money
overnight. Anybody who talks about
Nigeria being bankrupt is just playing
politics. If Nigeria is broke, there are
parameters you use.”
Corruption
Commenting on the high rate of
corruption in the country, he said:
“When you talk of corruption in Nigeria,
it is all about perception and index.
Perception is like when you say
something is wrong 100 times, it
becomes true. There was a time we
assembled civil society people and
asked them to compare and contrast
what the major problem of Nigeria was,
I think corruption came third. I am not
saying corruption does not exist in this
country, corruption is existing and it is
as old as the human race. What our
administration is doing is to ensure that
public funds are not exposed to people
to steal.”
Sacking of ministers
Explaining the rationale behind the sack
of nine ministers from the Federal
Executive Council, the president said
the sack had nothing to with the G7
governors.
Said he: “It has nothing to do with the
G7 governors. I can tell you that some
ministers dropped from different states
are ministers nominated by governors
very close to me. The minister dropped
from KadunaState where the Vice
President is from did not have issues
with my Vice President. Sometimes, you
just want to do something differently
and since as president, you have the
power to hire and fire, you just have to
do it to reposition your government.”
From 1999 during ex-President
Obasanjo and during Yar’Adua, was
there no time ministers were not
dropped? So I am surprised people are
reading meaning to this sack of
ministers. If they have committed an
offence, that would have been a
different thing but they have done
nothing wrong, I just want to retool my
government.”
On why he refused to re-appoint
another defence minister, he said,
“people talk out of ignorance
sometimes in this country. Those who
handle defence are the four service
chiefs and not civilians. I don’t envy
service chiefs because if they are to be
sacked, the President just call you in
and brief you and before you step out,
another person has been appointed.
There is no provision for gaps in the
office of service chiefs. You can do
away with Defence Minister but not
service chiefs.
Cost of governance
Speaking on the cost of running
government, he said: “We are doing
well in terms of that. Recently, we just
reviewed that in the parastatals. I can
tell you that political appointees are not
that much as people think. As a
minister, you need competent people
around you to function properly.
Government doesn’t sponsor plenty
people anytime we are traveling out of
the country for events, so I wonder
where people get number of people
they seem to claim anytime I travel out
for events. People don’t compare
notes. For you to function well as
president, you need competent people
around you. I can tell you that there are
many African presidents that travel with
many more people when they attend
events than me. In many countries,
even when the President is sick, you
won’t know because there are
technocrats running the government.”
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