In an interview with CNN’s Christiane
Amanpour on Wednesday, Nigerian
President Goodluck Jonathan agreed
that Boko Haram could pose an
existential threat to his country. “If Boko Haram is not contained, it
would be a threat not only to Nigeria,
but to West Africa, Central Africa and of
course to North Africa,” he said.
“Elements of Boko Haram link up with
some of al Qaeda in northern Mali and other North African countries.” For that reason, he said his
government is “totally committed” to
working with friendly nations to help
contain problems in Mali. Like many
other world leaders, Jonathan said the
problem there has been exacerbated by the free flow of weapons out of
Libya since the fall of dictator
Moammar Gadhafi. President Jonathan admitted that
initially Boko Haram caught Nigeria off
guard; now, he said, the country has
been making progress to contain “the
Boko Haram saga.” He said his government is working
day and night to make sure that the
deadly attacks on an Algerian oil field
do not happen in Nigeria. The Economist reports that the death
toll from Boko Haram attacks in 2012
was 1,099 – double was it was the
previous year. “If you look at the last six months,
incidents of killing started dropping,”
President Jonathan contended,
insisting that the government is
gaining control. He denied suggestions from the U.S.
State Department that the Nigerian
government has conducted a large
quantity of arrests and killings that
have been indiscriminate, possibly
driving more people into the hands of Boko Haram. “The United States of America is
completely wrong,” he told
Amanpour. “No security agency
arrests anybody just for the love of
arrest. We have intelligence that
enables us to arrest the people who have been arrested.” President Jonathan also insists that
poverty and unemployment are not
fueling the violent rise of Boko Haram
– citing religion as the primary
motivation of this jihadist group. As part of a counter terrorism effort,
President Jonathan’s national security
adviser has sought to engage in
dialogue with Boko Haram. Jonathan told Amanpour that the
discourse has helped the situation,
and that he will continue to pursue
this strategy. The Power of the Presidency Christiane Amanpour was the first
journalist to interview Goodluck
Jonathan when he assumed the
presidency in April 2010. One focus of
that conversation was about the
endemic electric outages that average Nigerians face. Three years later, despite continued
problems and a report by Nigeria’s
Infrastructure Concession Regulatory
Commission that says 60% of
Nigerians are without access to power,
Jonathan said that the country has made significant strides. “That is one area where Nigerians are
quite pleased with the government –
that our commitment to improve
power is working,” he said. “I promise
you before the end of this year, power
outages will be reasonably stable in Nigeria.” Endemic Corruption “You cannot change the mindset of
people by waving your hand. You
must take means to make sure that
you don’t create an environment
where everyone will be corrupt and
we are doing it very well,” Jonathan said. He cited the previous elections as signs
of success against corruption.
International observers, The African
Union, and the Independent National
Electoral Commission all praised the
polling. But there is still widespread corruption
in the oil industry. Last April, Nigerian Finance Minister
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that
400,000 barrels of oil a day were
looted from the country in just one
month.
The International Energy Agency said that $7 billion dollars a year is lost
annually to oil theft. “Frankly speaking, speaking I want
the international community to
support Nigeria because this stolen
crude is being bought by refineries
abroad and they know the crude oil
was stolen,” Jonathan told Amanpour. “The world must condemn what is
wrong.
Culled from CNN
full transcript commimmg soon

this time my dear president got the bull by the horn

I'm somewhat impressed with the way Jonathan handled the interview. He struggled to muddle himself through the questions, as there was no straight answers to the question. Though under pressure, he tactfully rephrased the questions in his mind, and answered them the way he understands them. That's why Amampour constantly shrouded after each answer. She was acting like she's dodging the 'goofing' of the president. She almost asked: how did you win a free and fair election with this your level of poor reasoning and understanding; before she hurriedly cut short the interview. Jonathan proved that we have our own way of frustrating the white man's smartness.