President Goodluck Jonathan
speaks to TheCable on his
chances in the March
28 presidential poll and why he
thinks the opposition is
overrated. Interview by
Kayode Ogunbunmi, Editor-at-
Large
TheCable: Are you in good
shape for the presidential
poll given the fact that APC
has gathered momentum in
the last two months?
Jonathan: You should
remember the Ekiti
governorship election last year.
Before the election, many
people were saying APC would
win by a landslide. But we in
the PDP were busy mobilising
the grassroots, going from
village to village, from town to
town. The result shocked
everybody, apart from us at the
PDP. I am not underrating APC,
but I think they are grossly
overrated. We shall meet on
the field. That is where we will
test our true strengths. We are
fully ready. You will soon see.
TheCable: General
Muhammadu Buhari’s
popularity is growing,
especially in the south. Isn’t
this a big threat?
Jonathan: Let us work with the
facts on the ground. PDP
currently controls 21 states of
the federation. APC has only
14. Of APC’s 14, you and I know
that Imo and Rivers are only
APC in the sense that their
governors defected. The people
know where their interests are
better served. Also, when it
comes to presidential election,
Edo is PDP. So essentially, of
the 14 APC-controlled states,
only 11 can be described as
APC. Of course, I know that not
all the PDP-controlled states
usually vote PDP in presidential
elections, so you have to
concede that one or two PDP
states will vote APC in the
presidential election. At the
end of the day, you are still
looking at 23 or 24 pro-PDP
states, including Anambra
which is controlled by APGA…
TheCable: Sorry to cut in, Mr.
President, but we are also
talking about figures, not just
number of states. APC states
like Kano and Lagos have
voters in excess of 9 million.
Jonathan: I’m still coming to
that. In 2011, taking that as a
baseline for comparison, I
scored 22.4 million votes.
Buhari had 12.2 million votes.
That is a difference in excess of
10 million. I do not suppose
that you believe I have lost 6
million votes to Gen. Buhari
already, or that Gen. Buhari
has gained 11 million more
supporters. Suggesting I will
lose a whole 6 or 7 million
votes to Gen. Buhari would be
an exaggeration. Let us even
add the votes of ACN which
scored 2 million in 2011. Since
CPC, ANPP and ACN have
merged into APC, let us say APC
had 14 million votes in 2011. I
still defeated all of them with
over 8 million votes. Don’t
forget that Mallam Ibrahim
Shekarau, the ANPP candidate
then, and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu,
the ACN candidate in 2011, are
now in the PDP.
TheCable: We at TheCable are
projecting a larger voter
turnout this time around…
Jonathan: And you think only
one party will benefit from a
larger turnout? I will disagree
with you on that.
TheCable: We agree that both
of you will benefit, but we
project that south-west will
decide who the president will
be. And APC is the dominant
party in the south-west.
Jonathan: Again, I will not say
so. Ekiti and Ondo are already
controlled by PDP. I don’t see
APC winning Oyo and Ogun.
And from the last governorship
election in Osun, you could see
that the gap between PDP and
APC was very narrow, judging
from the figures. Other factors
will still be at play and the best
you can say for now is that
Osun is a tossed-up state, as
Americans call it. The real
battleground is Lagos, and if
you have been following events
closely, the PDP is reborn in
Lagos. Wait and see how
Lagosians will vote.
TheCable: The choice of
Professor Yemi Osinbajo as
the running mate to Buhari is
seen as a masterstroke.
Analysts foresee him
delivering the south-west
votes. And as a pastor in the
Redeemed Christian Church
of God, this may neutralise
the extremist tag on Buhari
and bring in the votes of
members of the church. Do
you agree?
Jonathan: There is no doubting
the fact that Osinbajo has good
qualifications. But, like Gen.
Buhari, he has never won an
election before. He has never
even been a candidate. So APC
has a pairing that cannot be
described as a winning team.
That said, you cannot call
Osinbajo a political
heavyweight in the south-west.
The Yoruba are more
sophisticated than that. In
2011, two of my opponents
fielded their running mates
from the south-west. Still, the
south-west decided to vote for
me. That tells you a lot about
the voters in the south-west.
They cannot be hoodwinked.


TheCable: But Osinbajo is a
pastor in the Redeemed
Church…
Jonathan: Yes. But the
presidential candidate of APC is
Gen. Buhari not Osinbajo. And
I think we should leave church
out of this before it becomes
another talking point again.

TheCable: Buhari’s
supporters are very confident
that he will win. Are you not
really worried about this?
Jonathan: I don’t think
Nigerians will make the mistake
of voting for Buhari. Gen.
Buhari, with due respect, is not
the right option for Nigeria at
this time. It is a gamble that is
not worth taking. I may not be
perfect as nobody is perfect.
But I believe that come
Saturday, the majority of
Nigerian voters will choose me
as the best candidate to lead
the nation forward.

TheCable: For many
Nigerians, Boko Haram is an
election issue. Don’t you see
this impacting on support for
your re-election?
Jonathan: We are not sleeping
when it comes to Boko Haram.
But we must be fair and accept
that we are dealing with
problems we never
encountered before, problems
that we were not prepared for
as a nation. Nobody would
have predicted this carnage
five years ago. We can all be
wise after the event, we can say
whatever we like now, but who
can sincerely say they
projected that Boko Haram
would become like the Taliban
in 2009 when the uprising
started in Maiduguri? I hear
people say we did not give
Boko Haram the attention they
deserved, that we left things
too late. That is not correct. To
combat terror, you have to be
systematic with your approach.
It is not a conventional warfare.
New laws are required to cover
your operations because we
never had to deal with terror
before. There is also a different
kind of training and personnel
required. Operations have to
change from conventional to
non-conventional. You cannot
use the equipment of 1984.
Even when you buy new
equipment, you need to train
your soldiers on how to use it.
You can’t do that in one day.
Intelligence gathering has to be
firmed up using the latest
technology. This will not
happen in one day. Your
security architecture has to be
completely different. This is
what we have been working on
and we are making good
progress. We are getting better
every day. We need to
encourage our soldiers who are
risking their lives every day.
They are human beings like us.
They have parents, wives,
sisters, children, brothers. It is
not fair at all to disparage
them. It is also not fair to
encourage mutiny. You don’t
encourage more soldiers to run
away from the warfront. It is
not helpful. We are confronting
Boko Haram with all the
resources available to us. We
need the cooperation of all
Nigerians. When people begin
to politicise the war against
terror because they want to
win elections, it undermines
our efforts.


TheCable: You used to
dominate the social media.
What went wrong?
Jonathan: I think we are doing
very well on the social media,
but we are focusing our energy
more on grassroots
mobilisation. Most Nigerian
voters do not participate in
social media discussions. The
majority of Nigerian voters are
not even on Twitter or
Facebook. So we have to get
our priorities right. I have
about 1.7m Facebook followers
but there are over 68 million
registered voters in Nigeria. I
am not even sure most of my
social media followers are
registered to vote. We are
doing door-to-door
mobilisation around the towns
and villages. Experience has
shown that the bulk of voting
comes from those areas. For
every voter on Twitter, you
probably have 100 voters who
are not on Twitter. But when
you read tweets and re-tweets,
you may get a very wrong view
of the reality on the ground.
We have a very good strategy
to woo voters. Our opponents
have a good strategy to abuse
us on Twitter. Let’s see how far
that will take them on March
28. Obviously, it is not those
who make the loudest noise
that win the votes. Sometimes,
making so much noise is a
strategy to divert attention
from your impending failure.
When you lose, you now
attribute it to rigging. APC is
very good in that area. It is a
strategy they have used in the
past.


TheCable: What’s your
reaction to those who say
they will not vote for you
because they believe you
have not done well so far?
Jonathan: On the issue of
performance, I only wish to be
judged on where Nigeria was
when I took over and where we
are now. Those who are fair-
minded will agree that we have
made tremendous progress in
so many areas. For instance,
the over 6 million farmers
who are now getting fertilizers
and seeds directly and enjoying
improved livelihoods won’t tell
you I have not done well. They
are saying they have never had
it this good. Fertilizer
corruption is gone forever.
We’ve introduced dry season
farming. Their harvests have
increased exponentially. We’ve
improved water resources
across the country, north and
south. These are the things that
affect ordinary lives.
The transporters who are now
plying good interstate roads
will tell you they are happy. For
example, the Benin-Ore road
that used to be front page story
in newspapers for almost a
decade because of its poor
state is now brand new. We
have built or rehabilitated over
25,000 kilometres of roads
since we came in. The federal
government has 35,000
kilometres of roads and only
4,500 were motorable when I
came in. That is a fact. Judge
me on that. Millions of
passengers who are now using
the revived rail transport
system will tell you they are
happy. Five million passengers
now use the train every year,
compared to less than one
million a few years back. I
would like to be judged on that.
Foreign investors have made
Nigeria their preferred
destination as attested to by
local and international
agencies. In the oil and gas
sector, our local content policy
has produced a new generation
of Nigerian entrepreneurs who
are proudly flying our flag all
over the world. That is a fact.
That is progress. Judge me on
that basis. We’ve built schools
for Almajiris and the girl-child.
These are the vulnerable in the
society who were neglected but
are now receiving good
education suited to their
needs. We’ve established and
equipped more universities to
provide for the future of our
youths whose population
continues to expand but there
is insufficient capacity to give
them university education.
We’ve upgraded equipment at
tertiary institutions and
continue to retrain lecturers
and teachers. No government
has funded education better
than us. Our hospitals are
better equipped as we continue
to upgrade them and improve
the service conditions of
doctors and nurses. They are
performing surgeries they
never did before. Our
immunisation coverage is
unprecedented. Guinea worm
infections are nil today. We are
gradually getting over the polio
epidemic. Go to the airports
across the country and see the
changes that are taking place in
terms of safety and physical
development.
I can go on. The real voters, the
real Nigerians who will go to
the polling units, are happy
with what we have achieved in
our first term in office. Millions
of ordinary Nigerians are not
deceived by the propaganda of
partisan critics. I do not say
that we have solved all the
problems. That would be a lie.
But the Nigeria of today is
better than the Nigeria that I
inherited in 2011. The facts are
there. Our critics should judge
us on the basis on what we met
on ground in 2011 and how far
we have moved on from there.
Is the agricultural sector
worse? No, it is better than we
met it. Is the education sector
worse? It is better than we met
it. The aviation sector is better
than we met it. The oil and gas
sector is better than we met it.
The industrial sector is better
than we met it. We’re now
exporters of cement and we
will soon start to export cars.
The rail sector is much better.
The road network is bigger and
better. Inland waterways are
expanded. In fact, our economy
is now the biggest in Africa.
Therefore, let our critics judge
us on the basis of facts not lies.

I pity this man

GEJ till 2019!!!

My sis, u need to pity yourself!

UrennaNkoli:
I pity this man

Many are the afflictions of GEJ but JEHOVA delivers him from them all.
Let's see if he will be delivered on saturday

It seems GEJ has the wrong advisers that are after his money. He is going to be surprise when the result start coming out on Saturday

Even jonathan knows that buhari is a serial failure that will fail come 28th

UrennaNkoli:
I pity this man

no mind him.ordinary Nigerians he dey claimed that will vote 4 him on saturday still dey gym n villages dey do press up on how 2 disgrace him out of office comes saturday.

TheCable: But the power
sector remains a big
challenge. Why are we still
unable to attain
uninterrupted power supply?
Jonathan: I like to ask people:
was it that there was 24-hour
electricity and Jonathan came
and switched it off and
damaged the equipment? The
answer is no. Power is an age-
old problem in Nigeria and we
have to understand that. When
I became president, we started
the power sector reform all
over again. If you remember,
one of the first duties I
performed as president was to
launch the Power Roadmap. It
was like starting all over again
because of various legal,
structural and administrative
issues. Power projects had
stalled. The Nigerian Electricity
Regulatory Commission (NERC)
was in a legal tango as a result
of the removal of its
management. We had issues
with gas supply as gas
pipelines to power plants were
yet to be laid. We also had
issues with gas pricing because
gas producers would rather
export and make more money
than sell locally at a regulated
price. There were so many
serious issues to resolve. You
cannot decree power into
being. You have to take it step
by step with commitment. If
anybody tells Nigerians
otherwise, they are lying.
The approach we have taken
now is the best available to us.
We have gone private. The
process has reached a stage
that can only go forward. The
power situation is tricky in that
until the last dot is connected,
we will not see results. There is
generation, then transmission
and distribution. Until
everything is sorted out, we will
not see the kind of results we
desire. If you build a house and
you are yet to paint it or fix the
doors and windows, you can
move in and start to live there
and complete the work
gradually. But at least you have
a roof over your head.
However, for electricity, until
you connect all the dots, you
can’t get results. Until the
power generated is transmitted
and distributed to the final
consumer, you cannot have
steady electricity. That is a fact.
But we are moving in the right
direction today. I am confident
that this will be one of the
biggest achievements of this
administration.

TheCable: The issue of $20
billion NNPC affair is still
hanging though, and your
handling of corruption cases.
What do you have to say on
that?
Jonathan: I would have been
surprised if you didn’t ask that
question. Have you picked a
figure now? The accuser said
$49.8 billion was missing. He
then reduced the figure to $12
billion. Now people are talking
about $20 billion missing. Is
that the final figure they have
arrived at? Why are people not
saying $49 billion again?
Ordinarily, the inconsistency in
the figures should have put a
big question mark on the entire
allegation itself and questioned
its reliability, but because some
people have decided to crucify
me, they will hang on to any lie.
If the former CBN governor
himself comes out today and
apologises that he got his facts
wrong, that no money is
missing, these same people will
dismiss him. They will say he
has been bribed or he was
cajoled to retract his
statement. That is the way
some Nigerians have decided
to live their lives and there is
nothing I can do about it. I
have said it before: no money
is missing. No money has been
stolen. The PwC audit has laid
all that to rest. It is impossible
to steal $20 billion. There is no
proof anywhere that money is
missing. The senate has
investigated it. The report is
there for all to see. No money
is missing. From the way the
whole drama has played out,
you can see that the so-called
scandal was a political
gimmick. Look at the sequence
of events and all the political
associates of the accuser and
your reasonable conclusion will
be that it was a scandal cooked
up to smear this government.
We are open to investigation. I
will not be president forever.
You also spoke about
corruption. I am doing
everything within my capacity
to fight it. We have removed
ministers, we have sacked top
government officials, we have
put suspects on trial. But I can
only accuse you of corruption.
The moment the case is
charged to court, what more
can I do? I cannot be
prosecutor and judge. It is not
allowed. Many people have
been arrested and charged to
court. They go and employ
clever lawyers who play the
system to pervert justice. To
now turn around and blame
Jonathan will be disingenuous.
Nevertheless, corruption is
what all of us who are leaders
and followers must resolve to
fight. We need a re-orientation.
We need to revive our ancient
values. Then we need to make
our system, our institutions
work. There is no short-cut to
eradicating corruption.

My clueless President... lol

TheCable: Many people
believe Buhari has the nerve
to fight corruption more than
you. Doesn’t that bother you?
Jonathan: You don’t fight
corruption with nerve. You fight
it with the instruments of law.
You fight it by building and
strengthening institutions. Go
to advanced countries. Go to
the countries that rank very
high on Transparency
International’s corruption
perception index. Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, Singapore,
name them… They don’t use
nerve to fight corruption. It is
not the president or prime
minister that fights corruption
in those countries. It is the
system. That is why even the
prime minister can be removed
and tried for corruption. In
Nigeria, some people want
strong men as presidents who
will fight corruption as they
wish, as they want and as they
please. You cannot sustain
that. You cannot even
guarantee that there will be no
abuse. When they arrest
somebody and put them in
handcuff on national television,
we all rejoice. But how long will
that last? What problem does it
solve? Has it ever solved any
problem?
My own understanding of the
anti-graft war is different. I
believe that you must first
prevent corruption through
administrative and legal
reforms. We have succeeded in
the fertilizer subsidy regime.
We have also succeeded in the
payroll system. We almost
succeeded in the petroleum
sector through deregulation
but we unfortunately had to
reverse the decision as a result
of politics. When you make it
impossible or difficult for
people to steal, you are fighting
corruption in a sustainable
manner. The second
sustainable strategy is to
empower anti-graft agencies.
EFCC and ICPC have been doing
their work without any
interference from me. They are
charging people to court and
they are getting convictions
and recovering stolen funds.
These things are in the news
every day. Read the papers.
That does not require
presidential nerve. It is about
institutions doing their jobs,
the same way NAFDAC and
FRSC do their jobs everyday
without taking any instructions
from Aso Rock.
You see, under our laws, the
best a president can do is sack
his appointee or employee and
then the EFCC or ICPC will take
them to court. There is nothing
any Nigerian president can do
beyond that. The rest is left to
the court. I cannot jail
anybody. Our laws do not
allow the president to jail
anybody. The best Buhari can
do is sack people and send
them to court. We have gone
through the era of the
strongman president. It did not
solve any problem. For those
who think corruption is fought
with “nerves”, I hope they know
what they are praying for.
TheCable: Alhaji Ibrahim
Coomassie, the chairman of
the Arewa Consultative
Forum (ACF), recently said
you have marginalised the
north since you came to
power…
Jonathan: Since he is leading
the Arewa Consultative Forum,
I think Alhaji Coomassie needs
to consult more with the
people he leads. He should
consult with the beneficiaries
of girl schools, almajiri schools,
the drivers plying the newly
dualised roads in the north, the
passengers using the trains, the
farmers, and so on. Nigeria is
my constituency and I have to
be fair to all, if not I would not
have peace of mind. When
people were calling themselves
northern consensus candidate
some years ago, I called myself
the Nigerian consensus
candidate. Most Nigerians are
tired of sectional leaders. They
want to see Nigeria as their
constituency because they have
no other country to call their
own. The progress of Nigeria is
progress for all. I have not
marginalised any part of
Nigeria and God forbid that I
do that. My conscience is very
clear on that.
TheCable: You have been
described by your critics as
the most divisive leader
Nigeria has ever had. What is
your response to that?
Jonathan: One of my friends
told me a Yoruba proverb
recently. He said something
like: if a farmer sees a thief in
his farm and does not
immediately raise the alarm, it
is the thief himself that will
start shouting “Ole!” It is people
who have been playing
religious and sectional politics
all their lives that are now
turning round to accuse me of
playing sectional politics. It is
very simple to verify. Look at
the pattern of my
appointments, distribution of
projects and my close friends.
They are from all over Nigeria. I
have been fair to every group
in Nigeria. But this is a story to
be told another day. I have
never discriminated against
people from other
denominations or religions. I
fast with my Muslim brothers
and sisters during Ramadan. I
have never openly or secretly
incited one section of Nigeria
against the other.
TheCable: There are fears
that there could be violence
after the election. Asari
Dokubo is threatening hell
and you are expected to call
him to order but you have
not. Why?
Jonathan: We will not allow
violence anywhere in the
country. That I can assure you.
We are better prepared to
prevent and contain violence
than we were in 2011. You will
notice that since 2011, there
has not been any post-election
violence. As for Dokubo’s
statements, he does not speak
for me. But that does not mean
he should not be called to
order. I’m sure the security
agencies are monitoring the
situation. All these threats are
unhelpful. That is how some
politicians were saying they
would make Nigeria
ungovernable if their candidate
did not win in 2011. We must
jointly condemn these threats
of violence no matter who is
making them. Nobody is bigger
than Nigeria.
TheCable: We need to talk
about the Chibok Schoolgirls.
You were globally adjudged
to have failed to act on time.
What went wrong?
Jonathan: A lot went wrong. It
is a traumatic experience that
comes to mind every day. I just
pray some people will be man
enough to come out and admit
their ignoble roles one day.
Rather than support the
government at such a trying
moment, they capitalised on it
to score cheap political points
because of the 2015 elections.
TheCable: Former President
Olusegun Obasanjo said if the
government had responded
by launching a rescue mission
immediately, the girls would
have been back home. Do
you agree with that?
Jonathan: Let’s say the soldiers
went after the kidnappers
immediately. Remember the
terrorists were with guns and
probably with bombs. The girls
had become human shields. If
the soldiers had gone after
them and the girls were killed
by the terrorists, what would
have been the public reaction?
The military would have been
accused of incompetence and
genocide. The opposition will
call for the resignation of the
president. You can always be
wise after the event. Look, we
were misled from the
beginning on the safety of the
girls. We were also misled that
they had escaped from their
captors. But we reacted
immediately we realised what
was going on. We reacted. We
didn’t fold our arms. But when
an issue has been politicised
and people are hoping to win
elections by riding on the
misfortune of these girls, it is a
difficult task for us to convince
Nigerians that we did what we
could reasonably do.
TheCable: At some stage, you
seemed to believe the
opposition was behind Boko
Haram and that probably did
not make you deal with them
appropriately. Am I right?
Jonathan: Not me. I have said
consistently from the beginning
that they are terrorists. I
challenge anybody to produce
any evidence where I said
opposition was behind Boko
Haram.
TheCable: Your relationship
with Modu Sheriff, who has
been accused of being a Boko
Haram sponsor, has also
worried many Nigerians who
think you should not be seen
in company with him. What is
your reaction to that?
Jonathan: Again, we are talking
about hypocrisy. Modu was a
founding member of APC. He
was in the board of trustees.
He was a financier of APC.
Nobody in APC accused him of
being Boko Haram. The
moment he crossed over to
PDP, he became Boko Haram.
All hell was let loose. This
should make it clear to you that
they are all playing politics.
TheCable: Many will argue
then that the opposition is
better organised that the
ruling party. Is that the case?
Jonathan: They certainly
started their campaign for 2015
well ahead of us, as early as
2011. They wanted to make
insecurity and corruption the
issues in the 2015 election and
they started their mischief very,
very early. They started by
failing to cooperate with me on
the war against Boko Haram.
They opposed every move I
made. They started demanding
that soldiers be withdrawn
from Borno. Thank God I did
not succumb to the blackmail.
Borno would no longer be part
of Nigeria by now. Maiduguri
would probably have been the
capital city of Boko Haram’s
caliphate. Thank God we
remained resolute in the face
of blackmail and media
campaign. They opposed the
declaration of state of
emergency. They opposed the
ban on Boko Haram. They
started circulating rumours
that I was against Muslims.
They accused us of genocide.
Go and read the newspapers
from 2011 till date. They did
everything to worsen the Boko
Haram problem. They knew
where they were going.
The opposition also cooked up
corruption allegations against
me. Their mischief worked with
some unsuspecting Nigerians.
Only God knows how much
they say is missing now. I have
lost count. Every day they will
say $48 billion is missing, N500
billion is missing, $1 billion is
missing. Some will say N20
trillion has been stolen. It does
not make sense any more.
Recently, an APC governor said
$30 billion is missing from
excess crude account. By the
time you calculate all that they
say is missing, we must be
richer than China and US
combined! All kinds of wicked
lies. Nothing but mischief
because they want to win
elections. They started
scandalising anyone perceived
to be close to me, including
men of God. I never knew
politics could be this dirty. By
nature, I don’t play dirty. I try
to be fair. Unfortunately,
people fail to recognise God in
their scheming and
calculations. No matter what
they throw at me, if God says I
will not fall, I will remain
standing. To answer your
question more directly, yes the
opposition is better organised
in playing mischievous and
dirty politics but they will fail.
TheCable: Can we now talk
about the minister of
petroleum resources, Mrs
Diezani Alison-Madueke?
Jonathan: Why not?
TheCable: The opinion of
many of your critics is that
you should have fired her
long ago because of all the
scandals surrounding her.
Jonathan: I will tell you
something. Any society where
the leader acts based on
rumours and conjecture, that is
a society that is doomed. Mrs.
Alison-Madueke has not been
convicted or indicted of any
wrong doing. I have 42
ministers and 18 advisers. If I
act only on rumour, I would
have fired all of them. There is
hardly anyone of them that
somebody has not come to say
something bad about. Until
allegations are proven, I don’t
act. I will not shed any innocent
blood to please my critics.
TheCable: There was a
statement credited to an aide
of Dr Doyin Okupe that if you
lose, you would rather hand
over to the military than
hand over to Buhari. Is that
your position or will you
concede defeat if you lose?
Jonathan: We have passed the
stage of military take-over. We
are in a democracy. I have
always congratulated
governorship candidates when
they win, even when they
defeat candidates of my own
party. I will congratulate
whoever wins. I am not known
for violence. I will never incite
people to start spilling blood
because of an election. It is not
worth it. My ambition is not
worth the blood of any
Nigerian. You see, it is God that
made me president. If God says
I will be re-elected, there is
nothing anybody can do to stop
me. All the plots against me
will fail. All the lies will
crumble. All the hate messages
will amount to nothing. God
put me here and if he says it is
time to go, he knows best. If he
says I will do a second term, no
amount of lies can unseat me.
TheCable: Why was it difficult
for you to come out to
dissociate yourself from the
divisive and hate mongering
advert by Ayo Fayose which
was done as a campaign for
you?
Jonathan: I saw the advert like
any other person and I don’t
think anybody should hold me
responsible for an advert run
by someone else. All our official
adverts are run by our
campaign organisation. I don’t
have power over what others
decide to do. However, I smell
double standards again. Why
are you journalists not asking
Buhari to come out and
condemn all the personal
insults being hurled at me by
his supporters in the
newspapers and social media?
Do you believe Jonathan should
be guilty in everything under
the sun while his opponent is a
saint in everything? I don’t
think so.
TheCable: There have been
several versions of what
transpired in the meeting
between you and Obasanjo at
Ota where two clerics were
reportedly present. Can you
share with us what truly
happened… and why is it
difficult for Obasanjo to
reconcile with you?
Jonathan: I have nothing but
respect for Baba. It was a
private conversation and I will
keep it private. If he decides to
make it public, that will be his
decision and not mine. On the
issue of reconciliation… Baba is
not my age mate. He is Baba to
me. I cannot be talking about
reconciliation as if we are age
mates who quarrelled. I have
no problem with him but he
has been making his views
about me known publicly. If
you know Baba very well, he
does not hide his feelings. He
likes to make his feelings
known publicly. It was the
same thing he did with
President (Shehu) Shagari, Gen.
(Ibrahim) Babangida, President
Yar’Adua. It is nothing
personal. He just has a passion
for Nigeria and you cannot
deny him his opinion, even if
you don’t agree with his
positions on issues. I would
prefer he speaks to me directly
and privately like former heads
of state do, but he has his own
style.
TheCable: In his well-
publicised article, Soludo said
you like outsourcing your
responsibilities as president,
in apparent reference to the
idea of coordinating minister
for the economy. What is
your response to this and
who truly is in charge of the
economy, you or Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala?
Jonathan: As president, I head
a team. I appoint team
members and apportion
responsibilities to each person.
We hold meetings. They brief
me. They get my approval.
Now, this is how government is
run all over the world. You
don’t say Obama is not in
charge of American economy
because he has economic
advisers. Or you say David
Cameron is not in charge of UK
economy because he has
appointees in charge of various
economic departments.
TheCable: Why should you
get a second term?
Jonathan: Nigerians need to
join me in moving Nigeria
forward, not backward. We
cannot go back to the old ways.
We are on a project to
transform Nigeria. We have
laboured very hard, day and
night, to get to this stage.
Today we have the biggest
economy in Africa and things
can only get better. Nigeria is a
preferred destination for
foreign investments because of
our investor-friendly policies.
We are implementing an
industrial revolution plan that
will help to catapult us on the
global development index. We
have embarked on massive
infrastructural development,
covering power, rail, roads,
water and so on. We’ve
embarked on institutional
reforms to be able to fight
corruption and deliver credible
elections. We are certainly on
the right path. This is not the
time to change leadership. This
is the time to consolidate and
progress to the next level.
After being privileged to be
President of Nigeria for four
years, I understand very well
where the shoe pinches and
where the roads are rough. I
have taken action to redress
the failures in the system for a
smoother journey to the next
level. We are very close to
cruising now. Bringing in a new
driver at this point can lead to
a reversal.