PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN SPEECH TO NIGERIANS, TODAY 15TH JAN 2012,

Fellow Nigerians, the last few days have
changed my understanding of the people of
this great nation. I have developed a greater
sense of respect for the passion with which
millions of you trooped to the streets to
register your opposition to the policy of my
government.
I have heard you. Without hesitation, I hereby
announce an immediate reversal of the oil
subsidy removal.
The debate we’ve had and the energy your
actions infused into our political process
make me feel so strong about this decision.
Living in this bubble called Aso Rock Villa, I
often forget that the mandate I have came
from the people. I appreciate the stress and
hardship you went through to remind me of
that very important tenet of our democracy.
On behalf of the nation, I wish to extend my
sincere condolences to the families of those
who lost their lives in the demonstrations.
Their deaths will not be in vain. In the future, I
hope we can find a way to do the right thing
without losing the precious life of a single
Nigerian.
If I read your message right, my government
has not earned your trust. And without trust,
we have no moral authority to demand
sacrifices from you. More so when we, the
government, have not made sacrifices
ourselves. I have come to realize that more
than everything else, the Nigerian people
want accountability from their leaders. It is
through the door of accountability that you
will open for us the room where your trust
resides. You all have taught me that only a
foolish man will put his tomorrow in the
hands of a man who cannot account for his
yesterday.
Even a government with good intentions is
not always right. In our haste to implement a
policy we felt was essential to our economic
well-being, we failed to envision the
ramifications of our action. We appeared silly
arguing that we did not expect the price of
food items to go up because trucks and
buses use diesel and not fuel. But the truth,
which we should have known, is that once
the price of one thing goes up in Nigeria, the
prices of other things follow. In fact, prices go
up in Nigeria for the mere fact that workers
got a pay increase.
Also, our argument that the only way we can
control corruption at the downstream sector
of our oil industry is by removing the subsidy
is like arguing that amputating a leg is the
only way we can cure a laceration. With that
approach, we will soon end up severed into
tiny bits that cannot work together.
At several points in the course of defending
our position, we portrayed ourselves as
incompetent. We gave the impression that we
are incapable of protecting our borders. We
gave the impression that we have people in
this country who are above the law. We gave
the impression that we are more interested in
protecting our indulgences while demanding
unbearable sacrifices from you all.
I have seen the anger in the hearts of many
suffering Nigerians. Your anger is well
justified. The anguish of our youths, the
despair of the old, can no longer be taken for
granted. I fully accept the blame of all that
happened. I am not ashamed to say that we
did not get it. Our assumptions were wrong.
For so long, we looked the other way while
millions of you suffer. Until last week, I
thought it was enough to promise you that
the suffering would be temporary. Now I
know it isn’t.
We are going back to the very basic. From
your litany of complaints, I understand that at
the very core of our problem is that we have
not managed the affairs of this nation well in
the last 50 years. And I saw in your faces, the
determination to change that. In the
stomping of your feet, I heard a demand that
extended beyond the oil subsidy removal.
I have mapped out a new path. And that is
what I plan to explain to you in this speech.
Thanks to you, we are going to fundamentally
change our ways. It is no longer going to be
business as usual. And to kick it off, I will start
with myself. I believe there cannot be
accountability without transparency. I have
not been transparent. But that ends today.
The law demands that I declare my assets at
the beginning of each term. I have not done
so before now out of fear that Nigerians may
not understand. But the Nigerians I saw in
the last one week are people who want the
truth more than they expect what is right. I
want Nigerians to know that I am worth 50
billion Naira(?). My salary and allowances each
year is about N320 million naira. That, my
fellow Nigerians, is outrageous in a country
where hundreds of millions of my fellow
citizens live on less than N320 a day.
To show how serious I am about the changes
I want to put in place, I will forgo any salary
and allowances for the rest of my term as
president. Moving forward, I will pay for the
feeding of my family and so will the vice
president. I am slashing the budget for
feeding at the presidency to N300 million a
year and that will be for visiting dignitaries
alone. The 25% cut in salary that I announced
two weeks ago for staff of the executive
branch, I want to increase it to 50% for those
making more than N2, 000,000 a month. And
it includes cuts to their allowances. I’m also
cutting all other expenses in the budget for
the presidency by half. That alone will bring in
N100 billion Naira back into the treasury. I
have ordered the presidential fleet of aircrafts
to be reduced to two instead of nine.
We have serious problems in this country and
we need to tackle them with all seriousness.
Now, I cannot do it alone. I need your help for
us to transform this country. I sincerely
believe that the lawmakers can live on 50% of
their current income. I cannot cut their pay on
my own. I need you to put pressure on them
to do the right thing. If you have to occupy
their offices and their homes, I urge you to do
so. The same thing applies to the governors
and the local government chairmen. They can
live on less. They will not do so unless you
push them. There is no reason why a
governor should have a private jet in a
country like ours where the basic needs of
our people are not being met.
We all have known for a very long time that
the corruption in our system is so endemic.
What we didn’t know, until you all hit the
street, is that we have in us the will power to
confront corruption. To that end, I am
sending a bill tomorrow to the National
Assembly abolishing the ICPC and the EFCC.
Those two toothless agencies have not lived
up to the expectations of the Nigerians I saw
on the streets. In place of these two bodies, I
am establishing the Nigerian Bureau of
Investigation. The new agency will have far
reaching powers to investigate and prosecute
all crimes committed against the federal
government. We will train elite members of
the police and prosecutorial staff who are
upright and passionate about eradicating
corruption in our society.
I believe that corruption is like uncontrolled
flood. We are wasting our time paving the
roads and coating the surface with bitumen if
we have not built formidable drainage system
of solid culverts and gutters. That is where we
need to begin the enormous works that face
us. Once we get the drainage system right,
reconstruction of our roads, our educational
system, our health sector, our larger society,
will be a lot easier.
From your actions in the last one week, I
believe that there are still good people in our
society. Our job is to create the environment
for these good people to come out and serve
our country. At this point, I’m announcing the
dissolution of my cabinet. Tomorrow, I am
sending a bill to the National Assembly asking
them to quickly modify the constitution to
allow me to trim down the number of federal
ministries in Nigeria to twelve. I want to
merge various ministries that duplicate their
works and thereby trim down the federal
workforce by at least half. I want the freedom
to appoint credible men and women to serve
our country irrespective of their region,
ethnicity and religion.
I am also sending a bill to the National
Assembly creating state police in Nigeria. I
want every state government to be
responsible for security of lives and property
in their state. And with more responsibility
comes greater accountability. States that fail
to provide security will be held liable for lives
and property of its citizens. The federal
government cannot do it alone. Government
is more effective when it is closer to the
people.
The seriousness of what we face in this
country requires that you all stay on the street
and apply pressure until the people
constitutionally charged with making laws
make the right laws that will transform our
country. And you need to be vigilant to ensure
that the laws are implemented.
Thank you all for reminding me that the
possibilities out there for Nigeria are
unlimited, for ours is a blessed land. Yesterday
may have been bad but tomorrow, with your
continuing push, will be glorious.
From the very beginning, I was talking about
transformational presidency but it was when
you got into the street that I actually knew
what I meant. When the overburdened mass
of our people lead, I, the president, have no
option but to follow. Your resilient is a source
of inspiration to me. With your help, we will
transform this country to one that we all shall
be proud of. If I have to join you in the street,
I will. I am your leader and I will follow you.
This journey is not going to be easy. There
would be entrenched interests that will come
out swinging and hoping to crush what you
have set in motion. I believe that together we
can take them on and push them off the
space of this beautiful country of ours which
they have, for too long, dominated and
occupied for their selfish ends. The inner
strength of the Nigerians that I see in the last
week will lead us through.
The journey to a new Nigeria starts now – a
Nigeria revived by the people and for the
people. This journey continues until we
remove misery and restore dignity to the lives
of every man and woman in our country.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/occupy-nigeria-jonathan-orders-arrest-femi-falana-tunde-bakare-dino-melaye-and-shehu-sanni


My heart melted after reading the above.

My heart melted after reading the above.

It is time we #Occupy the  national assembly.

I think they have shoes. unlike the man that had no shoes.

first of all i congratulate our president for his speech,make we forgive him i don wake up from sleep.listen jona no listen to any person bk if anything happen dem go say na you ohhh.
as a presidoo you are the no 1 citizen inpich the governors the law maker resign any one u won resign,
try know your position as a preident or if u look say u kno fit dey there jst come out jeje, no dey look their faces again dey no fit do u any thing we dey ur back no fear them only fear God.
baoni