President Goodluck Jonathan


By Ahamefula Ogbu

Nigeria will not disintegrate, despite the predictions of doom and the various challenges the country was undergoing, President Goodluck Jonathan has said.


Speaking yesterday at the National Christian Centre, Abuja, during an inter-denominational Church service to herald the 2012 Democracy Day, the President charged Nigerians not to despair and expressed delight that the survival instinct of the country and its people has continued to imbue the nation with respect.

He called on every Nigerian to continue to pray for the well-being of the country, insisting that prayers have seen the country through difficult times.


He said the terrorist attacks that were witnessed in parts of the country took his administration by surprise, but said since then, he has built security infrastructure and expressed happiness that the agencies were bringing the problem under control, “… and will soon overcome it”.

He added: "Even though people are predicting the disintegration of Nigeria, let me assure you that Nigeria will not disintegrate. Though we have these challenges, but we will succeed", he assured.


But the former Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Most Reverend Peter Jasper Akinola (rtd.), who preached at the service, called on Jonathan to direct each geo-political zone of the country to form bodies to articulate their positions on the structure they hope Nigeria should assume and form a larger group of respectable individuals at the national level to harmonise the positions after which those who insist on Islamising Nigeria should be allowed to go their way.

Akinola also told Jonathan that contrary to the views being bandied by many that Boko Haram was not targeted Christians, the actions of the sect are a coordinated Jihad aimed at exterminating Christians and Jews "even you Mr. President", pointing out that dialogue would not stop the attacks and therefore a wasteful venture.


Speaking on "know the truth and the truth shall set you free", the former Prelate went down on memory lane to specifically recount the various attacks on Christians in the North and regretted that Nigerians were erroneously believing that Boko Haram was not targeting Christians whereas it was a Jihad which sees the Bible as the Book meaning that Jews and Christians were abominations and must be exterminated.

He noted that there was no documentation to his knowledge that the views of the protectorates were sought during the amalgamation which was never in the interest of the sections that were brought together, but that of the interest of the colonial masters.


"As we celebrate our democracy, we must seek after the truth about our beginning as a country so that we know who we are, where we are coming from and going. It is the failure of admitting the truth about the past that throws us to this sorry state we are today.

"There are no clear signs of genuine national unity. We are still disunited. Leaders are interested in their own, no national identity. We are blood thirty and blood letting society with no regards for sanctity of life. Nigeria is at war against itself; selfish politicians doing all things on the basis of political exigency.


"The amalgamation of the North and South in 1914, was done for political and economic gains of the colonial masters. Our leaders failed to gather the authentic representatives of Nigerians to seek the kind of independent Nigeria they wanted", he noted.

According to him, from the period of upheavals that led to military a putsch and killing of Igbos in the North in late 1960s and through the 1970s and 1980s to the present stage where Boko Haram has taken over, there has not been any mistaken intention of a part of the country to carry out it programme which he warned that dialogue cannot resolve and likened the situation to putting a new wine in an old bottle as the country has failed to face the truth and reality.


Akinola said so far, 30 crises have been recorded with ethnic cleansing bent and in all cases, the nation failed to address the causes, adding, "We have ignored the truth. Boko Haram must be seen in the right context. It is a continuation of the past. Shun all political claims that Boko Haram is not against Christianity. It is. It has been going on since 1966. They are committed to Jihad. You can't stop them it is their religious obligations. They have been doing it for 36 years they have not stopped and they won't stop.

"Boko Haram means Jews and Christians are abomination. They have been unleashing terror since 1966 and they have a mandate. This problem is not peculiar to Nigeria, many other stakeholders are disenchanted but waiting for their time. They want to eliminate infidels which includes you Mr. President.
"You open yourself to ridicule if you open dialogue to a group that has made the country ungovernable. Don't treat them with kid gloves. You don't dialogue with crime. The problem is not Jonathan, it is because we started in wrong way and continue same way".


On corruption, he lamented that it was a monster that has seized Nigeria by the jugular with office holders stealing Nigeria blind to the extent that what was left of the country was a carcass as all aspects of Nigeria from the Executive, Judiciary and the Legislature no longer have clean hands.

" Police and judiciary have no clean hands. Our universities have joined traditional rulers to give questionable titles. It will continue because government pays lip service. Corruption is stealing and stealing is a sin. God's judgment will start from the church if you don't stop sinning. You, who steal subsidy money, power supply money, road money, blood is crying to the creator. Money meant for schools never gets to the schools.


“Wherever you are, greedy and arrogant politicians, you have turned Nigeria to a borrowing state, repent today. Don't say amen, repent!

"My proposal: know the truth; chart a new course for Nigeria. Current insecurity, corruption cannot be a matter of dialogue. It takes a holistic and comprehensive approach. Organise a presidential retreat from geopolitical zones.


"States should organise town hall meetings. People should be free to say the kind of Nigeria they want. Harmonise the outcome of such gathering. Each zone then should send a delegation to a national conference. Zones that have opposed common position, especially those who want an Islamised Nigeria, they can go. Afterall, Nigeria has vast land. Now is the time to seek consent from our people", he advocated.
Akinola charged Jonathan to flush sycophants, political jobbers and predators hanging around him to have a clear vision, adding, "Your government is too large, they make government redundant. Send them back to farms to grow cassava, cocoa, etc".

He reminded the President that he assumed power by popular mandate and should take decisive action as though he was not a general, "but since Nigerians have voted you as the commander-in-chief, you are a general of generals".

source : http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/jonathan-we-will-not-disintegrate/116756/

I hope that he is wrong