• Says he never told anybody he would sack
Jega

• Promises appreciable progress will be made to
defeat Boko Haram before the elections, return of Chibok girls.

By Crusoe Osagie, Goddy Egene, Eromosele Abiodun in Lagos and Jaiyeola Andrews in Abuja 



President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday affirmed that come May 29, 2015, a new government would be sworn in to lead the country for the next four years.

Jonathan, who spoke during a televised presidential
media chat at the State House, Abuja, stressed that
his government was fully committed to overseeing
credible, free and fair elections on March 28 and
April 11 that would invariably result in the
inauguration of a new administration.

The president said he was prepared to hand over to a new government if he lost in a free, fair and credible presidential election in March.

Jonathan noted that just like in 2011 when he
expressed similar sentiments, he restated that he
would gladly go home if he failed to secure the
mandate of the people for a second tenure, adding
that no politician's ambition was more important
than the interest of the country.

“If in 2011, I said that I will conduct free and fair
elections and if I lose I will happily go home, and it
should be recorded that at that time, no African
sitting president had lost an election. But within this
period, a number of African sitting presidents have
lost elections.

“But I wanted to create history by being the first
African sitting president that lost an election… I said I would be happy to go, that this nation is more important than any human being.

“So anybody who wants to hold this office of the
president or any office at all and feels that he is more important than the nation, that is not quite right.

“If as at that time, I insisted that I was ready to
conduct free and fair elections and if I lost I would
go, much less now that Nigerians have given me the
opportunity to be here for four full years, so if the
elections are conducted today and I lose, of course,
we will inaugurate a new government. There is no
way I will say if I lose I will not hand over,” Jonathan
said.

The president also dispelled rumours that there was a plot in the presidency to sack the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, describing the claims as unfortunate rumours that belonged only to “the garbage world”.

“I want to reassure all Nigerians that the elections
will be conducted and a government will be
inaugurated come May 29, 2015. Let no one be
perturbed about the stories that the president wants to send Jega on terminal leave, sack him and appoint someone else. These stories belong to the garbage world, and they are entirely false.

“How I wished Jega were here. I could have asked
him to answer that question. One thing about politics or leadership generally is that when you are a leader, you have members who support you. Maybe somebody has been making statements to advance your cause, the assumption is that the person is close to you and is your fan.

“There are too many messages that go out and
sometimes I have to call people. But more than 80
per cent of people sponsoring these messages, I
don't even know. So whatever that person says is
different from Jonathan.

“And if you ask Jega, he will tell you. I appointed all
the commissioners and resident electoral
commissioners in INEC. They are my appointees. So
if I feel that Jega is not good enough for obvious
reasons, then I can by the provisions of the constitution that gives the person who appoints him the power to remove him, do so. But I have not told anybody that I am going to remove Jega.

“Some of these things are creations by interests who want to cause confusion. A lot of people are using the rescheduling of the elections to misinform
Nigerians,” the president stated. Jonathan emphasised that as a sitting president in an election year, his responsibilities were over and above those of other contenders running for the presidency, stressing that while asking for the support of the electorate in order to retain his position as president, he was also very mindful of his responsibility to ensure that the country is protected and properly managed.

“INEC, for example, is my responsibility. If the
election is well conducted the credit comes to me
and if otherwise, the burden is also on my shoulders.

I am not just looking for power. I also have the
responsibility to protect the country.
“We have a country and we cannot destroy this
country and the buck stops with me to ensure that
the nation is intact. I am the one who receives the
calls from the international community – the US
Secretary of State, presidents and leaders of other
countries – all of them call me daily and it is my duty to ensure that the country is moving in the right direction,” he said.

Speaking on the utterances of the campaign
organisations of the two leading parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), Jonathan said the utterances were different because there are different characters behind the candidates in comparison to past dispensations.

“For instance, the characters around Buhari in 2011
were different from those around him in the past.
But if you look at the situation, the only difference is
that I am a sitting president,” he explained.

On the postponement of the election, he said: “People are not being fair to me. I did not want a postponement of the elections. For the international community, I sympathise with them because in Africa there have been a number of cases where
governments rescheduled elections in order to
extend their tenure. So whenever you talk about
rescheduling an election they are a bit apprehensive.

This is not the case in Nigeria. “The law makes it very clear that elections must be held not less than 30 days to the inauguration of a new government and not more than 150 days to the inauguration of a new government. Within this period, elections can be conducted so that it will not affect the inauguration of a new government.

“Within that period, if there is a reason for the
electoral umpire to adjust the date, it is allowed. You will recall that in 2011, I was already in my village before I heard that the elections had been postponed for two weeks.”

The president added that INEC did not consult him on the postponement of the polls and did not need to do so, stating that even though the Council of State had discussed the issue of election postponement, government did not put pressure on the electoral body to shift the polls.

He explained that the commission took into
cognisance the security advice because it had to work with the security forces for the successful
implementation of the elections. Jonathan was of the opinion that the postponement of the elections ought not to be a vexatious issue but the nature of Nigerian politics had given it a different coloration.

The president also observed that INEC was not fully
ready for the conduct of the election on February 14
because of the challenges it faced in the distribution
of Permanent Voter's Cards (PVCs).

“I don’t determine election dates. INEC has to work
with the security services like the Air Force and
Nigerian Navy that will help to carry their materials
and protect their staff.

“There are a lot of security implications in conducting elections in Africa. So it was the security services that advised INEC to adjust the dates. That should not have been a problem if not for the period that we are in. I don’t see the big deal about it, but in this case, people want to make black look like white.

“The National Security Adviser wrote to INEC to
advise them, I did not ask him to do so. But as the
chief security officer of the country I have an idea
about what is happening in the country.
“However, at the Council of State meeting their
people did express those concerns. They disclosed a number of things to me that I cannot tell you here – there are several angles to the security matter. The Boko Haram problem is there; there is also the threat aspect of it. But what we wanted to do was to review the security architecture of the country so that these threats will not escalate.

“INEC did say that they were ready to conduct the
elections, but when the issue of PVCs arose, it was
clear that many people had not collected their cards.

This was not the case in 2011.

“In Lagos, for example, only about 30 per cent of
voters had collected their PVCs by last week. That
means 62 per cent would have been disenfranchised and they are ready to vote. Don’t you think there will be security implication with that type of arrangement? In some states, we had recorded just 48 per cent while others have 78 per cent,” he stated.

The president also assured the Nigerian public that
with the intelligence at his disposal, the military
would make considerable progress in the recovery of the nation’s territories under the control of Boko
Haram before the rescheduled elections.

He however said that he could not state categorically that Boko Haram would be completely wiped out in the weeks preceding the new dates for the elections, explaining that the terrorists, whom he termed faceless, do not need to be totally eliminated before elections could hold safely.

“In 2007 and 2011, when elections held across the
country, Boko Haram was already in existence.
Nobody is saying that Boko Haram will be totally
wiped out before elections can be held but in the
next six weeks some serious advances will be made.

“At best, we will retake all the territories currently
being threatened by the terrorists and elections will
hold.

“Containing the group was tough initially because we did not have the equipment that we needed to tackle them. But now we have been able to get substantial equipment.

“Also, other countries were not committed to the
cause. They wanted the African Union’s (AU)
approval, which we have been able to get. Before
now, Boko Haram occupied seven local governments in Adamawa but they are now in one local government – Madagali, which we will soon recover.

Soon that state will be totally liberated, and we will
move back the internally displaced persons back to
their communities.

“The same thing will happen with Borno State. So
with what will happen in the next few weeks,
Nigerians will hail the security services, “he said.
Jonathan, who also spoke on the issue of costly
campaigns in the country and the fund raising
organised by the PDP which fetched N21 billion, said although it is an issue to be regulated by INEC, he blamed the massive amount of funds amassed by parties on the enormous amount of pressure placed on politicians seeking elective offices.
He also stated that the funds raised by the ruling PDP were not meant to finance electioneering alone but for the completion of the party’s headquarters,
adding that most of the said funds were largely
pledges.

He said what was most worrisome is the level of
political desperation which was not as heightened as in 2011, adding that the actors around the APC
presidential standard-bearer (General Muhammadu
Buhari) are different from those around him now.
He also expressed gratitude to Nigerians for their
perseverance amidst the various problems facing the country.

“I want to thank them for their support for
government during this trying period. The world is
passing through a phase in history, almost every
country in the world has one problem or the other.
Yet with these problems, Nigerians are going about
their business, the economy has not collapsed.
“I also appreciate Nigerians for their interest in the
on-going political process. I have been watching the
political campaigns and they have been very
colourful.

“Their desire to collect their PVCs is also very
encouraging. Before 2011, Nigerians did not talk
about voter's cards until we started our one-man,
one-vote revolution.

“But some politicians are messing up the process
with their behaviour and I always say that for
everybody aspiring for political office, there must be a Nigeria, whatever position you are seeking. There must be the people before you can rule. We must not destroy Nigeria because of our political interest,“ he stated.

On the threats by a some people to go to war if he
loses the election, the president said: “Everything
would be done to ensure that nobody goes to war.
“We will make sure that we do things in a way that
nobody goes to war. We have a country and we must protect the country. Without the country, I cannot be president.

“Besides, I am not going to be president forever. If I
am relevant at the ECOWAS level, if I am relevant at
AU and the global level that is because I am the
president of Nigeria.

“The day I cease to be the president of Nigeria, I am
just an ordinary person. So we must protect the
country. If I want to become the president of the
country, I must not destroy the country.”
Jonathan also restated that the Chibok girls would be recovered alive. “I believe now that we are working with Chad and Cameroun, we will be able to change the story about the Chibok girls.

“I cannot say the exact time. But we are working with our neighbour. So just give us some time and the situation will be better. Just give us some time, the Chibok girls will be rescued alive.

“But the interest of the country should be paramount.

We expect that those who have international
connections should use that to protect the country,”
he said.








www.thisdaylive.com/articles/jonathan-there-shall-be-a-new-govt-come-may-29/201627/

GEJ till 2019!!!

See matured yarns ..not like some mediocre talking about coups.

I remember GEJ stating at the flag off of his campaign in TBS that he has directed the INEC chairman to distribute PVC's and make sure that no Nigerian is disenfranchised.

INEC isn't ready neither is JEGA!

I boast again, I can do better than JEGA.

If given the opportunity to serve, I will deliver 98% of voters cards to the electorates doorstep latest 5 weeks before elections.

The president, governors, senators, representatives will be the last to collect in that order after the masses have long collected.

I will test the elections 3 times under public glare and international observers.

We might even schedule it on a working day. Wake up, bath, vote and go to work .. or vote in d bus .. or vote at lunch break ..vote in d bar.beach ..or @ the polling centres.

Shouldn't we have an INEC app?

Enough of this mediocrity in Nigeria!

CC: Goodluck

too lengthy.......




march4buhari

GEJ IS A PERFECT GENTLEMAN AND I LOVE HIM FOR THAT.

GEJ till 2019

Tundenoni:
too lengthy.......




march4buhari

Brains aren't everything. In fact in your case they're
nothing.