[size=15pt]Some people ‘re not happy Jonathan is now defeating Boko Haram — Edem Duke[/size]

on March 09, 2015 / in Elections 2015, Politics 1:45 am / Comments

Minister of Culture and National Orientation and Supervising Minister of Information, Chief Edem Duke speaks on the preparations for the forthcoming election and calls on Nigerians to hold those who are threatening violence if they lose the election accountable. He also speaks on a number of other national issues. Excerpts:

By Ben Agande

Critics claim the government influenced the postponement of the election for selfish reasons. Is that true?

I think all I can say is to reassure Nigerians. When you look at the fact with the shift in the date, it is not an extensive shift. But in-between, you can see that it has afforded the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the opportunity of reaching many more Nigerians.

You can also see that there is a bit of relief, even though, there is great agitation in several parts of the country that people have not got their Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs yet.

That people in certain localities have deliberately been deprived of the opportunity of collecting their PVCs. Those issues have been addressed. If you remember the last media chat by the President during which he said that because of the security concerns that the status of the equipment of the Army will improve and he assured that in a few weeks there will be a dramatic change for the better around the terrain where insurgents are operating. You can see that all of these are coming to pass.

What would have been the story if eight million people were not served with PVCs if the insurgency were still prevalent in most parts of the northeast, what would people have said? They would have accused this same government of irresponsibility and insensitivity. But we know that the criticism is only coming from a particular section whose strategy for the campaign is criticism, propaganda and threat.

So it is understandable. But it is to reassure Nigerians that the Federal Government has no ulterior motive, it cannot have, not with the record of achievement that it has as its own collateral for the campaign.

The argument has been that if the government has not been able to decisively tackle insurgency in 6 years, with just few weeks to election, what will the government do differently. Some people have argued that it was a deliberate ploy by the government. What do you have to say?
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