From the President came reasons he sacked General Patrick Azazi as the National Security Adviser (NSA) and Defence Minister, Dr. Mohammed Haliru Bello last Friday. He also gave an insight yesterday into why he made the trip to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at a time Boko Haram attacked three churches in Zaria and Kaduna which recorded some deaths last week.

President Goodluck Jonathan also said despite insinuations over the fuel subsidy probe crisis, he had “nothing to hide”. These were some of the highlights of his Presidential Media Chat aired on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in Abuja yesterday. It was anchored by a media consultant, Mr. Ohi Alegbe. Members of the panel are Daily Editor, Tribune Newspaper, Edward Dickson and Ms Maupe Ogun of Channels Television and Mr. Modibo Kawu, a columnist with The Vanguard Newspapers.

The President disclosed that the two erstwhile security chiefs were sacked because the government had to change strategies in order to nip the menace of security challenges in the bud. According to him, “security is a global challenge now; it is not just in Nigeria. It is just like the issue of economic recession that is global with different countries having their shares. The issue of Boko Haram is really giving a great share of the challenges. The government is on it, we’ll continue to be on it and definitely, we will get over it.

“Relating to the changes we’ve made; the Defence Minister, I have not appointed anyone as the Minister of Defence, yet. Of course, that one has to go through the Senate. We have not announced the name. It is the Senate that can clear him. We will not announce the name until the Senate cleared him. But the National Security Adviser is a special adviser position, another person has taken over. “Those who have held these offices have done well. But if you look at the evolution of Boko Haram, they are changing their tactics everyday. The interest of terrorists is to destabilise the government. And if that one doesn’t work, they will just use another trick.

“So, you must also change your personnel, change your style, change your strategies. So, we are also changing and we think it is time some other hands would have to come in to do things slightly differently. It’s not that the people who were there before were not working hard like good Nigerians. “We will continue to adjust our security architecture. Where there is the need to change personnel to fit into a new programme, we’ll surely do that.”

On dialogue with the members of Boko Haram, Jonathan maintained that he preferred to talk with members of the group to using force, insisting that he would rather toe a different path from some people who might not want dialogue because of their belief that terrorists are criminals.

“But to us in this country and to me in particular, the Boko Haram members are Nigerians. We did not want to lose the life of one Nigerian. I would rather wish that the criminals become reasonable and we’ll train them as we have trained people (militants) from the Niger Delta to become productive members of the Nigerian society.

“So, I want a situation where the Boko Haram people stopped the rubbish they are doing and are trained in different skills so that they become productive and contribute to our economy. “The government will dialogue with Boko Haram but presently, Boko Haram has no face. Nobody could come and tell me that he is a leader of Boko Haram and the government will not dialogue with a faceless group. You must have face. You must tell us the reason why you are doing what you are doing. Then of course, we will dialogue. We want them to change. We want them to become decent citizens to move freely and involve in businesses,” Jonathan said.

On whether he knows what the group is agitating for, he remarked: “I don’t know what they want, but I know terrorists all over the world have common agenda, to destabilise the government. If you look at the evolution of Boko Haram, initially they were not attacking the churches. The very first time, they were even very much antagonistic to their fellow Muslims; rather, they believed that they were not worshipping the way they supposed to. The idea is to destabilise the government.

“When that did not work, they started attacking institutions of government. But that was not working. They have not been able to bring the government down. They started attacking churches. They are attacking churches to instigate religious crisis. They believe that when they attack a church, Christian youths will revolt against Muslim youths. They don’t care who dies in the process and the government would be destabilised.

“If the way they are attacking churches doesn’t work, watch out, the same Boko Haram will start attacking mosques to instigate Muslim youths against Christians. So they change their tactics. Of course, we are working. We will stop it”, he said. Asked why he embarked on the Brazil trip he said if he did not go, it would have sent a wrong signal to the international community.

The President had received mixed reactions. He said with the journey to Brazil, he had been able to prove to the Boko Haram that they will not succeed in their objective of bringing government to a halt. According to him, if he had not gone on the trip, the terrorist group would have by now been celebrating that they stopped the President from travelling. He added that the day the President, Vice President or Senate President is prevented from travelling by terrorists, then the country is finished. Jonathan said the objective of the terrorist groups in every part of the world is to destabilize government.

“ Government must not stop for a second because of Boko Haram. If the president fails to travel because Boko Haram struck, they will celebrate. go and interview presidents who have experienced terror. One thing they will tell you that government must continue no matter the attacks. The day the international community hears that the Nigerian President could not travel because of Boko Haram, then we are finished. Boko Haram and its sponsors cannot stop us from moving.

President Jonathan also debunked the insinuations that he was protecting some people from being exposed in the fuel subsidy probe scam. He said: “I have nothing to hide.” He was asked if he had any hidden agenda, the President said if there was any, he would not have chosen the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to head a committee to find out what was going on in the petroleum industry.

His words: “Even before the Senate and House of Representatives started their probe into the oil subsidy, the Federal Government set up panels to look into the issues of subsidy. One of them is (Mallam Nuhu) Ribadu. Ribadu is not a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Ribadu was Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) presidential candidate. And somebody who headed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), you know his worth. So, I have nothing to hide in the Petroleum Ministry. If I had, I wouldn’t have brought somebody like Ribadu.”

Mr. President affirmed that “this country belongs to all of us, (and) If errors are being committed somewhere, we must address them,” reminding that “when I was acting President, even before I became President, I asked (Olusegun) Aganga when he was Minister of Finance, and Deziani Allison-madueke was the Minister of Petroleum, to get an international audit firm to audit the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and all these major areas where we spend money.”

He lamented that “the belief of Nigerians is that we don’t know the quantity of crude we sell” (and that) there are so many insinuations that led him to ask Aganga to get internationally recognized audit firm to audit NNPC and Petroleum Development Fund and also agencies that see to the money that is being spent. .


http://www.sunnewsonline.com/article/why-i-sacked-azazi-defence-minister-%E2%80%93jonathan

I think the president is trying, and the impacts of his efforts could only be felt if Nigerians from all walks of life shun greed, sectionalism and selfish policking, and confront our challenges with sincerity. Terrorism is a new development in our political life, and Nigeria lacks the institutional nay structural mechanism to defeat it outrightly now, so every one needs to lend his support so that we shall defeat these animals. As the president of Nigeria, Jonathan must be criticized at all times, but people need not be unnecessaryly harsh, disrespectful and unintelligent in their comments, cos most of the frauds that are being probed today were not committed under Jonathan's administration. Again we need to realize that we are practicing presidential system of government, so the president doesn't have abosute power, hence the need for us to realize that the strenght of a democratic govt is in it's legislature. Alot of scandals had taken place there, yet we've never bothered to occupy National Assembly so that they would do their jobs without anti-people compromise.

What's with the picture?
There's nothing in that piece to show that the president is angry.
He is weak and deceptive like every other thief.