₦airaland Forum

“In fact, we are building one small mini/private banquet hall for the President in the State House because we don’t have that kind of small place to entertain 50 to 100 people. This is the only President that does not have that kind of facility.

“We called a company like Julius Berger, I thought that they could build it in six months but they gave me two years.

From Another Newspaper;

President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday described the Boko Haram insurgency in some Northern states as a temporary challenge.

Jonathan, who vowed that his administration would work hard to ensure that nobody or group held Nigeria to ransom, assured again that Boko Haram would soon be consigned to the dustbin of history.

He spoke at the first Sunday service of the year he attended at the Church of Christ in Nations, Garki, Abuja.

The President said, “Boko Haram insurgency is a temporary challenge. Boko Haram will surely go. We will do all our best to ensure it becomes a thing of the past very soon. A number of countries have faced similar challenges and they have been able to overcome them. We will surely overcome Boko Haram.

“Life in the North must change. Development must go to all parts of this country and nobody or group can hold this country to ransom.

“We will collectively liberate this country from the hands of any evil person that is trying to set us backward. We will do our best and build a country that our children and our grandchildren will be proud of.”

He also promised to work hard to improve the standard of living of Nigerians during his tenure.

Jonathan, who said he was wary of making a long speech for the fear of being misquoted, however, told the congregation that promises made by his administration would not be achieved overnight.

He likened nation building to the planting of crops or the process of building a house which, according to him, takes a period of time to materialise.

The President said, “Let me reassure you that we will continue to work harder and harder to improve the quality of lives of Nigerians. But you must know that this cannot be achieved overnight. I always say that and sometimes I am always misquoted when I say we cannot achieve this overnight.

“Even if you go and plant a crop, it takes a period of time before you start seeing the fruits. I always tell people that if you have all the money in this world today to erect even a simple two-storey building, it must take some time .

“In fact, we are building one small mini/private banquet hall for the President in the State House because we don’t have that kind of small place to entertain 50 to 100 people. This is the only President that does not have that kind of facility.

“We called a company like Julius Berger, I thought that they could build it in six months but they gave me two years.

“So that is development for you but we are committed. We know we have our challenges, especially in some parts of the North. I am quite pleased with the message we got from the outgoing President of this church and the incoming President about Boko Haram. We express our sympathy with the widows of those whose husbands were caught up in the bush.”

Jonathan said the recent upheavals being experienced in the country because of politics were not limited to Nigeria.

Despite all the perceived confusion, however, the President assured Nigerians that only the will of God would prevail in the country.

He said, “There were some coincidences with the topic of the sermon delivered here today. When I woke up this morning, the first information I got from a friend, I won’t tell you what he said, but I will just tell you my reply.

“ I assured my friend that God’s will will be done and here, the cleric talked about knowing the will of God. What a coincidence.

“Political environment is usually noisy all over the world. There is nowhere where you don’t hear so much noise. Even a great country like United States, not long ago, it was almost shut down. Many wondered that a country that has practised democracy for so many years could get to that point of almost being shut down. But that is politics for you.”

While apologising to the church members for the inconveniences they experienced because of his presence, he urged them to continue to pray for him so that the country’s challenges would be a thing of the past.

The church’s outgoing President, Rev. Soja Bewarang, in a message read on his behalf by the President -elect, Rev. Dachollom Datiri, assured Jonathan that the storms gathering over the nation would soon fade off.

Bewarang said the nation’s troubling political issues and terrorism would give way to peace.

He also expressed the belief that the planned national conference would bring true reconciliation to the country.

The cleric said, “There are political challenges that seem to threaten the nation. No storm, no matter its force, lasts forever. The storms will soon be over. These threats are man-made. No human manipulation with evil intention will prevail. Seemingly troubling political issues and Boko Haram will soon give way to peace. National dialogue will bring reconciliation.”

While regretting the activities of the violence sect in the North, Bewarang said COCIN’s clinics in Bama and Bada had been closed down because of Boko Haram.

He said the church’s branches in Yobe and Borno States had also suffered greatly in the hands of terrorists.

He said Goza had been sacked by the terrorists with indigenes relocating to Abuja. He urged the President to listen to some of the victims at his own convenient time.

The clergyman commended Jonathan for declaring a state of emergency in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states, saying the Joint Task Force was working hard to restore peace in the affected areas.

“We welcome the declaration of state of emergency in the three states. We also appreciate the efforts of the JTF towards peace restoration. If not for these, we would have folded our hands on our heads and weep,” he added.

Datiri, in his sermon, prayed that Jonathan would make good choices everyday in order to be a useful instrument in God’s hands for the country.

He asked the President to continue to pursue righteousness and conform with the will of God, adding that there were things that God would do for Nigeria through him.

He also prayed for courage for the President to fight corruption which he said had become endemic in the country.

He said he felt sorry for those engaging in terrorism because their acts revealed their hearts were terrorised and traumatised.

Special prayers were said for the President, the church and the country during the service that was held under tight security.

Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah. Ochekpe, read the first lesson from 2nd Timothy 2:14-26.

The President was accompanied to the service by his mother, Eunice, some members of the National Assembly, some members of the Federal Executive Council and his aides .

Copyright PUNCH.

rudedough: [b]LOL please how many MW were we generating before OBJ came into power and how many MW were we generating when he left office? hahahaha You APC goons are very funny to watch.

GEJ is building 10 power plants including the already inaugurated 434MW Geregu II and 530 MW in Ondo. Currently we are generating about 4000 MW from about 2000 MW before you APC partisans destroyed the gad-dem gas pipeline, sending us back to the stone age.





Other power projects awaiting commissioning are:

Calabar, 630 MW
Egbema, 378 MW
Ihorvbor, 504 MW
Gbarain, 252 MW
Sapele, 504 MW
Omoku, 252MW
Alaoji, 1076 MW and
Olorunsogo, 750 MW

In 3 years one man has done all these in the power sector and yet diversifying our economy, funding agriculture, restructuring our aviation sector with state of the art technology, giving our youth a chance with the YouWin Program, and our economy is standing at No. 1 in the world.

Yet you're still complaining, posting websites of OBJ who spent 8 years in office, commissioned power plants on paper and abandoned all the projects and ran off with the money.

Agbameta you're a public nuisance on Nairaland, i know you very well for the short time i've spent here and every other Nairalander know you too as a nuisance here.[/b]

Sincere 9gerian: .

The prophet again reiterated that President Jonathan was not the person God ordained to win the election, but because of his “ambition and desperation,” he would use the power of incumbency to force INEC to rig the election in his favour.

He said the method of rigging in the next year’s election would be different from what it used to be. “It will be more advanced, scientific, tactical and logical. It will be carried out in a more matured way,” he stated

Goddex: [size=14pt]Only PUNCH can report junks like this one. PUNCH's current management and editorial team are gradually killing this once revered media outfit because of tribalism and APC politics.

Quote me, no single member of Dickson's aides has defected to the APC. Why didn't PUNCH name them and their portfolios.

PUNCH is now an APC newsletter. Even Osundefender may not stoop so low as PUNCH atimes. Stewpid propaganda[/size]

Sincere 9gerian: Good to see APC dogs mention the name of GEJ in connection with the unfortunate attacks on Premium Times but this same bandits foam in the mouth when Nigerians accuse their paymaster, Tinubu, of sponsoring the dogs who go under water to vandalise gas pipelines just to score cheap political points. When the witch cries in the night and a child dies in the morning, who do we hold responsible for the death? If some dogs go under water, vandalise gas pipelines, cause disruption in public power supply in Lagos area and Lair Muhammed releases press statement, the following morning, using the disruption of public power supply as propaganda tool to attack the govt, I mean one does not have to be crime detective to see the connection and the fact that the leaders of APC are prime suspects. Even the EVIL antecedents of APC leaders (eg the killing of Funsho Williams) further supports this very strong suspicion.

rudedough: I used to call GEJ clueless and a useless President until i stopped reading my news from Nairaland and sourced for News from other media platform, especially videos on Youtube and i can tell Nigerians honestly that Nairaland is an APC propaganda website.

Sincere 9gerian: Thanks bruv..
That is what I ENJOY doing. Those guys represent everything that is EVIL. For over 4 decades, they and their cronies supervised the destruction and dilapidation of Nigeria. But they wont allow a president, who is working and can only be in office for a maximum of 8 years, any breathing space to work.

President Goodluck Jonathan has again taken a swipe at former President Olusegun Obasanjo, saying the ex-President left Nigeria in darkness after his tenure.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, said this during an interview on Sahara TV on Saturday.

During the interview, Abati responded to questions on the several issues involving the Presidency, and tongue-lashed the opposition for attacking the President on almost all issues.

On the proposed national conference, which was scheduled to hold this year, Abati praised the President, saying it would be better than the political reform conference that was organised by Obasanjo.

He said, “The last political reform conference, organised by Obasanjo failed. It ended up the discussion of tenure elongation and third term ambition.”

Abati faulted those who have questioned why Jonathan’s government scheduled the national conference to be held the same year the country is marking 100 years of amalgamation.

He said the celebration of Nigeria at 100 is not about the Jonathan administration, but a celebration by the private sector, the state and local government and all Nigerians.

On the power sector, Abati said power supply has become better in the country than it was in 2007 and 2010.

He also criticised those who have questioned Presidency’s budgetary allocation saying, “Everyone is involved in the budget- making process. Both the intelligent and the unintelligent. Even okada drivers have become budget analysts.

“Nigerians are concerned about corruption. [President Jonathan] too is concerned about corruption.”

Abati also accused the media of bias for the opposition.

“The media as we have it in Nigeria today is heavily in the hands of the opposition. Whatever the President says, they twist it,” he said.

He also praised Jonathan as the only president that has given Nigerians a road map.

“What he (Pres. Jonathan) has been able to do is historic. We have never had a president in Nigeria that presented Nigeria with a road map,” he said.

Obasanjo, however, said he would not join issues with the President and his aides. He said Jonathan is building on the foundations he laid while he was the President.

The ex-president, who spoke through his Chief of Staff, Mr. Victor Durodola, said he had said his mind in his letter to Jonathan and the President should accept his challenge in good faith.

Durodola said, “He (Obasanjo) doesn’t want to join issues with anybody anymore after that reply (President Goodluck Jonathan’s reply to the ex-president’s controversial letter); he really doesn’t want to.

“I would have told you that everybody knows that whatever it is that they are commissioning today, the foundation was laid when Obasanjo was President; everybody knows that. Most of the equipment came even before he left.

“But, as I said, he really does not want to (join issues with the presidency) at all. In one paragraph in his (Obasanjo’s) letter, he said he had done his duties to him (Jonathan) as a former president, as a former Board of Trustees Chairman (of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party) and as a citizen of Nigeria.

“It is left for him (Jonathan) to accept the challenge and do what is right.”

Copyright PUNCH.

ilugunboy: No...we call it MERIT-TICKET

mikeansy: when power gets zoned to South West by APC

South West will face a new reality

2015 is not too far! lets wait and see.

mikeansy: you will realize it is GEJ all the way for most Nigerians except Hausa Fulani

Sincere 9gerian: If you ask me, GEJ should remain president of Nigeria till 2040. But if that is impossible, I can manage till 2019.

The consensus out there now is that GEJ is the best president Nigeria ever had, atleast in the last 3-4 decades.

This govt has given Nigerians, irrespective of ethnic or religious divide, a FRESH AIR that is sincere, progressive, dependable, sustainable, refreshing and most importantly, that can be SEEN.

God bless our president, all those working with him and all those that are working FOR the PROGRESS of my fatherland!

Shame on the nay sayers, cynics, tribal/religious bigots, enemies of progress and sabotuers!