The incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, who is seeking re-election in the forthcoming polls, hosted the eighth presidential media chat on February 11, 2015, Wednesday. The subjects surrounding the 2015 general elections, which have been recently shifted, supposedly for security reasons, and the PVCs issues, will be the new entrants to the discussion. Reportedly the president would focus on the postponement of the general elections, but there a lot of problems in Nigeria, that are awaiting of being solved.
Read the Live updates from the event as they happened:
20.21 Thanks for following our updates. The presidential media chat is over! 20.20 “Election will be conducted in this country and govt will be inaugurated on May 29,” Jonathan one more time reassures Nigerians.
20.19 Jonathan further speaks around campaign funds.“The 21 billion are pledges did you see the cash,” President asks.
20.16 “It is not quite right for anybody to want to contest an election and not be willing to take the outcome.”
20.14 “The characters around the Presidential candidates affects the principal during campaigns,” he continues.
20.13 “APC started their campaign before me. They visited like 4 states before PDP started,” Jonathan added.
20.12 “If I assess Buhari now then I’m not be fair to myself and Nigerians.”
20.11 The President further speaks about his key opponents in coming elections. The president responded it was an unfair question. He meanwhile mentioned that he has received more criticism than Muhammadu Buhari on social media.“The Problem of APC E-Rats is perception.”
20.10 “Boko Haram has factions like Niger Delta militants,” Jonathan continues speaking on insecurity.
20.09 “I feel the pain of every Nigerian that dies due to the insurgency.”
20.08 The president, still answering questions on security, said Boko Haram is faceless and factionalized.
20.05 “If I lose the election, I will be happy to go home.”
20.03 Jonathan is asked if he would hand over if he loses the next election. “If the elections are conducted and I lose, of course, another president would be sworn in,” the president said. He argued that Nigeria is more important than any individual citizen.
20.01 “When there was 9.11 how many Americans went around the world insulting their president?” Jonathan wondered.
20.00 Jonathan is asked where he bought arms for the coming fight with insurgents. He said they managed to get from other sources other than America.
19.58 The state of the N1 billion security loan and funds confiscated in South Africa are next to be discussed. He said the government have not started disbursing the N1 billion loan. With regards to the $9.3 million arms money seized in South Africa, he said the money does not belong to Nigeria, technically. He added that the matter was in court.
19.56 On Chibok girls: “I believe the story of Chibok Girls will get better in the next few weeks, but don’t quote me. We are working with our neighbours, we will comb the whole of that place Partying after abduction? It’s unfortunate that people play politics with the issue of Chibok girls. It’s not like that elsewhere. In other countries, political boundaries collapse in the face of terror attacks, not so in Nigeria.”
19.54 “I didn’t say stealing is good, I ‘ve just quoted that ‘stealing isn’t corruption'”, Jonathan said.
19.53 The president is asked to explain his previous comments that “stealing is not corruption”. He said he made that statement quoting the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Dahiru Mustafa, who explained to him that his analysis of corruption cases in Nigeria showed that most of such cases were theft. He argued that referring to stealing as corruption minimizes the crime.
“Ole (thief in Yoruba) should be called Ole and given that treatment,” the president said. “Let us communicated properly. The word corruption, we have abused it.”
19.50 President Jonathan says corruption may be not well understood in smaller local languages.
19.47 Question moves to the corruption. The head of the country again underlined that stealing is not corruption. He said: “Sometimes we use corruption to cover the lapses of govt functionaries. Let’s call a thief a thief. Our people hate thieves more than corrupt people.”
19.44 “I did not go dancing after the kidnap of (Chibok) girls.”
19.43 Mr.Jonathan answers the question about the rescue of Chibok girls: “People are playing politics with the case of the Chibok Girls and this is most unfortunate. I don’t want to be quoted on Chibok girls rescue, but we will rescue some of them. Just give us some time, cos the situation we’re in now. I believe the situation will be better in few weeks.”
19.40 President said that May 29th is sacrosanct.
19.38 “We are not saying Boko Haram must be wiped out before elections can hold.”
19.37 “Elections will hold and there would be handover on May 29,” Jonathan assures the panelists.
19.35 “If the fight against BH is not won by 6 weeks, are we going to see another postponement?” Mr. President gets question about one more postponement.
19.33 “Why don’t you visit the mosques ?” Adesua asks President Jonathan. The leader of the country responds that he gets numerous invites to religious events.
19.32 Jonathan stressed that whoever wants to be the president cannot destroy Nigeria.
19.29 “A lot of misinformation in the country even by very senior citizens,” Mr. President continues.
19.27 Jonathan said he doesn’t see a big deal about the poll shift.
19.25 On Jega: “I wish Jega was here, I could have asked him to answer whether I have confidence in him. Yes those who called for his sack may be close to me, but they express their own opinion. More than 80 per cent of those who sponsor messages on our behalf we don’t even know them. People use the reschedule of election to misinform Nigerians.”
19.24 “In Borno, about 10 local govts are under Boko Haram but I can assure you that very soon, we shall resolve this.”
19.20 “If I feel that Prof. Jega is incompetent for obvious reasons and is in line with the constitution I can remove him,” he continued.
19.15 Mr.President speaks on elections postponement: “INEC acts independently and I don’t interfere with their decisions.”
19.12 The presidential media chat starts. It was opened by a brief speech by President Jonathan. Questioning have swiftly moved into the postponed elections. The president wanted the understanding of the international society over the shifted polls. He said the kind of scenarios where elections are postponed for the sake of perpetuating power is not the case in Nigeria.
It should be noted that Independent National Electoral Commission postponed February polls, citing insecurity reasons, on February 7th, 2015. The All Progressives Congress accused the ruling party of forcing electoral body to make this decision.
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