President Goodluck Jonathan has advised aspirants eyeing his seat in 2015 not to await his own declaration to seek a second term. He said aspirants seeking to succeed him do not need his permission to make their political aspirations public.
Jonathan denied ever entering into any pact to run for only one term, and challenged anybody with such agreement to publish such.
The president spoke Sunday night in Abuja at a televised media chat.
Jonathan told a panel of top journalists that he found bemusing pressure from his political opponents on his 2015 ambitions.
The president said there was no law requiring his declaration as a pre-condition for other presidential aspirants to make public their political intentions.
“Why wait for me to declare? If you want to contest, you don’t need to say oh! Jonathan has not declared. You go ahead and declare,” he taunted.
On the alleged single-term pact, Jonathan denied signing any document and entering into any agreement to run for only one term. He challenged proponents of the alleged pact to make public the document.
“I never signed any agreement to do one term. If I have signed any agreement, they would show you,” he affirmed.
He admitted that security remained a major challenge to his administration, however adding that his government has been able to rise to the challenge posed by Boko Haram terrorists.
Jonathan dismissed suggestions that the absence of a defence minister may have hampered the competence of the security agents. He disclosed that any government with capable security chiefs can handle any security challenge.
He described weekend’s gunmen massacre of over 52 students in Yobe State as the September signature of terrorist groups globally to commemorate the 9/11 attacks.
The Yobe attack, he said, was primary executed designed to embarrass the government.
Jonathan disclosed that he met with security chiefs shortly before the media chat to review their operations in the wake of the emergency rule recently lifted on Yobe, Borno and Adamawa States.
The president said he could not guarantee every Nigerian safety of life and property, stressing only God can.
“I’m not God, and so can’t promise that there won’t be any attacks. But we are doing our best to bring the embarrassing attacks under control… No president in the world can wake up and promise that there won’t be any criminal attacks, well, unless they are claiming to be God”, he said.
On education, Jonathan said his government has gained considerable mileage by establishing 12 additional federal universities, and partnering states to fund basic education.
He affirmed that his administration was not to blame for the three-month strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, saying ASUU’s demands were far off the acceptable mark.
On power, the president promised to grant some Discos and Gencos that won power contracts their licences on Monday. He assured that the electricity generation and distribution would considerably improve before the end of March 2014.
He dismissed reports that his recent sack of nine ministers was to hurt the G-7 governors battling him. He cited the instances of the sacked ministers from Akwa-Ibom and Kaduna States, saying a cabinet was like a football team of which the coach can introduce or drop a player as pleases him.