\u2026Wants Votes To Move Nigeria Forward
\nTheCable: Are you in good shape for the presidential poll given the fact
\nthat APC has gathered momentum in the last two months?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: You should remember the Ekiti governorship election last year.
\nBefore the election, many people were saying APC would WIN by a landslide.
\nBut we in the PDP were busy mobilising the grassroots, going from village
\nto village, from town to town. The result shocked everybody, apart from us
\nat the PDP. I am not underrating APC, but I think they are grossly
\noverrated. We shall meet on the field. That is where we will test our true
\nstrengths. We are fully ready. You will soon see.<\/p>\n
TheCable: General Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s popularity is growing, especially in
\nthe south. Isn\u2019t this a big threat?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: Let us work with the facts on the ground. PDP currently controls
\n21 states of the federation. APC has only 14. Of APC\u2019s 14, you and I know
\nthat Imo and Rivers are only APC in the sense that their governors
\ndefected. The people know where their interests are better served. Also,
\nwhen it comes to presidential election, Edo is PDP. So essentially, of the
\n14 APC-controlled states, only 11 can be described as APC. Of course, I
\nknow that not all the PDP-controlled states usually vote PDP in
\npresidential elections, so you have to concede that one or TWO PDP states
\nwill vote APC in the presidential election. At the end of the day, you are
\nstill looking at 23 or 24 pro-PDP states, including Anambra which is
\ncontrolled by APGA\u2026<\/p>\n
TheCable: Sorry to cut in, Mr. President, but we are also talking about
\nfigures, not just number of states. APC states like Kano and Lagos have
\nvoters in excess of 9 million.<\/p>\n
Jonathan: I\u2019m still coming to that. In 2011, taking that as a baseline for
\ncomparison, I scored 22.4 million votes. Buhari had 12.2 million votes.
\nThat is a difference in excess of 10 million. I do not suppose that you
\nbelieve I have lost 6 million votes to Gen. Buhari already, or that Gen.
\nBuhari has gained 11 million more supporters. Suggesting I will lose a
\nwhole 6 or 7 million votes to Gen. Buhari would be an exaggeration. Let us
\neven add the votes of ACN which scored 2 million in 2011. Since CPC, ANPP
\nand ACN have merged into APC, let us say APC had 14 million votes in 2011.
\nI still defeated all of them with over 8 million votes. Don\u2019t forget that
\nMallam Ibrahim Shekarau, the ANPP candidate then, and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu,
\nthe ACN candidate in 2011, are now in the PDP.<\/p>\n
TheCable: We at TheCable are projecting a larger voter turnout this time
\naround\u2026<\/p>\n
Jonathan: And you think only one party will benefit from a larger turnout?
\nI will disagree with you on that.<\/p>\n
TheCable: We agree that both of you will benefit, but we project that
\nsouth-west will decide who the president will be. And APC is the dominant
\nparty in the south-west.<\/p>\n
Jonathan: Again, I will not say so. Ekiti and Ondo are already controlled
\nby PDP. I don\u2019t see APC winning Oyo and Ogun. And from the last
\ngovernorship election in Osun, you could see that the gap between PDP and
\nAPC was very narrow, judging from the figures. Other factors will still be
\nat play and the best you can say for now is that Osun is a tossed-up
\nstate, as Americans call it. The real battleground is Lagos, and if you
\nhave been following events closely, the PDP is reborn in Lagos. Wait and
\nsee how Lagosians will vote.<\/p>\n
TheCable: The choice of Professor Yemi Osinbajo as the running mate to
\nBuhari is seen as a masterstroke. Analysts foresee him delivering the
\nsouth-west votes. And as a pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God,
\nthis may neutralise the extremist tag on Buhari and bring in the votes of
\nmembers of the church. Do you agree?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: There is no doubting the fact that Osinbajo has good
\nqualifications. But, like Gen. Buhari, he has never won an election
\nbefore. He has never even been a candidate. So APC has a pairing that
\ncannot be described as a winning team. That said, you cannot call Osinbajo
\na political heavyweight in the south-west. The Yoruba are more
\nsophisticated than that. In 2011, two of my opponents fielded their
\nrunning mates from the south-west. Still, the south-west decided to vote
\nfor me. That tells you a lot about the voters in the south-west. They
\ncannot be hoodwinked. TheCable: But Osinbajo is a pastor in the Redeemed
\nChurch\u2026 Jonathan: Yes. But the presidential candidate of APC is Gen.
\nBuhari not Osinbajo. And I think we should leave church out of this before
\nit becomes another talking point again.<\/p>\n
TheCable: Buhari\u2019s supporters are very confident that he will win. Are you
\nnot really worried about this?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: I don\u2019t think Nigerians will make the mistake of voting for
\nBuhari. Gen. Buhari, with due respect, is not the right option for Nigeria
\nat this time. It is a gamble that is not worth taking. I may not be
\nperfect as nobody is perfect. But I believe that come Saturday, the
\nmajority of Nigerian voters will choose me as the best candidate to lead
\nthe nation forward.<\/p>\n
TheCable: For many Nigerians, Boko Haram is an election issue. Don\u2019t you
\nsee this impacting on support for your re-election?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: We are not sleeping when it comes to Boko Haram. But we must be
\nfair and accept that we are dealing with problems we never encountered
\nbefore, problems that we were not prepared for as a nation. Nobody would
\nhave predicted this carnage five years ago. We can all be wise after the
\nevent, we can say whatever we like now, but who can sincerely say they
\nprojected that Boko Haram would become like the Taliban in 2009 when the
\nuprising started in Maiduguri? I hear people say we did not give Boko
\nHaram the attention they deserved, that we left things too late. That is
\nnot correct. To combat terror, you have to be systematic with your
\napproach. It is not a conventional warfare. New laws are required to cover
\nyour operations because we never had to deal with terror before. There is
\nalso a different kind of training and personnel required. Operations have
\nto change from conventional to non-conventional. You cannot use the
\nequipment of 1984. Even when you buy new equipment, you need to train your
\nsoldiers on how to use it. You can\u2019t do that in one day. Intelligence
\ngathering has to be firmed up using the latest technology. This will not
\nhappen in one day. Your security architecture has to be completely
\ndifferent. This is what we have been working on and we are making good
\nprogress. We are getting better every day. We need to encourage our
\nsoldiers who are risking their lives every day. They are human beings like
\nus. They have parents, wives, sisters, children, brothers. It is not fair
\nat all to disparage them. It is also not fair to encourage mutiny. You
\ndon\u2019t encourage more soldiers to run away from the warfront. It is not
\nhelpful. We are confronting Boko Haram with all the resources available to
\nus. We need the cooperation of all Nigerians. When people begin to
\npoliticise the war against terror because they want to win elections, it
\nundermines our efforts.<\/p>\n
TheCable: You used to dominate the social media. What went wrong?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: I think we are doing very well on the social media, but we are
\nfocusing our energy more on grassroots mobilisation. Most Nigerian voters
\ndo not participate in social media discussions. The majority of Nigerian
\nvoters are not even on Twitter or Facebook. So we have to get our
\npriorities right. I have about 1.7m Facebook followers but there are over
\n68 million registered voters in Nigeria. I am not even sure most of my
\nsocial media followers are registered to vote. We are doing door-to-door
\nmobilisation around the towns and villages. Experience has shown that the
\nbulk of voting comes from those areas. For every voter on Twitter, you
\nprobably have 100 voters who are not on Twitter. But when you read tweets
\nand re-tweets, you may get a very wrong view of the reality on the ground.
\nWe have a very good strategy to woo voters. Our opponents have a good
\nstrategy to abuse us on Twitter. Let\u2019s see how far that will take them on
\nMarch 28. Obviously, it is not those who make the loudest noise that win
\nthe votes. Sometimes, making so much noise is a strategy to divert
\nattention from your impending failure. When you lose, you now attribute it
\nto rigging. APC is very good in that area. It is a strategy they have used
\nin the past.<\/p>\n
TheCable: What\u2019s your reaction to those who say they will not vote for you
\nbecause they believe you have not done well so far?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: On the issue of performance, I only wish to be judged on where
\nNigeria was when I took over and where we are now. Those who are
\nfair-minded will agree that we have made tremendous progress in so many
\nareas. For instance, the over 6 million farmers who are now getting
\nfertilizers and seeds directly and enjoying improved livelihoods won\u2019t
\ntell you I have not done well. They are saying they have never had it this
\ngood. Fertilizer corruption is gone forever. We\u2019ve introduced dry season
\nfarming. Their harvests have increased exponentially. We\u2019ve improved water
\nresources across the country, north and south. These are the things that
\naffect ordinary lives. The transporters who are now plying good interstate
\nroads will tell you they are happy. For example, the Benin-Ore road that
\nused to be front page story in newspapers for almost a decade because of
\nits poor state is now brand new. We have built or rehabilitated over
\n25,000 kilometres of roads since we came in. The federal government has
\n35,000 kilometres of roads and only 4,500 were motorable when I came in.
\nThat is a fact. Judge me on that. Millions of passengers who are now using
\nthe revived rail transport system will tell you they are happy. Five
\nmillion passengers now use the train every year, compared to less than one
\nmillion a few years back. I would like to be judged on that. Foreign
\ninvestors have made Nigeria their preferred destination as attested to by
\nlocal and international agencies. In the oil and gas sector, our local
\ncontent policy has produced a new generation of Nigerian entrepreneurs who
\nare proudly flying our flag all over the world. That is a fact. That is
\nprogress. Judge me on that basis. We\u2019ve built schools for Almajiris and
\nthe girl-child. These are the vulnerable in the society who were neglected
\nbut are now receiving good education suited to their needs. We\u2019ve
\nestablished and equipped more universities to provide for the future of
\nour youths whose population continues to expand but there is insufficient
\ncapacity to give them university education. We\u2019ve upgraded equipment at
\ntertiary institutions and continue to retrain lecturers and teachers. No
\ngovernment has funded education better than us. Our hospitals are better
\nequipped as we continue to upgrade them and improve the service conditions
\nof doctors and nurses. They are performing surgeries they never did
\nbefore. Our immunisation coverage is unprecedented. Guinea worm infections
\nare nil today. We are gradually getting over the polio epidemic. Go to the
\nairports across the country and see the changes that are taking place in
\nterms of safety and physical development. I can go on. The real voters,
\nthe real Nigerians who will go to the polling units, are happy with what
\nwe have achieved in our first term in office. Millions of ordinary
\nNigerians are not deceived by the propaganda of partisan critics. I do not
\nsay that we have solved all the problems. That would be a lie. But the
\nNigeria of today is better than the Nigeria that I inherited in 2011. The
\nfacts are there. Our critics should judge us on the basis on what we met
\non ground in 2011 and how far we have moved on from there. Is the
\nagricultural sector worse? No, it is better than we met it. Is the
\neducation sector worse? It is better than we met it. The aviation sector
\nis better than we met it. The oil and gas sector is better than we met it.
\nThe industrial sector is better than we met it. We\u2019re now exporters of
\ncement and we will soon start to export cars. The rail sector is much
\nbetter. The road network is bigger and better. Inland waterways are
\nexpanded. In fact, our economy is now the biggest in Africa. Therefore,
\nlet our critics judge us on the basis of facts not lies.<\/p>\n
TheCable: But the power sector remains a big challenge. Why are we still
\nunable to attain uninterrupted power supply?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: I like to ask people: was it that there was 24-hour electricity
\nand Jonathan came and switched it off and damaged the equipment? The
\nanswer is no. Power is an age-old problem in Nigeria and we have to
\nunderstand that. When I became president, we started the power sector
\nreform all over again. If you remember, one of the first duties I
\nperformed as president was to launch the Power Roadmap. It was like
\nstarting all over again because of various legal, structural and
\nadministrative issues. Power projects had stalled. The Nigerian
\nElectricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) was in a legal tango as a result
\nof the removal of its management. We had issues with gas supply as gas
\npipelines to power plants were yet to be laid. We also had issues with gas
\npricing because gas producers would rather export and make more money than
\nsell locally at a regulated price. There were so many serious issues to
\nresolve. You cannot decree power into being. You have to take it step by
\nstep with commitment. If anybody tells Nigerians otherwise, they are
\nlying. The approach we have taken now is the best available to us. We have
\ngone private. The process has reached a stage that can only go forward.
\nThe power situation is tricky in that until the last dot is connected, we
\nwill not see results. There is generation, then transmission and
\ndistribution. Until everything is sorted out, we will not see the kind of
\nresults we desire. If you build a house and you are yet to paint it or fix
\nthe doors and windows, you can move in and start to live there and
\ncomplete the work gradually. But at least you have a roof over your head.
\nHowever, for electricity, until you connect all the dots, you can\u2019t get
\nresults. Until the power generated is transmitted and distributed to the
\nfinal consumer, you cannot have steady electricity. That is a fact. But we
\nare moving in the right direction today. I am confident that this will be
\none of the biggest achievements of this administration.<\/p>\n
TheCable: The issue of $20 billion NNPC affair is still hanging though,
\nand your handling of corruption cases. What do you have to say on that?
\nJonathan: I would have been surprised if you didn\u2019t ask that question.
\nHave you picked a figure now? The accuser said $49.8 billion was missing.
\nHe then reduced the figure to $12 billion. Now people are talking about
\n$20 billion missing. Is that the final figure they have arrived at? Why
\nare people not saying $49 billion again? Ordinarily, the inconsistency in
\nthe figures should have put a big question mark on the entire allegation
\nitself and questioned its reliability, but because some people have
\ndecided to crucify me, they will hang on to any lie. If the former CBN
\ngovernor himself comes out today and apologises that he got his facts
\nwrong, that no money is missing, these same people will dismiss him. They
\nwill say he has been bribed or he was cajoled to retract his statement.
\nThat is the way some Nigerians have decided to live their lives and there
\nis nothing I can do about it. I have said it before: no money is missing.
\nNo money has been stolen. The PwC audit has laid all that to rest. It is
\nimpossible to steal $20 billion. There is no proof anywhere that money is
\nmissing. The senate has investigated it. The report is there for all to
\nsee. No money is missing. From the way the whole drama has played out, you
\ncan see that the so-called scandal was a political gimmick. Look at the
\nsequence of events and all the political associates of the accuser and
\nyour reasonable conclusion will be that it was a scandal cooked up to
\nsmear this government. We are open to investigation. I will not be
\npresident forever. You also spoke about corruption. I am doing everything
\nwithin my capacity to fight it. We have removed ministers, we have sacked
\ntop government officials, we have put suspects on trial. But I can only
\naccuse you of corruption. The moment the case is charged to court, what
\nmore can I do? I cannot be prosecutor and judge. It is not allowed. Many
\npeople have been arrested and charged to court. They go and employ clever
\nlawyers who play the system to pervert justice. To now turn around and
\nblame Jonathan will be disingenuous. Nevertheless, corruption is what all
\nof us who are leaders and followers must resolve to fight. We need a
\nre-orientation. We need to revive our ancient values. Then we need to make
\nour system, our institutions work. There is no short-cut to eradicating
\ncorruption.<\/p>\n
TheCable: Many people believe Buhari has the nerve to fight corruption
\nmore than you. Doesn\u2019t that bother you?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: You don\u2019t fight corruption with nerve. You fight it with the
\ninstruments of law. You fight it by building and strengthening
\ninstitutions. Go to advanced countries. Go to the countries that rank very
\nhigh on Transparency International\u2019s corruption perception index. Denmark,
\nNorway, Sweden, Singapore, name them\u2026 They don\u2019t use nerve to fight
\ncorruption. It is not the president or prime minister that fights
\ncorruption in those countries. It is the system. That is why even the
\nprime minister can be removed and tried for corruption. In Nigeria, some
\npeople want strong men as presidents who will fight corruption as they
\nwish, as they want and as they please. You cannot sustain that. You cannot
\neven guarantee that there will be no abuse. When they arrest somebody and
\nput them in handcuff on national television, we all rejoice. But how long
\nwill that last? What problem does it solve? Has it ever solved any
\nproblem? My own understanding of the anti-graft war is different. I
\nbelieve that you must first prevent corruption through administrative and
\nlegal reforms. We have succeeded in the fertilizer subsidy regime. We have
\nalso succeeded in the payroll system. We almost succeeded in the petroleum
\nsector through deregulation but we unfortunately had to reverse the
\ndecision as a result of politics. When you make it impossible or difficult
\nfor people to steal, you are fighting corruption in a sustainable manner.
\nThe second sustainable strategy is to empower anti-graft agencies. EFCC
\nand ICPC have been doing their work without any interference from me. They
\nare charging people to court and they are getting convictions and
\nrecovering stolen funds. These things are in the news every day. Read the
\npapers. That does not require presidential nerve. It is about institutions
\ndoing their jobs, the same way NAFDAC and FRSC do their jobs everyday
\nwithout taking any instructions from Aso Rock. You see, under our laws,
\nthe best a president can do is sack his appointee or employee and then the
\nEFCC or ICPC will take them to court. There is nothing any Nigerian
\npresident can do beyond that. The rest is left to the court. I cannot jail
\nanybody. Our laws do not allow the president to jail anybody. The best
\nBuhari can do is sack people and send them to court. We have gone through
\nthe era of the strongman president. It did not solve any problem. For
\nthose who think corruption is fought with \u201cnerves\u201d, I hope they know what
\nthey are praying for.<\/p>\n
TheCable: Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie, the chairman of the Arewa Consultative
\nForum (ACF), recently said you have marginalised the north since you came
\nto power\u2026<\/p>\n
Jonathan: Since he is leading the Arewa Consultative Forum, I think Alhaji
\nCoomassie needs to consult more with the people he leads. He should
\nconsult with the beneficiaries of girl schools, almajiri schools, the
\ndrivers plying the newly dualised roads in the north, the passengers using
\nthe trains, the farmers, and so on. Nigeria is my constituency and I have
\nto be fair to all, if not I would not have peace of mind. When people were
\ncalling themselves northern consensus candidate some years ago, I called
\nmyself the Nigerian consensus candidate. Most Nigerians are tired of
\nsectional leaders. They want to see NIGERIA as their constituency because
\nthey have no other country to call their own. The progress of Nigeria is
\nprogress for all. I have not marginalised any part of Nigeria and God
\nforbid that I do that. My conscience is very clear on that.<\/p>\n
TheCable: You have been described by your critics as the most divisive
\nleader Nigeria has ever had. What is your response to that?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: One of my friends told me a Yoruba proverb recently. He said
\nsomething like: if a farmer sees a thief in his farm and does not
\nimmediately raise the alarm, it is the thief himself that will start
\nshouting \u201cOle!\u201d It is people who have been playing religious and sectional
\npolitics all their lives that are now turning round to accuse me of
\nplaying sectional politics. It is very simple to verify. Look at the
\npattern of my appointments, distribution of projects and my close friends.
\nThey are from all over Nigeria. I have been fair to every group in
\nNigeria. But this is a story to be told another day. I have never
\ndiscriminated against people from other denominations or religions. I fast
\nwith my Muslim brothers and sisters during Ramadan. I have never openly or
\nsecretly incited one section of Nigeria against the other.<\/p>\n
TheCable: There are fears that there could be violence after the election.
\nAsari Dokubo is threatening hell and you are expected to call him to order
\nbut you have not. Why?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: We will not allow violence anywhere in the country. That I can
\nassure you. We are better prepared to prevent and contain violence than we
\nwere in 2011. You will notice that since 2011, there has not been any
\npost-election violence. As for Dokubo\u2019s statements, he does not speak for
\nme. But that does not mean he should not be called to order. I\u2019m sure the
\nsecurity agencies are monitoring the situation. All these threats are
\nunhelpful. That is how some politicians were saying they would make
\nNigeria ungovernable if their candidate did not WIN in 2011. We must
\njointly condemn these threats of violence no matter who is making them.
\nNobody is bigger than Nigeria.<\/p>\n
TheCable: We need to talk about the Chibok Schoolgirls. You were globally
\nadjudged to have failed to act on time. What went wrong?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: A lot went wrong. It is a traumatic experience that comes to
\nmind every day. I just pray some people will be man enough to come out and
\nadmit their ignoble roles one day. Rather than support the government at
\nsuch a trying moment, they capitalised on it to score cheap political
\npoints because of the 2015 elections.<\/p>\n
TheCable: Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said if the government had
\nresponded by launching a rescue mission immediately, the girls would have
\nbeen back home. Do you agree with that?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: Let\u2019s say the soldiers went after the kidnappers immediately.
\nRemember the terrorists were with guns and probably with bombs. The girls
\nhad become human shields. If the soldiers had gone after them and the
\ngirls were killed by the terrorists, what would have been the public
\nreaction? The military would have been accused of incompetence and
\ngenocide. The opposition will call for the resignation of the president.
\nYou can always be wise after the event. Look, we were misled from the
\nbeginning on the safety of the girls. We were also misled that they had
\nescaped from their captors. But we reacted immediately we realised what
\nwas going on. We reacted. We didn\u2019t fold our arms. But when an issue has
\nbeen politicised and people are hoping to win elections by riding on the
\nmisfortune of these girls, it is a difficult task for us to convince
\nNigerians that we did what we could reasonably do.<\/p>\n
TheCable: At some stage, you seemed to believe the opposition was behind
\nBoko Haram and that probably did not make you deal with them
\nappropriately. Am I right?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: Not me. I have said consistently from the beginning that they
\nare terrorists. I challenge anybody to produce any evidence where I said
\nopposition was behind Boko Haram. TheCable: YOUR relationship with Modu
\nSheriff, who has been accused of being a Boko Haram sponsor, has also
\nworried many Nigerians who think you should not be seen in company with
\nhim. What is your reaction to that? Jonathan: Again, we are talking about
\nhypocrisy. Modu was a founding member of APC. He was in the board of
\ntrustees. He was a financier of APC. Nobody in APC accused him of being
\nBoko Haram. The moment he crossed over to PDP, he became Boko Haram. All
\nhell was let loose. This should make it clear to you that they are all
\nplaying politics.<\/p>\n
TheCable: Many will argue then that the opposition is better organised
\nthat the ruling party. Is that the case?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: They certainly started their campaign for 2015 well ahead of us,
\nas early as 2011. They wanted to make insecurity and corruption the issues
\nin the 2015 election and they started their mischief very, very early.
\nThey started by failing to cooperate with me on the war against Boko
\nHaram. They opposed every move I made. They started demanding that
\nsoldiers be withdrawn from Borno. Thank God I did not succumb to the
\nblackmail. Borno would no longer be part of Nigeria by now. Maiduguri
\nwould probably have been the capital city of Boko Haram\u2019s caliphate. Thank
\nGod we remained resolute in the face of blackmail and media campaign. They
\nopposed the declaration of state of emergency. They opposed the ban on
\nBoko Haram. They started circulating rumours that I was against Muslims.
\nThey accused us of genocide. Go and read the newspapers from 2011 till
\ndate. They did everything to worsen the Boko Haram problem. They knew
\nwhere they were going. The opposition also cooked up corruption
\nallegations against me. Their mischief worked with some unsuspecting
\nNigerians. Only God knows how much they say is missing now. I have lost
\ncount. Every day they will say $48 billion is missing, N500 billion is
\nmissing, $1 billion is missing. Some will say N20 trillion has been
\nstolen. It does not make sense any more. Recently, an APC governor said
\n$30 billion is missing from excess crude account. By the time you
\ncalculate all that they say is missing, we must be richer than China and
\nUS combined! All kinds of wicked lies. Nothing but mischief because they
\nwant to win elections. They started scandalising anyone perceived to be
\nclose to me, including men of God. I never knew politics could be this
\ndirty. By nature, I don\u2019t play dirty. I try to be fair. Unfortunately,
\npeople fail to recognise God in their scheming and calculations. No matter
\nwhat they throw at me, if God says I will not fall, I will remain
\nstanding. To answer your question more directly, yes the opposition is
\nbetter organised in playing mischievous and dirty politics but they will
\nfail. TheCable: Can we now talk about the minister of petroleum resources,
\nMrs Diezani Alison-Madueke? Jonathan: Why not?<\/p>\n
TheCable: The opinion of many of YOUR critics is that you should have
\nfired her long ago because of all the scandals surrounding her.<\/p>\n
Jonathan: I will tell you something. Any society where the leader acts
\nbased on rumours and conjecture, that is a society that is doomed. Mrs.
\nAlison-Madueke has not been convicted or indicted of any wrong doing. I
\nhave 42 ministers and 18 advisers. If I act only on rumour, I would have
\nfired all of them. There is hardly anyone of them that somebody has not
\ncome to say something bad about. Until allegations are proven, I don\u2019t
\nact. I will not shed any innocent blood to please my critics.<\/p>\n
TheCable: There was a statement credited to an aide of Dr Doyin Okupe that
\nif you lose, you would rather hand over to the military than hand over to
\nBuhari. Is that your position or will you concede defeat if you lose?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: We have passed the stage of military take-over. We are in a
\ndemocracy. I have always congratulated governorship candidates when they
\nwin, even when they defeat candidates of my own party. I will congratulate
\nwhoever wins. I am not known for violence. I will never incite people to
\nstart spilling blood because of an election. It is not worth it. My
\nambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian. You see, it is God that
\nmade me president. If God says I will be re-elected, there is nothing
\nanybody can do to stop me. All the plots against me will fail. All the
\nlies will crumble. All the hate messages will amount to nothing. God put
\nme here and if he says it is time to go, he knows best. If he says I will
\ndo a second term, no amount of lies can unseat me.<\/p>\n
TheCable: Why was it difficult for you to come out to dissociate yourself
\nfrom the divisive and hate mongering advert by Ayo Fayose which was done
\nas a campaign for you?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: I saw the advert like any other person and I don\u2019t think anybody
\nshould hold me responsible for an advert run by someone else. All our
\nofficial adverts are run by our campaign organisation. I don\u2019t have power
\nover what others decide to do. However, I smell double standards again.
\nWhy are you journalists not asking Buhari to come out and condemn all the
\npersonal insults being hurled at me by his supporters in the newspapers
\nand social media? Do you believe Jonathan should be guilty in everything
\nunder the sun while his opponent is a saint in everything? I don\u2019t think
\nso.<\/p>\n
TheCable: There have been several versions of what transpired in the
\nmeeting between you and Obasanjo at Ota where TWO clerics were reportedly
\npresent. Can you share with us what truly happened\u2026 and why is it
\ndifficult for Obasanjo to reconcile with you?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: I have nothing but respect for Baba. It was a private
\nconversation and I will keep it private. If he decides to make it public,
\nthat will be his decision and not mine. On the issue of reconciliation\u2026
\nBaba is not my age mate. He is Baba to me. I cannot be talking about
\nreconciliation as if we are age mates who quarrelled. I have no problem
\nwith him but he has been making his views about me known publicly. If you
\nknow Baba very well, he does not hide his feelings. He likes to make his
\nfeelings known publicly. It was the same thing he did with President
\n(Shehu) Shagari, Gen. (Ibrahim) Babangida, President Yar\u2019Adua. It is
\nnothing personal. He just has a passion for Nigeria and you cannot deny
\nhim his opinion, even if you don\u2019t agree with his positions on issues. I
\nwould prefer he speaks to me directly and privately like former heads of
\nstate do, but he has his own style.<\/p>\n
TheCable: In his well-publicised article, Soludo said you like outsourcing
\nyour responsibilities as president, in apparent reference to the idea of
\ncoordinating minister for the economy. What is your response to this and
\nwho truly is in charge of the economy, you or Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: As president, I head a team. I appoint team members and
\napportion responsibilities to each person. We hold meetings. They brief
\nme. They get my approval. Now, this is how government is run all over the
\nworld. You don\u2019t say Obama is not in charge of American economy because he
\nhas economic advisers. Or you say David Cameron is not in charge of UK
\neconomy because he has appointees in charge of various economic
\ndepartments.<\/p>\n
TheCable: Why should you get a second term?<\/p>\n
Jonathan: Nigerians need to join me in moving Nigeria forward, not
\nbackward. We cannot go back to the old ways. We are on a project to
\ntransform Nigeria. We have laboured very hard, day and night, to get to
\nthis stage. Today we have the biggest economy in Africa and things can
\nonly get better. Nigeria is a preferred destination for foreign investment
\nbecause of our investor-friendly policies. We are implementing an
\nindustrial revolution plan that will help to catapult us on the global
\ndevelopment index. We have embarked on massive infrastructural
\ndevelopment, covering power, rail, roads, water and so on. We\u2019ve embarked
\non institutional reforms to be able to fight corruption and deliver
\ncredible elections. We are certainly on the right path. This is not the
\ntime to change leadership. This is the time to consolidate and progress to
\nthe next level. After being privileged to be President of Nigeria for four
\nyears, I understand very well where the shoe pinches and where the roads
\nare rough. I have taken action to redress the failures in the system for a
\nsmoother journey to the next level. We are very close to cruising now.
\nBringing in a new driver at this point can lead to a reversal.
\nTheCable<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2026Wants Votes To Move Nigeria Forward TheCable: Are you in good shape for the presidential poll given the fact that APC has gathered momentum in the last two months? Jonathan:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive","category-interviews"],"yoast_head":"\n