President Goodluck Jonathan has given assurances that elections will be held in Nigeria and a new government will be inaugurated May 29th 2015.He made these declarations during the Presidential Media chat on Wednesday evening.
He equally dismissed reports that Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission,INEC ,Professor Attahiru Jega has been asked to proceed on terminal leave as “garbage”.Jonathan insisted that he appointed Jega and he has not sacked him.
Speaking during the chat, he also said the decision to postpone the elections was made by INEC which took into consideration inputs from security chiefs.The president however noted that the issue of security was beyond Boko Haram because there are red spots across the country.
He equally addressed the issue of the kidnapped Chibok School girls.Though he did not give details, the president said he was hopeful that the girls will come back alive especially given the renewed cooperation by neighbouring countries.
Jonathan equally dismissed reports that Nigeria was swindled into a fake ceasefire with Boko Haram.He said nobody swindled Nigeria.What happened ,the president said was that a “window” was provided by Chad and the government latched on to it.But the sect appeared to be factionalised ,a development which stalled the move.
He declined to assess General Muhammadu Buhari.Jonathan said it would be unfair to be asked to assess him at this point intime.
The president also had a chance to clarify his infamous claim that stealing is not corruption.According the president he was only quoting Justice Mustapha a former chief Justice of the Federation.He however insisted that the average Nigerian will be more incensed if you called somebody a thief.If you go to my village and say someone is corrupt, they may not understand,but if you say he is a thief ,they are likely to respond with revulsion. People are also likely to respond more negatively if you called him “Ole” thief in a place like Lagos he said.
