President Goodluck Jonathan has assured Nigerians that he will return to Otuoke if he loses at the polls because the country is not his father’s estate.
The President made this statement during an interview with Qatar-based international television station, AlJazeera.
He said “If by default somebody wins the election, of course, I will go back to my village. The country is not my father’s estate.”
When asked about the activities of the Boko Haram sect, Jonathan insisted that Nigerians cannot live under terror and very soon insurgency will be completely wiped out in the country.
He said “That is the key thing. In terms of taking over our territories by the sect,we will retake them and very soon, there will be no part of Nigeria where the insurgents will erect a flag and say this is a Boko Haram territory.
“That we will do but what I am saying is that even if you do that, that does not mean you are isolated from terror attack, but gradually with improvement in terms of technology and monitoring we will able to bring it down.
“When we take over all the territories they are holding, they are becoming weaker, now we will improve our monitoring using superior technologies to monitor their activities. We will begin to pick them and then of course, frustrate their activities. So over the period, it will go. We cannot live with terror. No, we can’t. We will stop it.”
On corruption in the country, Jonathan said “Even the corruption issues –even if you look at the Corruption Perception Index…yes, people talk about corruption now because it has become almost a political issue. And when you move something to the level of politics, of course normally the issue is blown out of proportion.
“Yes, we have cases of corruption but it’s not as bad as people make it to be. Yes, we have cases of stealing; I always say it that, call a thief a thief. I am not staying that Nigeria doesn’t have an element of corruption or stealing.
“Start from ex-CBN governor who said $48.9bn was missing. What is the budget of this country for God’s sake? Our budget has been about N3.something trillion. That’s roughly about $18 to $20bn a year.
“And someone is saying we lose N48.9bn. If we lost that huge amount both federal and state governments would not be able to pay salaries. I don’t know how he came about that figure. The next thing was for him to reduce the figure. Up to this time I don’t know which is the correct accusation.”
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