President Goodluck Jonathan appeared on live television for a Presidential Media chat earlier today. Here are 10 quotable quotes from his appearance:
Sanusi Sack
“Forget whether you like Jonathan or not, as the President, the President has absolute power to suspend the CBN governor or anybody. Sanusi is still the governor of the CBN. Sanusi can come back tomorrow to continue his work. Sanusi only stepped aside. The issue of suspension and removal are very different.
Sanusi’s Whistleblowing
“Sanusi said its $49 Billion, then $1 2Billion & now $20 Billion, I don’t know which to believe, we must look into it, even if its $1.”
Cost of Centenary Celebration
” I cannot say exactly the particular cost of the Centenary celebration, but we will accommodate the governors, and feed them. Every other thing is being sponsored by private sector, from America, Dubai, it’s purely commercial enterprise.”
National Conference
“We won’t allow the disintegration of Nigeria to be debated in the National Conference. The conference is definitely not to prevent disintegration. Nigeria will not disintegrate.”
PDP and 2015 elections
“The President of Nigeria, based on the PDP manifesto, is the leader of the party (PDP). Even if today am not contesting election, I’ll lead my party to victory. Presently the political atmosphere is really hot. PDP is still the dominant party in Nigeria. I won’t want to use this platform to campaign for PDP but it remains the dominant party in the country.”
“Days of Mr President or Mr. Governor imposing his will on the people is over. Even if today I am not contesting election, I will make sure I lead my party to victory”
“I’ll rather leave that (issue of contesting for 2015 election). If I said today am contesting, there would be issues. If I said I am, the political atmosphere is presently hot. So I’ll rather leave that.”
Boko Haram
“The issue of Borno state is very unfortunate. I didn’t expect the governor to say such. If the Governor of Borno state thinks Nigerian army are not useful, I will pull soldiers out for one month, just one month! Then may be the governor will know they are working.”
“The Boko Haram bombings started in Abuja here. If the security men have not been working hard I don’t think there’ll be peace in Abuja.”
“I can assure you that we’ll get over it. Pakistan is also facing it, and I don’t want to talk much, but I can assure you we’ll get over it.
Kerosene Subsidy
“I was involved in Kerosene subsidy as Vice President to Yar’Adua. Kerosene subsidy was never removed. If I had been allowed to remove oil subsidy all the stories of money missing won’t be coming up.”