Encomium
-detail of Sunday, May 4 media chat
‘We don’t know the location of missing Chibok school girls’
‘We are not negotiating their release with anyone’
‘Yes, I’ve sought international assistance’
‘Parries on 2015’
‘PDP is a champion’
‘No plan to remove fuel subsidy’
Promises improvement in power supply
THE 7th edition of the Presidential Media Chat held on Sunday, May 4, 2014, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja,Federal Capital Territory.
Anchored by NTA’s Cyril Stober, President Goodluck Jonathan fielded questions from a panel of journalists including Sunday Vanguard’s Jide Ajani, Funke Fadugba of Raypower FM and BBC world service’s Bashir Abdullahi.
Jonathan addressed issues of escalating Boko Haram insurgency, the missing Chibok, Borno school girls, the allegedly missing NNPC $20 billion, corruption, the economy, the World Economic Summit currently going on in Abuja, epileptic power supply, his re-election bid in 2015, among others.
And dissatisfied with his answers to the questions posed to him, disenchanted Nigerians took to the social media to lampoon Jonathan.
@dupekilla tweeted it as “A media chat of shame.” Just #BringBackOurGirls.
Dino Melaye in his twitter handle @dino_melaye tweeted: “Abacha looted billions of dollars, over a decade after, U.S cannot state where most of the loots are. GEJ says US will know when you steal.”
And that was in response to Jonathan’s defense that if actually $20 billion was stolen, America will know.
How the others joked with Jonathan’s media chat:
@TheVunderleind: LMAOOO! The MB used for streaming this media chat was worth it! Front row tickets to all-star comedy.
@dupekilla: #GEJ asked you all to talk to the #ChibokGirls’ parents to cooperate. Do you guys realize how sick this is???
@AbbaElSniiper: “The way the President dodges questions, he can duck bullets and arrows in war fronts. #Presidentialmediachat”
@datguykofo: How many times has Mr. President used the word, ‘Promise’ tonight? @Presidentialmediachat.”
@asherstuta: “How I pay for @AYLIVE when I can watch #GEJmediachat for free”
@Dolipeepe: @temiokomi every time they ask GEJ about the missing NNPC billions…he gives us a long story on how Sanusi was a bad CBN gov. Very funny.
@toluogunlesi: GEJ should do this every day, God knows. This is the most entertaining show in #Nigeria at the moment.
@obicharles11: Jonathan just put the blame on the abducted girls parents by claiming they haven’t given the military their photographs
@Nedunanja: 3 days ago, this man said Nigeria wasn’t poor because Nigerians are scattered all over the world. Today, he sank into a new low. #GEJmediachat
@Fhemmymhdey: Nigerians deserves better!!! #Presidentialmediachat.
@Soundthots even for a media chat with pre-determined questions, GEJ’s responses lacked the requisite intelligence and credence. SMH!
@obynodan. So much condemnation for this president. WHY? Presidentialmediachat
@lexybaba001 we have entered this one chance called Jonathan, may the Lord deliver this nation
@lamlaolu the word corruption is now being over-used. Ordinary stealing, people will say it is corruption.
Excerpts of the interview…
These are trying times for Nigerians, especially with the insurgency and the abduction of the school girls. What are your thoughts on these issues?
I agree with you that these are trying times, even for the world. When you turn your TV, you see breaking negative news all over the world. As a nation, we are having an unfair share of these challenges. The recent bombings, especially in Nyanya, are quite worrisome and unexpected because the security personnel have done reasonably well. If you have access to privileged information, then, you would know the number of such plans that they have been able to forestall. Then you will appreciate them.
In terms of the kidnapped school girls, since when they were kidnapped on the 29th of last month, the security personnel have searched everywhere in Borno State which has the highest number of Boko Haram terrorists.
We have deployed as many army forces as we could, and even all the information that have been volunteered to us, but the girls have not been found.
One thing I am happy about is that there has not been a story of the girls being hurt or dead. I repeatedly held a meeting with security chiefs, security personnel and the governor of Borno State, who came with his deputy, the principal of the school, commissioner of education and others, and we had useful discussions. What we request is cooperation of parents and guardians. The principal informed me that 53 of the girls have returned, while the police said 41. But the ones that are yet to return, they have not been able to give a clear identity of them. That’s one of the reasons I set up a committee to go to Chibok, Borno State.
We are talking with neighbouring countries like Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Benin and even North Africa, so that wherever they take those girls to, we will surely get them back.
There are rumours that the government is negotiating with the abductors. You can’t negotiate with who you don’t know, because nobody has claimed responsibility of the abduction.
Normally, if it was Boko Haram, they would come out and claim responsibility, usually through social media. For instance, when they bombed ThisDay office, they went to social media and showed they did it. But in this case, that has not come. Maybe you are as a journalist should know better, because I hardly have time for social media.
You maintained you have deployed the military all over the state in search of the girls, but up till now your government has not been able to find them. Where are they? And how much longer would Nigerians have to wait?
Government needs assistance and that’s why I am even happy. These girls’ disappearance cannot be another mystery that the world was not able to solve.
The biggest countries with all the technology cannot tell us exactly what happened to the disappeared aircraft, and it is even becoming mysterious for experts in the aviation sector. These girls cannot be another case similar to that. The good thing about it is that we have not heard of any harm done to them. There are even rumours of some of them being married out. To who? Where? If people married them, they have to live a life. They cannot continue to hide them forever. All the communities, all the hills, the air force and army went, scanned and searched, they didn’t not see anything. These girls must be within these areas. We are working, but we need cooperation from the parents and guardians.
During the Niger Delta militant crisis, elders that were trusted by these militants were brought. And it brought back peace. Should something similar not be done in this case to restore peace?
Luckily, you mentioned the Niger Delta crisis. From the beginning of my political journey, I was involved in the Niger Delta crisis, even until I became the vice president and later the president. The approach of the Niger Delta militants is quite different from that of the terrorists.
The militants did not go to the market or motor park and kill people. They were not terrorists. Even when I was deputy governor, Obasanjo sometimes fought for us. The Niger Delta militants had reasons for their agitation, so you could have a discussion with their leaders. These terrorists just want to kill people. Nobody has appeared as the leader of Boko Haram to say this is my problem, and I want to interact with the government. We have made efforts using such approach. The first committee I set up was made up of Borno and Yobo State elders, but it led nowhere.
There are reports that strange helicopters drop weapons and food in Sambisa forest and one other in Adamawa. Can you confirm this?
This is more than just a rumour, because when we had a meeting with governors, Governor Nyako of Adamawa State, mentioned that helicopters were dropping supplies to the Boko Haram members. Of course, we have aircraft that hover around these areas. What I think is that we are politicians with serious national security issues. I am not ruling out the possibility, but we have heard that. But nobody has shown us a clip or photograph to prove that.
People are saying that we are not taking the fight to the terrorists. Even recently, Senate President, David Mark said it was time to declare something tougher. We are asking, are the Armed Forces capable of pulling down this insurgency?
Our armed forces, including all the security agencies from Police, to SSS, the navy, air force and even civil defence are capable. Of course, we need to recruit more and I just treated a memo in respect to recruiting and training of more personnel. We need to increase the armed forces’ capacity and equipment. No ordinary citizen wants to hear a bomb blast anywhere, even in the country.
I monitor what happens in the country, and it has even gone down a little. Before this time, those that attend service with me in the State House, if they have been looking at my face, they will see that my face will change. In those bad days, you’ll be in service and information will get to me that they have bombed one church in Gombe, Yobe, Borno and my face will change almost immediately.
Their motivation was not really religion. All they wanted was to start a war between the Christians and Muslims. Due to Nigeria’s population and economy of the most populous black nation, any group of people who are anti-progress would like to attack Nigeria if they want to attack the black man. We are receiving unfair share of this global terror. With the cooperation of the ordinary people, we will surely bring it under control.
Would you extend the state of emergency in the three states?
The state of emergency is still active. Although people feel that in a state of emergency, the political institutions must collapse, that is, the governor will leave and the state assembly will be dissolved. This terrorists have advantage over our conventional soldiers because they can fire at will, while a conventional soldier cannot fire a rifle, except during confrontation. The terrorists are living normal lives among the people, it is a guerilla warfare.
Terrorism is not a phenomenon that you think a state of emergency of six months will wipe it out. I believe we are succeeding and it is very helpful.
What are you doing to regulate the undocumented foreign nationals in Nigeria?
The Interior Ministry recently recruited a number of personnel. At the same time, Nigeria is one of the worst offenders when it comes to entering other countries without proper travel particulars. If the Nigerian government tightens issues very hard, it will affect the whole concept of ECOWAS. You have to tread carefully, especially knowing that citizens are involved.
The World Economic Forum would be holding later this week, and it seems there would be a total lock down of activities in Abuja. Explain better regarding the security measures for our visitors.
It actually affects only Abuja, but Abuja has not been closed down completely. Considering the heads of government who have indicated interest, it would lead to traffic logjam for long hours.
This measure is just to help manage the heads of government moving around. We are pleading with privately owned establishments, government-owned ones will be closed down. It is a one-off thing. We plead with Nigerians to understand with us. These three days will not kill us.
What kind of cooperation are you having with UN and other countries to end the insurgency?
On this, we have requested assistance from other countries. I have personally had a few discussions with the United States of America’s President, Barack Obama, on assistance on the insurgency. We have made a number of requests to the US government to give physical assistance, because to defeat terrorism, you must have superior intelligence, and not just human knowledge.
The Nigerian government is ready to do anything that will bring this act of terrorism to an end. I am pained when I hear any Nigerian dies. Even if it’s a Boko Haram, he’s a Nigerian. And I am their president. We have a robust agricultural programme that will change the face of the north, but these things cannot go on. WAEC almost refused to conduct exams in Borno State because they have killed their officials.
On the rebasing of the economy?
The rebasing of the economy does not mean that Nigeria grew overnight. It is just like taking inventory of how things currently are. When you have done the counting, you realize new figures. There were a number of factors that were contributing to the economy that were captured the last time the economy was rebased.
For instance, Nollywood. The small and medium scale enterprises employ more people than large scale. When we say we have improved, we don’t mean that we have employed everybody. Nowhere in the world that government employs everybody.
What is happening with the forensic audit you promised to set-up in the controversial missing oil money?
The missing money is now almost becoming a phenomenon in the Nigerian government. Every regime has had a case of missing oil money. The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria came up and said that Nigeria lost $49.86 million, within 18-month time frame not 24 months. We got calls from all over the world that the foreign aids that comes into Africa is less than $50 billion, so could people steal more than the total money that come into Africa. $50 billion is a lot of money! If you take $50 billion today, America will know, because this is their money. How can you hide $50 billion for God’s sake! I am not sure the richest man in Africa or even the world can give $10 billion cash.
The CBN governor is not an ordinary citizen of the country. At some time, it was $12 billion, and after some weeks, they said it was $20 billion that was missing. I didn’t know the figure to believe. Probably if he were still there now, he would have maintained another figure.
Ask yourself, is it easy for anybody to steal $20 billion and people will not know? America will know and they will tell you where the money is. I am telling you, if one person or a group of people steal $20 billion in Nigeria, America will know. The world is so open. Where will you hide $20 billion? America will tell you where exactly you kept the money, because it must be through network that you kept the money. The audit is going on, it is a lot of money.
