President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday defended the heavy deployment of soldiers for the just-concluded Osun gubernatorial poll, saying the trend would continue in the 2015 general elections.
The president, who spoke yesterday during Inter-faith Conference in Abuja on the theme: “The imperative of interfaith understanding and cooperation for responsible politics,” also assured that the general polls next year would not divide the country, as wrongly suggested by some persons.
Urging Nigerians to disregard predictions of anarchy in 2015, the nation’s leader said: “Our challenges in the present must not be allowed to inhibit our progress.”
He lamented that as the 2015 elections draw near, “the doomsday sayers are out and predicting how Nigeria is going to catch fire next year. In the opinion of some so-called experts, our ethnic and religious differences are bound to boil over. They portray us doomed to fail.”
“But I can say categorically that Nigeria will not disintegrate; we will not fail. We will surely get over our challenges and become even a stronger nation.”
Jonathan blamed the Internet and the social media for aggravating the fear of many Nigerians towards 2015, saying: “You will be attempted to think along the same line. In a country of over 170 million people, the opinion of very few is now being elevated above that of over 100 million Nigerians.
“I once again assure Nigerians and the international community that the 2015 elections will come and go and Nigeria will stand stronger. The Nigerians I know and interact with every day are only asking for one thing in the election, transparency, free and fair conduct, and I have promised them.”
He added: “They want to vote and want their votes to count; they don’t want to be molested, they don’t want ballot boxes to be hijacked by criminals. If they are convinced that the process is free, fair and credible, they have no reason to be angry. Nobody can fight against one man one vote, one woman one vote, one youth one vote, and government will make sure that Nigerians are not killed during and after elections.
Expressing disappointment at the opposition to troops deployment by the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, the president said their position shock him.
“I am surprised that some political parties are agitating that government should withdraw security during and after elections. What surprises me most is that even some labour leaders are agitating that government should not secure people during elections. And I wonder how short human memories are.
“We’ve just finished 2011 elections and we are talking about three years ago or quite close to four years ago and we know what happened in Bauchi. About 10 youth corpers were slaughtered in that election. We know what happened in Kano; property worth millions of naira were destroyed, some of the people have not gotten back to their houses.”
“We know what happened in Akwa Ibom where some criminals even had to severe the genitals of some men in the name of politics. Demons who want to hold political office. In that kind of situation, how would a person who called himself a labour leader come out publicly to say government should not secure people. I don’t agree with them. My promise of free and fair elections is clear.
Continuing, Jonathan insisted that all the governorship elections that had been conducted were free and fair.
“I am from the PDP, the ruling party, but I don’t use that strength to make sure that PDP must win always. The PDP has lost election in Edo State, we lost election in Anambra State, we lost election in Ondo State and, of course, only two days back, we lost election in Osun State.
“But we have said that this country must change. The kind of elections that we had in the 60s that led to the crisis in the West, that threatened the sovereignty of this country cannot come up again. The kind of elections we had during the Second Republic that some people won elections as governors and ran away from the state that they claimed elected them, cannot come up again. Nigerians must vote and our vote must count.”
The president said if he was interested in manipulating elections, his party, the PDP would not lose governorship election in any state.
He said: “All what we want is credible election. I always tell politicians that none our own ambition is worth the blood of any one Nigerian. If anybody wants to be a president, governor, a senator or anything, know that your ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian.”
“How many of us can line up our children and kill them just because we want to be president. Can we use our children for sacrifice because we want to be governors? Why do we want other people’s children to die? Do we politicians think that we are created differently by the Almighty God? “
“I think we are just privileged to hold the offices we are holding and we must know that, we must make sure that this incessant killings must stop.
“Responsible politics is the politics of service. Anything short of these attributes makes politics a bad thing and destructive. We must continue to preach this message for people. Politics is all about serving people and if people don’t want you to serve go and stay in your house.
“Our states are not our private estates. This country is not owned by any individual. If you are called to serve, you serve. If it is not your turn, you leave; whenever it is your time, people will say come and serve at all levels.”
On the conference, he said: “It is heartwarming that there are people of diverse religion in this conference today. This is for our good; it is a clear demonstration of deep religious tolerance and understanding that have permeated minds of Nigerians out to embrace one another, having realised the need for mutual tolerance and understanding.”
“The interfaith initiative, as I understand it, is conceived to be a unifier, it is an avenue for all and sundry to engage with one another constructively, to understand one another, to respect one another and to care for one another.”
The President praised the organisers for the foresight in convening such a conference on a topical issue that seems to encourage political understanding among religious adherents, pointing out that there are many countries with one religion and still at war with one another.
Speaking further, he said: “We have seen countries with one single cultural heritage go to war because of minor reason. We are a people created by God and we enjoy the creation. Our country was also possible by Him and I am confident that working together, we can make our country even a better place for ourselves and our children. I will rather we focus on the mechanism that we have developed by ourselves as we evolved into a viral nation.”
“Having said this, I do not run away from the fact that we have challenges, just like any other country. I do not deny the fact that there is a reason for people to express fears about our future.
“Some politicians have been making reckless and irresponsible statements that are capable of stoking tension and inciting people to take laws into their hands and destabilise the country. But we have to understand that these statements are not borne out of the genuine reason of mood and temperament of Nigerians. Rather, these enemies of peace are only trying to spoil the mood and create temptous temperature, but they will fail.”
“Unfortunately, these statement are coming from very senior people. Our elders are making the whole country to boil. From my interactions with so many young Nigerians, just a few days back, I addressed a group of young professionals, the young generation want to live together. They want a better country where they will have the infrastructure – power, good health services, good educational facilities, roads etc. They are not interested in breaking the nation.
“But those of us who are old mainly from my age and above continue to breach peace in this country. We are not helping our children at all,” Mr. Jonathan regretted.
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