Sunday, February 22, 2015 9:58 am
Jonathan addresses Islamic clerics at the State House, Marina
President Goodluck Jonathan at the weekend in Lagos cleared the air concerning his controversial agreement that he would serve just one term if he was voted into power in 2011.
A recorded tape where former President Olusegun Obasanjo made this statement on behalf of President Jonathan at an event where the President and his wife, Dame Patience, were present is being aired on television stations in the country ahead of the shifted general elections.
Jonathan said that was not his intention but that he did not want to counter Obasanjo since it was a public function and he needed to win the party’s primary election and become President.
He said that he did not want to join issues with Obasanjo because the party members were there for primaries and “I just wanted to win my primaries.”
Jonathan, who was soliciting for support from Islamic clerics in Lagos and other Southwest states ahead of the presidential election on 28 March, at an interactive session he held with them at the State House, Marina, Lagos, also said he was quoted out of context in the statement he made in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia concerning single tenure.
“I need to clarifiy this otherwise I do not need to talk about it. This matter continues to come up,” he said adding that what happened was that late President Umaru Yar’Adua came out with political reforms when he, Jonathan was the Vice president and that he (Jonathan) was the chairman of the interparty group of the committee set up by late Yar’adua to agree on the president’s proposal for a single tenure.
“I made that statement in Addis Ababa, when I addressed Nigerians. I made that statement after I had won elections. I was advising Nigerians in Addis Ababa and I made mention of this issue of seven years of single tenure as being the best for the country.
“I now added that if Nigerians will agree to run a single tenure of seven years I will not contest. That was the statement I made,” he said.
He said that he still believed in that recommendation in order to prevent the waste of resources during re-election bids of incumbents and that he would still step down from the race if Nigerians accept his proposal of a single term of seven years.
“Those who are advertising on television that I said I was not going to contest a second tenure should play the whole tape,” Jonathan said adding that with such adverts, people were diminishing the office of the president because of politics.
He thanked the clerics for giving him the opportunity to clarify the statement and urged them to continue to pray for the unity and prosperity of the country.
Earlier the Chief Imam of Oriwu Central Mosque, Ikorodu, Lagos, Sheikh Oshoala Ajagbemokeferi, had urged the president to carry every Nigerian along in his administration.
The Imam pledged support for the programmes of the administration and urged the government to conduct a free, fair election to win the favour of God.
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He does not want to leave now because the 10-year concession of “theft” of 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day would be stopped as soon as he leaves – that is the real deal, shoring up Boko Haram in the North East was just to keep the people “busy” to give him full reign to steal.
Jonathan said it himself. You cannot put a goat and yam together, the goat MUST eat the team. We have put a goat and yam together – and we see what has happened! LET US NOT REPEAT THE SAME MISTAKE! Doing the same thing over and over again is madness and Nigerians ARE NOT mad people – So God willing we would vote Buhari.
See how the last goat and yam put together played out:
The Supervised-oil-theft contracts:
President Jonathan have personally supervised the grand theft, through two contracts financed with tax payers money, since January 2012 (possibly fall of 2011) of 400,000 barrels of oil per day by those he hand-picked to safeguard the supply lines against theft. According to Soludo: “First, you (Finance Minister, Okonjo-Iweala) admit that ‘oil theft’ has reduced oil output from the average 2.3 – 2.4 million barrels per day to 1.95 mpd (meaning that at least 350,000 to 450,000 barrels per day are being ‘stolen’). On the average of 400,000 per day and the oil prices over the past four years, it comes to about $60bn ‘stolen’ in just four years.
– This is done through two 2 contracts that Jonathan signed to rebel leaders from his tribe.
These are the 2 contracts by the Jonathan administration that is a major feed to the monster bedevilling Nigeria and turning it into a failed state, and a personal estate of King Jonathan, it was fall 2011 & 2012 time frame – widely reported by Wall Street Journal and major newspapers in Nigeria – just google it – I like the composition in the piece titled, Help, This Nigerian State Is Failing By Ayobami Oyalowo:
”In August, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) broke some disturbing news about Nigeria. It was reported that some ex-militants in the Niger Delta had been paid about N6.32billion within the past one year by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Yes, for the ‘noble’ service of providing security against vandals for the Corporation’s oil pipeline network. Imagine! The breakdown, as outlined by WSJ, is this:
Chief Government Ekpumopolo (alias Tompolo), Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, ‘General’ Ebikabowei Victor Ben (Boyloaf) and ‘General’ Ateke Tom were respectively paid N5.1 billion, N1.44 billion, N608 million and N608 million yearly by the state-owned NNPC, as ‘protection money’ to guard the pipelines they once attacked.
As if that was not enough an insult on the collective intelligence of Nigerians, earlier in the year the Federal Government awarded a contract worth $103.4million (over N15billion) to the Global West Vessel Specialist Limited (GWVSL) – a firm widely believed to be owned by Tompolo to supply 20 vessels for the use of the nation’s military authorities to secure the waterways. Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Ziadeke Akpobolokemi, had last year sent a memo titled, “Award of Contract for the Strategic Concessioning Partnership with NIMASA to Provide Platforms for Tracking Ships and Cargoes, Enforce Regulatory Compliance and Surveillance Of The Entire Nigerian Maritime Domain,” to President Goodluck Jonathan.
In considering the memo, President Goodluck Jonathan and Akpobolokemi chose GWVSL as the preferred company for the 10-year concession agreement, renewable for two terms of five years each. Jonathan, in a memo dated 9th November, 2011, with reference number PRES/99/MT/61, approved Akpobolokemi’s memo, which the Federal Executive Council rubber-stamped on 5th January, 2012. According to Akpobolokemi, GWVSL “will provide platforms for effective policing of Nigeria’s maritime domain and ensure compliance with international maritime conventions on vessels and ships voyaging the country’s waters”. NIMASA maintains that the concessionaire would help the Federal Government to enforce the sabotage law and collect levies on its behalf. This, in a country that still maintains a statutory Naval force, and without a track record for GWVSL?
From the above, the current occupant of the presidential villa showed where his loyalty lies…rather than train the military, he equipped criminals and vandals who had taken up arms against the state. No wonder so much arms and ammunition have found their way into Nigeria and our country has now become one gigantic human abattoir where someone is killed on an average of an hour, daily. Between January to May 2014 it has been estimated that over 1,500 people have been mindlessly cut down by terrorists and blood thirsty killers.
This is disgraceful. This desperate president keeps atomising our country, using divide and rule. He meets pastors separately. He meets Imams separately. He meets Obas, He meets chiefs, market women and even old Yoruba leaders, who are not capable of winning their wards: all in his desperate bid to reflate his sagged campaign. Now, he is renouncing a pledge he made publicly not to seek re-election: all to win votes! What he shows is a president lacking in integrity, lacking in credibility .