by Musa Abdullahi
In a new interview with Al Jazeera’s Yvonne Ndege President Goodluck Jonathan talks about the upcoming elections, the fight against Boko Haram, reasons for postponing the last election date and much more. In the exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan vowed to defeat Boko Haram.
Reacting on the sudden step-up in fighting Boko Haram close to the election, the President said: It’s out of ignorance. In a political environment, if one party, particularly the ruling party is going to the left, they (opposition) would have to go to the right. They must find something. They must have something to tell the people.
On if he is scared of losing the elections: I will not lose the elections.
On the elections being postponed again: I don’t think so. I believe the elections will be conducted as scheduled by INEC that is National elections on the 28th of this month. I don’t see why we should postpone again because I am quite impressed with the successes going on in the north. There is a misunderstanding about the postponement. In 2011 we conducted elections in Nigeria, we had Boko Haram. The fact is that within this period, somehow the level of Boko Haram within this period was quite serious and from all indications and from the signals the security agencies got, people are trying to use them disrupt the elections. In 2011 there were no such signals and if you disrupt the elections in a number of states especially for the presidential elections, it will affect declaration of results. So the security services don’t want to take any chances. They did not tell Nigerians that they must route Boko Haram 100% before the elections could be conducted but they want to degrade Boko Haram to the extent that they would no longer have the kind of strength that they would come out and disrupt the elections. That is the key thing. In terms of taking over our territories, yes we will take over all our territories and very soon there will be no part of Nigeria where they will erect a flag and say this is a Boko Haram territory.
WATCH THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW
