On Sunday the 29th of September 2013, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan hosted the media in what has been tagged the 5th Presidential Media Chat since he got back to the Office in 2011.The idea behind the chat is to have
members of the press ask the president pertinent issues in the country.
With the news of the slaughtering of the young students killed in their
sleep last night in a secondary school in Yobe State, Nigerians were
quite keen to listen to what their president had to say to them.The president talks about corruption,
the petroleum industry, the economy as well as other interesting issues.
In this laid back chat, President Jonathan speaks freely with the
journalists and the floor was open for questions from social media.
On low key Independence Celebrations
The low key is not because of the security per say.The only ceremony we are having is the change of guard which holds every
Monday, but we will just do it on Tuesday so that some people can come
and watch.Every part of this country is safe enough for celebration to go on even Yobe and Borno.
On ASUU strike
It is unfortunate that the strike is lasting this long.Politics have crawled into so many things. I will use this opportunity to appeal to ASUU for the sake of our children.Even if we give ASUU 100 percent of what they are asking for, if we are
still running the university the way we are doing we will still have
the same problem.Until we get to a point where the autonomy the universities seek we will continue to have problems.
Sometimes people wake up and say Nigeria is bankrupt? Nigeria as a nation cannot be bankrupt.Obama mentioned that for them (New York Stock Exchange) to give you the privilege to ring the bell that means the Nigerian economy is viable.Anybody who talks about Nigerians being broke is just playing politics.In July or so a number of pipelines were closed down and that dropped the revenue of the nation and we said except the outstanding is brought and by now the Finance and Petroleum minister have fixed that.Even if the Federal Government was unable to pay salaries as at when due, it doesn't mean the country is broke, there may have been some delays.Before you speak you must put your country first.
On Corruption
As a president you cannot gag the judiciary,.. you must allow the judiciary to be independent.Everyone talks as if corruption is our number one problem. But corruption is not Nigeria’s biggest problem. The key thing is access to finance, infrastructure.
On 2015
If you declare too early, you will destabilise government, the electoral law gives a timeframe within which you can declare.They should show you the agreement. I only talked about single term arrangement for our country not that Jonathan will serve for a single term.
President Jonathan was interviewed by Nosa Igiebor (TELL), Shola Oshunkeye (SUN), Shehu Dauda (CAPITAL POST), Senami Ohiomokhare (AIT), Gloria Ume-Ezeoke (CHANNELS) on sunday evening and the interview was aired LIVE on major T.v and radio stations in Nigeria.Watch Full interview below:(Channel Tv)
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