POST ELECTION CRISIS- NIGERIA IS NOT DIVIDED---- Jonathan

NEW YORK — PRESIDENT Goodluck
Jonathan, yesterday, declared that
the rising cases of terrorism in the
Northern part of the country are not
an indication that Nigeria is divided
along ethno-religious sentiments,
but that they are part of an
emerging global phenomenon
which can best be described as the
ugly side of world history.
The President, who spoke at an
interactive session with the
Association of United Nation
Correspondents, at the UN building
in New York also stated that the
increasing pace of bomb explosions
and other acts of terrorism across
the country are not due to his
emergence as president, but that the
reign of terror by the Islamic sect,
Boko Haram, had been there before
the demise of his predecessor, the
late President Umaru Yar’Adua.
United States President Barack
Obama and President Goodluck
Jonathan at the White House,
yesterday.
He, however, expressed support for
the move by the Governor of Borno
State to negotiate with the Boko
Haram members, saying that the
autonomy of the states with the
federation allows states to embark
on such initiatives but warned that if
that fails the Federal Government
would move in to enforce the law
decisively.
He denied insinuations that the
rising insecurity was as a result of
sharp division between the
Christian-dominated South and
Muslim- dominated North, even as
he said that the security situation in
Nigeria can be tackled internally and
does not call for international alarm.
“We have these challenges but it has
nothing to do with elections,
somebody tried to relate that to the
elections whether a Christian or a
Muslim is elected is not the issue.
This issue of explosions have been
with us and we are doing all we
could to curtail it but I promise you
that as a government we are
committed and we will bring it
down ”, he said.
He noted that “all over the world
when you have issues of terrorism it
cannot be easily wiped out. You
might be the most powerful country
but with terror attack you have to
manage it and gradually suppress it
and that is what we are doing. It
definitely has nothing to do with the
elections whether I am a Christian
President or a Muslim President.
“I always tell people that it is part of
the ugly history of the world and the
issue of terrorism will definitely be
over maybe in the next few years.
And that is one thing Nigeria is
committed to doing with other
friendly countries. Initially we as a
nation didn’t believe we have
terrorists amongst us until it became
obvious that we have some
elements of terrorism by the
explosions in Nigeria.
”It started some years back from the
Niger Delta up to the north eastern
part of the country, incidentally I am
from the Niger Delta ”, he said
According to him, “the issue of
insecurity has nothing to do with the
issue of Christians or Muslims. If you
look at the population of Nigeria, the
two religion share 50-50. If you look
at the result of the elections, you will
see that I won almost the whole
country, it was only in about four
states that I had less that 25 per cent.
Our constitution states that to win an
election you must win 25 per cent of
two-third but I got 25 per cent in
about 32 states and actually, if you
include Abuja it would be 34 states
out of 37.
Even in the states I didn’t get 25 per
cent the margin was quite minimal,
16 was the minimum ”.
He added that “one error most
people who are not Nigerians make
is that the northern part of the
country is dominated by the Muslims
while the southern part is
dominated by Christians. That is
completely wrong, you have
Christians in both north and south.
Besides, he stressed that “in the
South-Western side of the country
you have almost equal number of
Christians and Muslims, even in the
extreme north like in Borno State
where you are experiencing most of
the explosions in the country, there
are significant percentage of
Christians though they are more
Muslims there.
“For instance the Boko Haram attack,
Boko Haram is a sect that is against
everything Western either
civilization or education, the see
those who embrace them as
enemies and they are more
antagonistic to fellow Muslims that
they perceive that have embraced
the western way of life. So the
explosions are not targeted at
Christians because a Christian is the
President.
To Work with Tambuwal
The President, who spoke at an
interactive session with the
Association of United Nation
Correspondents, at the UN building
in New York, said he is not perturbed
by the decision of the House of
Representatives to abandon the
zoning policy of the ruling People
Democratic Party, PDP, saying that
the party will work out another
position to assuage for the perceived
marginalisation of the South-West
zone.
While pledging his commitment to
work harmoniously with the
leadership of the National Assembly
at all times, Jonathan stated that the
development is a PDP affair which
will be handled by the party to
ensure that no part of the country
feels unnecessarily aggrieved by the
actions or decisions of other parts.
According to him, his government
was not against the choice of
Ibrahim Tambuwal and Emeka
Ehedioha as Speaker and Deputy
Speaker of the House of Federal
House of Representatives. He also
defended his party’s position
backing a South West candidate.
The move, he explained, was to
simply to obey the part of the
country ’s law which advocated the
principle of Federal Character, saying
that the essence was to allow every
geo-political zone of the country fair
share.
The president who was responding
to a question on the fate of the
South-West in the new political
dispensation at the National
Assembly as a result of the action of
members of the House, argued that
the decision was that of the entire
House to choose who so ever they
wish and this also includes the
South West members.
The President was accompanied by
Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr
Timipreye Sylva, and his Benue State
counterpart, Mr Gabriel Suswan,
among few other Nigerian officials
including two permanent Secretaries
and the Special Assistant on MDGs,
Hajiya Amina Ibrahim Zubairu.
Jonathan met with President Obama
yesterday and will this morning
meet with Bill Clinton, before
returning to Nigeria, tonight
(Thursday).