SECURITY
Amanpour: “Is Nigeria prepared in case there's a terrorist attack? (Like that of Algeria)
Jonathan: “.... what happened in Algeria is quite unfortunate.”
Amanpour: Others believe Boko Haram is about resisting misrule and corruption”
Jonathan: “No! No! No! Boko Haram is not as a result of misrule. Sometimes people feel it’s as a result of poverty, definitely not. We should not play politics with Boko Haram”
Amanpour: “The security forces are driving people to the hands of Boko Haram”
(Interjection)
Jonathan: How!? How!?
Amanpour: “One of the NGO's is quoted as saying: indiscriminate security measures, heavy handed crackdown, that rounds up thousands of people, whether they are civilian or children, people that have got nothing to do with Boko Haram. They are also saying the police in the last year or so have killed more people than Boko Haram. Do you admit that there is a problem in the security dealing with it?”
Jonathan: “That!-is not-correct. That!-is not- correct. I have said it severally; those are insinuations by some interest groups”
Amanpour: “One of those interest groups is the State Department of the United States”
Jonathan: “No! No! No! People get wrong information to the State Department of United States. They have the means of knowing the truth, they should try and “filter the truth”. They should not just listen to people who have access to them.”
Amanpour: “The United States Assistant Secretary of State has said: the methods of the crackdown is inflaming the population and inflaming the situation”
POWER (Electricity)
Amanpour: “When I interviewed you 3 years ago now, in your first interview as you assumed power. You said that the main issues for the people of Nigeria are corruption and even electricity, power you talked about. Today those are still the same issues. Some 60% of the people of Nigeria don't have regular power or electricity, 3 years later what do have to say about that?”
Jonathan: “I would have loved that you asked an ordinary Nigerian in the streets of Lagos and Abuja or another other city this question about power. That is one area that Nigerians are quite pleased with government, that our commitment to improve power is working. So if you are saying something different, am really surprised. That is one area that even civil society members agree that government has kept faith with its promise.”
Amanpour: “What should I tell the people who keep contacting us and saying they hope they have electricity just to be able to watch this interview on their televisions, clearly it is still a big problem. Is it still a problem despite the progress you say you made?”
Jonathan: “We have not got to where we should be, the power infrastructure is one investment that must complete the chain before the bulb can light.
I promise you that before the end of the year, power would be reasonably stable.”
CORRUPTION
Amanpour: “...corruption which you say you are trying to tackle. When people look at Nigeria and see all your wealth, they say oh my goodness this is a country that is stealing and bleeding itself dry. Even your own Minister of Finance talked about 400,000 barrels of oil a day simply being stolen, simply disappearing without any account. One of your ministers has said the level of theft from the government amounts to about $7 billion (U.S Dollars) a year, that's still a problem isn't it?”
Jonathan: “This stolen crude is being bought by refineries abroad and they know the oil was stolen. The world must condemn what is wrong. The stolen crude is refined abroad; it’s not refined in Nigeria”.
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