By Olanrewaju Ajao President Goodluck Jonathan has assured Nigerians and the international community that the military will reclaim most of the country’s territories lost to Boko Haram before the general elections rescheduled for March 28 and April 11.
The President stated this while hosting members of the Diplomatic Corps to a cocktail at the State House, adding that 70 percent of Borno which is under the control of terrorists will be recovered.
He told the Envoys that Nigeria was currently facing two major challenges. One of them he said is the Boko Haram insurgency and the other is election issue.
He said his government was partnering with other neighbouring countries stop insurgency, adding however that the security agencies did not say Boko Haram must be completely wiped put before elections are conducted.
He further assured the international community that the recent shift in date of elections will not affect the May 29th handover date.
President Jonathan commended the diplomats for their support in tackling insurgency. He confirmed that some of the diplomats had to travel to their respective countries to assist Nigeria acquire arms and weapons.
He said, “This is an interesting moment in our country. There are two things that make it interesting, first is the issue of terror. Nigeria is facing challenges like other nations; the current boko haram is one of the serious challenges.
“We recognize the real threats terrorism poses to our nation’s development and national security.
“The Boko Haram insurgency has today become the biggest manifestation of terrorism not only in our country Nigeria. It has become a regional problem. The activities of Boko Haram have shown that no single country can effectively tackle terrorism and insurgency alone.
“For effective and successful containment of this challenge is through regional and international collaboration and cooperation.
“We are therefore forging collaboration with all our immediate neighbours, sub-regional allies and even partners beyond the region to deal with this mortal challenge to our security and development.
“Just like we boldly dealt with threat of Ebola, we are determined to decisively deal with insurgency and thereby secure our country.
“We are already beginning to turn the trend. Let me reassure you very clearly that we will surely win the war against Boko Haram.
“We are moving faster now, in the next few weeks the whole world will know that we are totally committed and that we are in position to save our people.
“The next issue that is very important now is the issues of elections. Of course you are aware of the colourful campaigns especially campaigns that are led by the key political parties the PDP, and the APC.
“There are so much of tensions especially when elections were readjusted. Initially the international community thought that readjusting the elections would automatically means shifting the date for inaugurating the new President.
“We insisted that for one, INEC adjusted the dates in 2011, the adjustments is within the constitutional provision that in Nigeria elections have to be conducted not less than 30 days to the inauguration of the president and not more than 150 days of the inauguration.
“Unfortunately, this elicited some kind of controversy, ordinarily people suppose not to bother but for one reason or the other it elicited some kind of debates and some people started even doubting whether this administration is even ready to go on with these elections or whether another President will be inaugurated on May 29th.
“So, let me use this platform to clarify this issue, that the adjustments is within the constitution and not just the electoral law. Elections will be conducted as scheduled by the electoral body, March 28th and April 11th. On 29th of May this year, the President will be inaugurated. You should convey this to your country.
“Security reasons were alluded, some people asked, will Nigeria wipe out Boko Haram within six weeks if in six years they were unable to do so. And I said no.
“The security people are not saying that they will wipe out Boko Haram before elections will be conducted. But there are Boko Haram related security issues and there were other security issues that were noticed during the period of campaigns which if we don’t prepare properly and modify the security architecture we normally use for elections, the country may go up in flames.
“So, the adjustments yes the Boko Haram issues are there and definitely more states though for now three states are in the enclave of Boko Haram, whereby conducting elections may be difficult.
“This period will give them the opportunity to clean up the three states. If at all they cannot clean up the three states at least two states will be recovered completely and more local governments even from the remaining state. So that elections could be conducted even in Borno state.
“Even if we don’t take over all the territories in Borno state, definitely in Adamawa and Yobe states we will take over completely and even Borno state the headquarters of Boko Haram, even if we don’t take over completely at least 70 per cent of that state will be free for elections to be conducted.
“Because democracy can only be meaningful if people are allowed to select who rules them.
“In a situation where you have maybe 30 per cent of people having voters card to vote, that is some kind of security threat.
“As at the time INEC was to conduct the election, in fact when we had the council of state meeting, a state like Lagos, Lagos is the most important state in this country, though the seat of government is in Abuja but Lagos controls 52 per cent of our economy, so it is a key state.
“So, as important as Lagos is, only 38 per cent of those who registered to vote got their Permanent Voters Card (PVCs). And that points to some kind of dangerous signal which we must avoid.
“So when they say security issues it was not limited to Boko Haram and the security people didn’t say they must wipe out Boko Haram before the elections will be conducted.
“Even in 2011 there was Boko Haram and elections were conducted.
So we will surely conduct elections as scheduled I promise you. So communicate this to your home country as scheduled and on the 29th of May inauguration will take place to bring in the next president of this country,” the President said.
Dean of the diplomatic corps, Ambassador Oubi Bachir, said the international community had confidence that the forthcoming elections in Nigeria will be successful.
