I Will Return to My Otuoke House if I Lose – President Jonathan

Its like someone is beginning to accept his fate here... smiles, don't mind me!

President Goodluck Jonathan has just said that he will return to his Otuoke home in Bayelsa State, if by default, he loses the March 28 presidential election. Jonathan, who said Nigeria is not his father’s estate, was however is expectant of the very best in that he possible “will not lose the election.”

“But by default if i happen not to win the election; of course, I will go back to my village. The country is not my father’s estate,” he told the Quatar-based international television station, AlJazeera, on Monday night.



The President denied that he was scared of the All Progressives Congress and its Presidential candidate in person of Major Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, adding that he sees no reason not to win because he had performed well.

When asked what he made of the insinuations in some quarters that the sudden step-up of military 
operations in the fight against Boko Haram was because he was scared he might lose the election on the grounds of insecurity, he replied , “It is out of ignorance.

“In a political environment, if one party, particularly the ruling party, is going to the left, the opposition would have to go to the right. They must find something. They must have something to feed the people with.”

PUNCH reports that the President, however, explained that Boko Haram insurgents were able to wreak havoc on parts of the country for long because the military lacked certain weapons to confront them. The President noted that with the procurement of modern weapons, the security agencies would rout the terror group soon.

He also denied that he mishandled the threat posed by the sect to the country and that the activities of the group did not start with his administration.

Jonathan, who reassured Nigerians that the rescheduled elections would not be postponed, said the security agencies had not promised to rout out Boko Haram completely before the elections. The President however explained that the military would degrade the insurgents to the level that they would no longer have the strength to disrupt the polls.

He also dismissed the allegation by some APC senators that he was planning to remove the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega. He told his interviewer that he had not even discussed   Jega’s purported removal with anyone.

Jonathan said:
 “Except somebody is insinuating that the chairman has done something wrong. You cannot change an officer, except the person has done something wrong. Government, whether at the federal or state level, president or governor, does not wake up and change somebody, especially somebody like the INEC chairman; except that person has done something wrong. 

INEC is a very sensitive body. For me to change the INEC chairman, Nigerians and non-Nigerians will ask questions. So, you cannot wake up and change the INEC Chairman.” 

Jonathan also dismissed insinuations that corruption had worsened in the country under his Presidency.

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