President Goodluck Jonathan remains confident he will win
a second term despite the growing popularity of his main
challenger, Muhammadu Buhari.
With elections less than two weeks away, Mr. Jonathan told
the BBC in an interview that he has nothing to worry about,
as his ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, remains the
strongest party in Nigeria despite Mr. Buhari’s All
Progressives Congress, APC’s widespread support.
“I will surely win it… My party is still the strongest party,”
the president said.
The interview was published Friday, a day after the
chairman of PDP, Adamu Mu’azu, admitted the surging
popularity of the opposition meant his party cannot secure a
landslide in the presidential, parliamentary and governorship
elections.
Mr. Mu’azu however expressed confidence that the PDP
will “perform creditably”.
“Our major concern in the Peoples Democratic Party is not
to allow the country to be hijacked by desperadoes
masquerading as purveyors of good governance, who
promise heaven and earth to the people without any
intention of fulfilling their election promises in the name of
change,” the PDP chairman said in a statement Thursday.
“While I do not see a landslide victory coming, I am
convinced that our party will perform creditably in the
Southwest and the North of Nigeria and elsewhere in all the
elections this year because the evidence is clear that
despite our travails at the beginning, we have done very well
over the past fifteen years of our nascent democracy since
1999 to record victory. Those who disbelieve our resilience
will be surprised for victory is ours.”
In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC, Mr. Jonathan
repeated his comments that he believed the abducted
Chibok school girls are alive since the jihadist sect, Boko
Haram, has not shown they had been killed.
“We have not seen dead girls that is the good news. I
believe they are still alive, I believe we will get them,” he
said.
The president said the Nigerian military will hopefully
recover the remaining territories under Boko Haram control
in less than a month.
He said the group has grown weaker with the government’s
renewed drive that has seen the military reclaim several
towns held by the terror group.
“I’m very hopeful that it will not take us more than a month
to recover the old territories that hitherto have been in [Boko
Haram’s] hands,” Mr. Jonathan said.
“We never expected that [Boko Haram] will build up that
kind of capacity. We under-rated their external influence.
Since after the civil war we’ve not fought any war, we don’t
manufacture weapons, so we had to look for help to re-
equip our army and the air force.”
On violence during his presidency, Mr. Jonathan said he
took responsibility for “whatever goes wrong”.
“Whatever goes right, I take the glory,” he said. “Whenever I
hear that somebody dies in Nigeria… I feel pain, because
they are all Nigerians.” CLICK HERE TO READ FULL AND TOUCHING NIGERIAN CELEBRITIES BIOGRAPHY AND SCANDALS
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