Be ready for persecution, Jonathan tells ministers, aides
President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari has revealed that over 400,000 barrels of crude oil is daily stolen under the watch of President Goodluck Jonathan’s government and nothing is done to stop the crime.
Buhari, however, said in spite of the daunting challenges ahead, he was encouraged by the United States President, Barack Obama’s call to him recently.
Buhari spoke yesterday in Abuja during the visit of Northern leaders led by Ambassador Maitama Sule.
He said: “You can imagine what is happening in the high sea where up to 400,000 barrel of crude oil, which we rely on, is stolen every day with the full cooperation of those who are supposed to protect it. Fuel price has gone down and 90 per cent of the foreign exchange we rely on comes from that.
“We all know that whatever you do, without justice it will not endure. As human beings, we keep repeating the same mistake over and over again. But that is what makes us human.
“The biggest message is to try and persuade the people that it is not possible to change the state of affairs now. It took 16 years and those 16 years, most of you know it better than myself that Nigeria earned revenue more than what it earned from 1914 till then.
“You know that we used to have the Nigeria Airways, Nigeria Shipping Line and the Nigeria Railways. Where are they now? Where are the infrastructure between then and now and what we earned in-between and what is on ground? That is how efficiently the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, managed Nigeria in the last 16 years.
“Now, we have invariably inherited all the problems, especially in the North East. I am sure you have heard or seen the children recovered from the Sambisa forest. Only the children and women are remaining, while all the able-bodied men have been gotten rid of somehow. A generation has been denied education and health care; infrastructure has gone.
“So, you have to convince your constituencies that we have virtually arrived at the wrong time and that they have to tamper their expectation with some justice towards the leadership.
“I think whatever has to be deployed especially in the churches and mosques has to be done now; this is the quickest way to communicate this to the ordinary people. Continue to remind them of all the things I said in all the states I visited.
“We picked three fundamental problems. The first is security. The country has to be secured before anything can be put in place and then the economy.
“The fact is that more than 60 per cent of Nigeria’s population are youths and most of them, whether they have been to school or not are unemployed and this is the biggest danger if we don’t know. So, there must be jobs for these people as quickly as possible for us to even enjoy relative peace.
“In the economy, we have to quickly turn to agriculture and mining because that is where you can do the quickest work and earn results. In other areas, you need to study them and dust all the books and studies and get people, experienced people, committed people and technocrats to come and help the government and identify priorities so that with what is available to us, we can quickly make our people realise their hope from the government they have chosen.
“One of the reliefs I got was the telephone call from the President of the United States. I could feel the relief in his voice because Americans are people of conscience. Forget about religion, colour and development.
“They are people of conscience because they have reached a stage where they have stabilised their society and they are relatively secured both materially, physically and otherwise.
“They know we are in danger. Everybody was saying that Nigeria is going to the dogs in 2015, but even beyond our expectations, we have managed to go through and we thank technology for the permanent voter cards, PVCs, and card readers because the whole exercise of writing results, announcing them and asking losers to go to court does not make any difference. Those who defended the PVCs and card readers made this change possible.”
In his speech, Sule told Buhari that his victory was an act of God, adding that nobody can claim credit for it.
“Nobody expected that the elections will be peaceful; nobody expected that the elections will not lead to the disintegration of the country. By the grace of God, the elections were held peacefully. We are living in peace with one another by the grace of God; power will also be handed over to you (Buhari) by the grace of God and we’ll be living peaceful thereafter by the grace of God,” he said.
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday said he is leaving office a happy and fulfilled man, stressing that he took some hard decisions for which he is ready to pay the price.
Jonathan spoke at a thanksgiving and farewell church service organised for him at the Cathedral Church of the Advent, Life Camp, Abuja.
The President said: “Some hard decisions have their own cost; no doubt about that. I have run the government in a way that stabilised certain things: the electoral process and other things that brought stability into this country. They were very costly decisions which I myself must be ready to pay for.
“Some people came to me and say is this or that person not your friend that benefitted from your government? But this is what he is saying.
“But I used to say worse statements will come. If you take certain decisions, you should know that those close to you will even abandon you at some point and I tell them that more of my so-called friends will disappear.”
Jonathan explained that when Frederik Willem de Klerk took the decision to abolish minority rule in South Africa, his wife divorced him.
At this point, the President joking said that he hoped his wife, Dame Patience, who had accompanied him to the service would not divorce him for the decision he had taken.
Dame Patience gave a “no” answer, which drew applause from the congregation.
Speaking further, the President noted the decision by de Klerk to abolish minority rule in South Africa had now made the country to still remain a global player.
He said he sympathised with ministers and aides who serve with him, adding that they must be ready to face persecution.
“If you take certain decisions, it might be good for the generality of the people but it might affect people differently.
“So, for ministers and aides who served with me, I sympathise with them; they will be persecuted. And they must be ready for that persecution,” he said.
Jonathan explained that he had reasons to thank God for his blessings, favour and the privilege that the nation had offered him.
According to him, he went through secondary education as well as first and second university degrees on government scholarship, adding that even his PhD programme was paid for by his then employers.
“When I look at the whole picture of my life up to when I became the President of this country, I say if soldiers and police officers that have not received 0. 5 per cent of the benefits that I have received from the state can lay down their lives for this country, I should be able to do anything in the interest of Nigeria, including paying the supreme price,” Jonathan said.
The President thanked Nigerians for their support while calling on the church to pray for the success of incoming government of General Buhari.
In his sermon titled, ‘Thanksgiving,’ primate, Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Rev. Nicholas Okoh, said the church joined Jonathan to give thanks to God for the opportunity to serve the nation.
He extolled Jonathan for being a peace maker, a builder and not a destroyer, adding that the President has joined the class of distinguished statesmen.
The church later presented Jonathan with an award of Steward of Peace, Unity and National Stability.
Former Minister of Information, Professor Jerry Gana and Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo both commended Jonathan for his leadership and the development that his administration had brought to the country.
National Mirror.
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