President Goodluck Jonathan has said that Nigerians are quite pleased with his government’s efforts at improving power supply in the country.
In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour , Wednesday, President Jonathan said that before the end of the year, power will be stable in Nigeria.
Also answering questions on security, Jonathan said elements of Boko Haram have links with alQaeda just as he warned that the sect may become a threat to Africa, adding that his administration is totally committed” to working with friendly nations to help contain problems in Mali.
Excerpts of the interview:
Boko Haram
“If Boko Haram is not contained, it would be a threat not only to Nigeria, but to West Africa, Central Africa and of course to North Africa,” he said. “Elements of Boko Haram link up with some of al Qaeda in northern Mali and other North African countries.”
Containing the crisis
“If you look at the last six months, incidents of killing started dropping,” President Jonathan contended, insisting that the government is gaining control.
Denies indiscriminate arrests and killing
“The United States of America is completely wrong,” he told Amanpour. “No security agency arrests anybody just for the love of arrest. We have intelligence that enables us to arrest the people who have been arrested.”
Power
“That is one area where Nigerians are quite pleased with the government – that our commitment to improve power is working,” he said. “I promise you before the end of this year, power outages will be reasonably stable in Nigeria.”
Endemic Corruption
“You cannot change the mindset of people by waving your hand. You must take means to make sure that you don’t create an environment where everyone will be corrupt and we are doing it very well.”
Oil theft
“ Frankly speaking, speaking I want the international community to support Nigeria because this stolen crude is being bought by refineries abroad and they know the crude oil was stolen,…The world must condemn what is wrong.”
What is your opinion of the interview? Are you satisfied with President Jonathan’s composure, body language,responses and general performance during the interview?
Do have your say?
