ABUJA—PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, asked those urging him to declare his intention for the Presidency in 2011 to wait for a while. Reason: He did not want to stop the wheel of development and hinder governance in the country.

President Jonathan who was speaking at the resuscitated Presidential Media Chat with a select group of top media professionals in Abuja, said it was too early to declare his intention because it could lead to a chain reaction that might affect governance.

He also asked governors, who were seeking re-election to hold their ambition until the party primaries were close so as not to heat up the polity.

He said: “Whether I will run or not is one thing that is dominating political discourse in the country. I am not in a position to tell Nigerians whether I will run or not. The governors are working. Immediately I declare now that I am running, the governors will declare. People will begin to declare. It will affect governance. The best thing to do is to keep it close to the party primaries.”

During the 30-minute chat, Jonathan also reiterated his pledge to ensure credible polls in 2011 and promised to ensure that every vote counted. He decried the worsening security situation in the South-East geo-political zone and promised to take up the issue of bogus allowances for federal lawmakers with the National Assembly leadership.

Seven point agenda

Jonathan also spoke on the Seven-Point agenda, how to boost power supply; mismanagement of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s health by his security aides and need to shun godfatherism, among others.

On credible polls, he said he was hopeful that the National Assembly would clear Prof Attahiru Jega as National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, so that the commission could begin its work and give Nigerians an election time table.

The President who asked those seeking elective positions to declare their intentions close to the primaries, said that he would give signals that would show if he would contest. He said: “If I am not going to contest, there is no point declaring. If I am not going to contest I will not pick the  forms.”

He promised adequate funding and free hand to the electoral commission to enable it operate, noting that past elections had been controversial and there was need to give our leaders respectability.

He said: “Apart from other sources of funds we have institutional funding for INEC. I am committed to giving credible elections,” adding that he had promised to conduct an election no other Nigerian had conducted.

On the mishandling of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s ill-health, Jonathan absolved the former First Lady, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua of blames. He said Yar’Adua’s security aides prevented Nigerians from seeing the late leader and urged the security agencies to take responsibility for the actions of their personnel.

First ladies

The President urged Nigerians to desist from perceiving First Ladies as being powerful because the position was not known to the constitution, adding that he did not expect his wife to be that powerful because she had no role in the constitution as wife of the President.

Asked whether former President Olusegun Obasanjo was his godfather, Jonathan down played the questions of kitchen cabinet or cabal and godfatherism, saying that he did not believe in them. He acknowledged that a leader could help a younger person to rise to power, as he had done in assisting some people become local council chairmen but after that, “the people should be allowed to do their work” unhindered.

On the seven-point agenda, Jonathan said every sector was important because the government made budget for every area. He said the seven-point agenda was for emphasis on power, security, economy, etc.

On power, he said the problem of electricity was almost like a chain that had many weak links, stressing: “If we fix the weak links, we can get 10,000 mw. At least we can get 6000mw.”

He said that the government could not handle power generation alone. He assured that by the time government completed on-going power projects, things would improve for the citizenry.

On the security situation in the South East, Jonathan said he was concerned about the security of the whole country. He however, described the South East situation as “terribly embarrassing” and assured that the government would deploy all the resources it had to tame the monster of kidnapping among other crimes.”