By Dapo Akinrefon, Mike Eboh & Charles Kumolu

LAGOS – PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, promised to give presidential assent to the Freedom of Information Bill, FOI, but on a certain condition which he, however, failed to reveal.

Speaking at the end of the presidential debate series organised by the Nigerian Election Debate Group in Abuja, Jonathan also gave his reasons for his absence at the presidential debate organised by satellite television channel, NN24.

Yesterday’s  debate was boycotted by the presidential candidates of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu; Congress of Progressive Change, CPC, Muhammadu Buhari; and the All Nigerian People’s Party, ANPP, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau.

Anti corruption agencies

Jonathan who was the only candidate quizzed by a panel consisting of the President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Mr. Gbenga Adefaye, President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Mohammed Garba and Mac Imoni Amarere of African Independent Television, AIT.

He also used the forum to promise the strengthening of the anti-corruption agencies in the country even as he gave strong warning to senior citizens he alleged were encouraging people to go into crime.

When asked what would become of the Freedom of Information Bill presently in the National Assembly, President Jonathan promised to give assent to it but expressed reservations about certain clauses in the bill.

He said: “The media has been my friend because the first job I applied for was to a media house, the Nigerian Tide, though some of the things that come from the media may not sometimes reflect our true state.

The media has been very instrumental to our success and we have no reservation to endorse the FoI Bill when it comes to me, except that there are some aspects of it, which I won’t go into, but it would sail through.”

Tasked on his failure to attend the earlier debate organised by the satellite television channel, NN24, he said that he could not have abandoned the matters of governance to attend all the requests for debate that were made to him. He claimed that he received as much as twelve requests from different organisers for television debates.

He said: “When the issue of election debate came up after our primaries, more than ten non governmental organisations, media houses, contacted me for debate.

The president does not have the luxury of multiple debates, we decided that the Nigeria Election Debate Monitoring Group, should coordinate and make one debate for all candidates of all the parties so that every organisation can telecast it.

That will afford every Nigerian the opportunity of watching it. Unfortunately, I travelled and when I came back at about 7:30 pm I got the information that a debate was going on. Today, it is an opportunity to be confronted with those issues that were debated.”

On the issue of corruption, Jonathan said that his administration will not interfere with the agencies fighting against corruption, but will give them free hand in discharging their duties

He added that officials of the EFCC and the ICPC will be given the necessary training and capacity building so as to position them to effectively discharge their duties of ridding the country of corrupt individuals.

On the possibility of channeling more resources to other tiers of government, notably the States, the President expressed his readiness to support the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, in effectively distributing the country’s revenue among the three tiers of government and in ensuring an appropriate sharing formula for the country’s revenue..

He noted: “The RMAFC is a semi-autonomous body and not subject to control by an outside authority. My administration will allow the body to do its constitutional duties.

The body will be allowed to determine the appropriate sharing formula. Once it comes up with an appropriate formula and once it is able to secure the approval of the National Assembly, my administration will certainly endorse it.”

On his plans for the economic development of the country, Jonathan declared that his administration’s major focus will be on agriculture. He explained that the PDP policy on agriculture will be pursued in this regard, which would encourage States to focus on two major crops in which they have better comparative advantage over other states of the federation.

While stating that his administration will revisit the issue of dams, irrigations and power, due to their immense contributions to agriculture and economic development, the President promised that a new energy policy that would encourage the establishment of micro refineries would also be formulated if given the mandate in the coming presidential elections.

Besides, he said if given the opportunity to rule Nigeria for another four years, provision of steady and adequate power supply for Nigeria, will be the priority of his administration.