From DANIEL IDONOR, in US

NEW YORK — PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, declared that the rising cases of terrorism in the Northern part of the country are not an indication that Nigeria is divided along ethno-religious sentiments, but that they are part of an emerging global phenomenon which can best be described as the ugly side of world history.

The President, who spoke at an interactive session with the Association of United Nation Correspondents, at the UN building in New York also stated that the increasing pace of bomb explosions and other acts of terrorism across the country are not due to his emergence as president, but that the reign of terror by the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, had been there before the demise of his predecessor, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.

United States President Barack Obama and President Goodluck Jonathan at the White House, yesterday.

He, however, expressed support for the move by the Governor of Borno State to negotiate with the Boko Haram members, saying that the autonomy of the states with the federation allows states to embark on such initiatives but warned that if that fails the Federal Government would move in to enforce the law decisively.

He denied insinuations that the rising insecurity was as a result of sharp division between the Christian-dominated South and Muslim- dominated North, even as he said that the security situation in Nigeria can be tackled internally and does not call for international alarm.

“We have these challenges but it has nothing to do with elections, somebody tried to relate that to the elections whether a Christian or a Muslim is elected is not the issue. This issue of explosions have been with us and we are doing all we could to curtail it but I promise you that as a government we are committed and we will bring it down”, he said.

He noted that “all over the world when you have issues of terrorism it cannot be easily wiped out. You might be the most powerful country but with terror attack you have to manage it and gradually suppress it and that is what we are doing. It definitely has nothing to do with the elections whether I am a Christian President or a Muslim President.

“I always tell people that it is part of the ugly history of the world and the issue of terrorism will definitely be over maybe in the next few years. And that is one thing Nigeria is committed to doing with other friendly countries. Initially we as a nation didn’t believe we have terrorists amongst us until it became obvious that we have some elements of terrorism by the explosions in Nigeria.

”It started some years back from the Niger Delta up to the north eastern part of the country, incidentally I am from the Niger Delta”, he said

According to him, “the issue of insecurity has nothing to do with the issue of Christians or Muslims. If you look at the population of Nigeria, the two religion share 50-50. If you look at the result of the elections, you will see that I won almost the whole country, it was only in about four states that I had less that 25 per cent. Our constitution states that to win an election you must win 25 per cent of two-third but I got 25 per cent in about 32 states and actually, if you include Abuja it would be 34 states out of 37.

Even in the states I didn’t get 25 per cent the margin was quite minimal, 16 was the minimum”.
He added that “one error most people who are not Nigerians make is that the northern part of the country is dominated by the Muslims while the southern part is dominated by Christians. That is completely wrong, you have Christians in both north and south.

Besides, he stressed that “in the South-Western side of the country you have almost equal number of Christians and Muslims, even in the extreme north like in Borno State where you are experiencing most of the explosions in the country, there are significant percentage of Christians though they are more Muslims there.

“For instance the Boko Haram attack, Boko Haram is a sect that is against everything Western either civilization or education, the see those who embrace them as enemies and they are more antagonistic to fellow Muslims that they perceive that have embraced the western way of life. So the explosions are not targeted at Christians because a Christian is the President.

To Work with Tambuwal

The President, who spoke at an interactive session with the Association of United Nation Correspondents, at the UN building in New York, said he is not perturbed by the decision of the House of Representatives to abandon the zoning policy of the ruling People Democratic Party, PDP, saying that the party will work out another position to assuage for the perceived marginalisation of the South-West zone.

While pledging his commitment to work harmoniously with the leadership of the National Assembly at all times, Jonathan stated that the development is a PDP affair which will be handled by the party to ensure that no part of the country feels unnecessarily aggrieved by the actions or decisions of other parts.

According to him, his government was not against the choice of Ibrahim Tambuwal and Emeka Ehedioha as  Speaker and Deputy Speaker of  the House of Federal House of Representatives. He also  defended his party’s position backing a South West candidate.

The move, he explained, was to simply to obey the part of the country’s law which advocated the principle of Federal Character, saying that the essence was to allow every geo-political zone of the country fair share.

The president who was responding to a question on the fate of the South-West in the new political dispensation at the National Assembly as a result of the action of members of the House, argued that the decision was that of the entire House to choose who so ever they wish and this  also includes the South West members.

The President was accompanied by Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr Timipreye Sylva, and his Benue State counterpart, Mr Gabriel Suswan, among few other Nigerian officials  including two permanent Secretaries and the Special Assistant on MDGs, Hajiya Amina Ibrahim Zubairu.

Jonathan met with President Obama yesterday and will this morning meet with Bill Clinton, before returning to Nigeria, tonight (Thursday).