Vunderkind
Social Member
JONATHAN: No, no, no, it’s not a problem between Muslim and Christians. That is quite wrong, actually. The problem of Jos is — Jos occupies a plateau, quite a high land area in Nigeria. And that’s an area where a number of people settle outside the indigenous population (ph). In fact, even when Lagos was a federal capital territory, most — most Europeans who came to Nigeria, they preferred to stay in Jos.
Because of the elevation, the temperature is very low. It’s like a sub-temperate climate where the temperature sometimes could drop up to minus two. No part of Nigeria that (inaudible) well, because of that climate and the mining of tin and others (inaudible) within that area.
So there’s a lot of settlers from the southeastern part of Nigeria, from the southwestern part of Nigeria, and from the extreme north, so most of these settlers now play big in the economy, local economy. So the indigenous population feels that they have been excluded from the economy, and that has been bringing conflict from the early ’60s.
AMANPOUR: But what can you do about it?
JONATHAN: Of course, we have (inaudible) in terms of what we are doing, we are discussing with the traditional rulers (ph), we are discussing with religious leaders, we are discussing with opinion leaders. That is to appeal to them (ph), and they are responding.
Of course, we’re also providing security, because, first of all, you must provide adequate security to make sure that people don’t carry weapons and intimidate or kill others, so that is being done. Then we also are appealing to their conscience using their leaders, both opinion leaders, both their religious leaders, both traditional leaders. And it is paying off.
AMANPOUR: It is paying off?
JONATHAN: Yes.
AMANPOUR: Do you think that kind of violence will stop?
JONATHAN: (inaudible) I cannot say it will stop completely, but our commitment is to make sure that it stops.
AMANPOUR: With issues like Jos or the Niger Delta, with the fact that, as you mentioned yourself, there’s a severe power and electricity crisis, and all sorts of other issues, how do you make international investors feel confident? Even kidnappings there are, as you’ve said yourself, need to stop.
JONATHAN: Realize Nigeria is a very big country. And some of these issues people raise in the media that makes it look as if the whole country is rampant (ph).
It’s not quite so. We have a letter of international investors even in the Niger Delta, you have the oil companies everywhere. Yes, we have these occasional issues of kidnapping, but it doesn’t stop (ph). But we are also strengthening the local security system, the police force. We are trying to set up a special fund to make sure that we’re strengthening the police to maintain law and order. In addition to making sure that we provide what the people will need and appeal to different groups, to see reason why (inaudible) we are also doing what we think is right to increase the security, because you must secure the area.
AMANPOUR: You’ve just had meetings with President Obama. What was the most important issue that you discussed? I know President Obama discussed many things, including the issue of a joint fight against terrorism.
JONATHAN: Yes, of course,
AMANPOUR: It was the Nigerian youth who tried to set himself and set a plane on fire over the United States.
JONATHAN: Of course, that is an unfortunate incident. But I know you know more than me. When that issue came up, it was a global issue, and everybody traced the history of a young man. This man — this young man left Nigeria long ago, and he got indoctrinated in the West.
AMANPOUR: But do you nonetheless think it’s an issue that has to be combated, terrorism?
JONATHAN: Of course. Nigeria — you know that the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Nigeria is one of the countries that signed it. We believe that the whole globe must be peaceful. We cannot (inaudible) cannot encourage that. Nigerians are not terrorists. We know the problem as African leaders. We are suffering from the use of small arms and light weapons. In fact, in Africa, the use of small arms and light weapons is more devastating to us than even the issue of nuclear terrorism, because Africans have died from small arms and light weapons, more than the nuclear terrorism, because most of these weapons used in the former Soviet Union are no longer relevant, and they’ve all been shipped into Africa.
Most of the small arms and light weapons manufactured in America and other — in European countries are shipped down to Africa, and this is a cost of most of this crisis we’re having, this insecurity we’re having, so we totally support.
AMANPOUR: You’ve got 12 months, essentially, to enact the reforms you’re talking about, bringing about the changes, whether it’s to election law, whether it’s to the issue of peace. How much do you really think you can achieve in this short period of time?
JONATHAN: We’ll do our best. Some of this (inaudible) human issues that you can achieve significantly, like we talk about electoral reforms and conducting clean elections. We don’t need 100 years to do that. We don’t even need a year to do that, because they’re human factors (ph). And a few months, we should be able to set up a system that can conduct free and fair elections. But all that is like basic infrastructure that needs a period that — that you conceptualize it, you figure out the design, you figure the planning, environmental assessment, and so on before you the physical execution of the projects. Those ones will take some time.
But still, people will see that you’ve set up a clear roadmap. If you think the most challenging infrastructure that we have, the power infrastructure, the electric power infrastructure, we must set up a clear agenda that people will know that we are moving forward and we have milestones that we can benchmark you.
Definitely a government that — we have 12 months, and especially — especially it’s an election period. Immediately after elections, government’s activities tend to slow down because of, of course, they are key positions that are in government.
So we have that kind of a challenge. We don’t really even have 12 months. We can’t even claim to have 5 months. But what we promise is that within the shortest possible time, we take (inaudible) cannot take everything. We take the things that we believe we can leave some footprints, but most importantly for Nigerians to see that we are — we are serious and we are committed.
AMANPOUR: On that note, Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, thank you very much for joining us.
JONATHAN: Thank you.
AMANPOUR: And that was our conversation with Acting President Goodluck Jonathan. And that’s it for us now today.
Courtesy of CNN.
Because of the elevation, the temperature is very low. It’s like a sub-temperate climate where the temperature sometimes could drop up to minus two. No part of Nigeria that (inaudible) well, because of that climate and the mining of tin and others (inaudible) within that area.
So there’s a lot of settlers from the southeastern part of Nigeria, from the southwestern part of Nigeria, and from the extreme north, so most of these settlers now play big in the economy, local economy. So the indigenous population feels that they have been excluded from the economy, and that has been bringing conflict from the early ’60s.
AMANPOUR: But what can you do about it?
JONATHAN: Of course, we have (inaudible) in terms of what we are doing, we are discussing with the traditional rulers (ph), we are discussing with religious leaders, we are discussing with opinion leaders. That is to appeal to them (ph), and they are responding.
Of course, we’re also providing security, because, first of all, you must provide adequate security to make sure that people don’t carry weapons and intimidate or kill others, so that is being done. Then we also are appealing to their conscience using their leaders, both opinion leaders, both their religious leaders, both traditional leaders. And it is paying off.
AMANPOUR: It is paying off?
JONATHAN: Yes.
AMANPOUR: Do you think that kind of violence will stop?
JONATHAN: (inaudible) I cannot say it will stop completely, but our commitment is to make sure that it stops.
AMANPOUR: With issues like Jos or the Niger Delta, with the fact that, as you mentioned yourself, there’s a severe power and electricity crisis, and all sorts of other issues, how do you make international investors feel confident? Even kidnappings there are, as you’ve said yourself, need to stop.
JONATHAN: Realize Nigeria is a very big country. And some of these issues people raise in the media that makes it look as if the whole country is rampant (ph).
It’s not quite so. We have a letter of international investors even in the Niger Delta, you have the oil companies everywhere. Yes, we have these occasional issues of kidnapping, but it doesn’t stop (ph). But we are also strengthening the local security system, the police force. We are trying to set up a special fund to make sure that we’re strengthening the police to maintain law and order. In addition to making sure that we provide what the people will need and appeal to different groups, to see reason why (inaudible) we are also doing what we think is right to increase the security, because you must secure the area.
AMANPOUR: You’ve just had meetings with President Obama. What was the most important issue that you discussed? I know President Obama discussed many things, including the issue of a joint fight against terrorism.
JONATHAN: Yes, of course,
AMANPOUR: It was the Nigerian youth who tried to set himself and set a plane on fire over the United States.
JONATHAN: Of course, that is an unfortunate incident. But I know you know more than me. When that issue came up, it was a global issue, and everybody traced the history of a young man. This man — this young man left Nigeria long ago, and he got indoctrinated in the West.
AMANPOUR: But do you nonetheless think it’s an issue that has to be combated, terrorism?
JONATHAN: Of course. Nigeria — you know that the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Nigeria is one of the countries that signed it. We believe that the whole globe must be peaceful. We cannot (inaudible) cannot encourage that. Nigerians are not terrorists. We know the problem as African leaders. We are suffering from the use of small arms and light weapons. In fact, in Africa, the use of small arms and light weapons is more devastating to us than even the issue of nuclear terrorism, because Africans have died from small arms and light weapons, more than the nuclear terrorism, because most of these weapons used in the former Soviet Union are no longer relevant, and they’ve all been shipped into Africa.
Most of the small arms and light weapons manufactured in America and other — in European countries are shipped down to Africa, and this is a cost of most of this crisis we’re having, this insecurity we’re having, so we totally support.
AMANPOUR: You’ve got 12 months, essentially, to enact the reforms you’re talking about, bringing about the changes, whether it’s to election law, whether it’s to the issue of peace. How much do you really think you can achieve in this short period of time?
JONATHAN: We’ll do our best. Some of this (inaudible) human issues that you can achieve significantly, like we talk about electoral reforms and conducting clean elections. We don’t need 100 years to do that. We don’t even need a year to do that, because they’re human factors (ph). And a few months, we should be able to set up a system that can conduct free and fair elections. But all that is like basic infrastructure that needs a period that — that you conceptualize it, you figure out the design, you figure the planning, environmental assessment, and so on before you the physical execution of the projects. Those ones will take some time.
But still, people will see that you’ve set up a clear roadmap. If you think the most challenging infrastructure that we have, the power infrastructure, the electric power infrastructure, we must set up a clear agenda that people will know that we are moving forward and we have milestones that we can benchmark you.
Definitely a government that — we have 12 months, and especially — especially it’s an election period. Immediately after elections, government’s activities tend to slow down because of, of course, they are key positions that are in government.
So we have that kind of a challenge. We don’t really even have 12 months. We can’t even claim to have 5 months. But what we promise is that within the shortest possible time, we take (inaudible) cannot take everything. We take the things that we believe we can leave some footprints, but most importantly for Nigerians to see that we are — we are serious and we are committed.
AMANPOUR: On that note, Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, thank you very much for joining us.
JONATHAN: Thank you.
AMANPOUR: And that was our conversation with Acting President Goodluck Jonathan. And that’s it for us now today.
Courtesy of CNN.