The Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Doyin Okupe, on Tuesday said insurgency should not be the subject of a referendum in the 2015 election.
Okupe stated this during a visit to THISDAY Newspapers Head Office in Lagos.
According to him, the history of insurgency all over the world shows that it takes a long time to fight it, adding that Nigeria is in a war situation.
“The issue of insurgency cannot be a (subject of) referendum for 2015. It cannot be, because Jonathan did not start this war. The history of insurgencies all over the world is such that it takes a tenuous course.
“In United States of America, when John F. Kennedy took US on Vietnam war, six presidents were elected and the war continued. Nobody said if the president did not stop the war, he must leave office,” he said.
Okupe, however, gave the assurance that the federal government was doing everything possible to end this war.
“I know the Jonathan’s government will end this war. And if anybody promises that he is going to end the war, you have to take it with a pinch of salt. You can actually know the beginning of the war but nobody predicts the end of any war. And Nigerians must understand that we are in a serious war situation. We must begin to rally round the government. It is something that we must come together and fight. It has nothing to do with election. Whoever wins the election will still have insurgency to grapple with and we are not going to create a new army. What is required by the army are being provided. Equipment is being purchased and strategies are being fine-tuned. These are the things we need to win the war,” Okupe said.
Speaking on his comparison of Jonathan with Jesus Christ, Okupe maintained that the burden the president was bearing for Nigerians is like the burden Jesus Christ bore for mankind, according to the belief of the Christians.
“People do not understand the burden the president bears. He is bearing the burden of everybody. That was how Jesus Christ bore the burden of mankind. Therefore, there is nothing wrong for me to compare both situations,” he said.
On the Chibok girls, the senior assistant to the president said it remained a top priority of the government, saying nobody should think that the girls had been forgotten.
Speaking on power, Okupe noted that this was the first time a president was promising a steady power supply and following it up with a roadmap.
“The president said there would be steady power supply in four years. He then followed it up with a roadmap. This is the first time somebody made that statement and backed it with a roadmap. What you now look at is what has happened to the roadmap. Why are we not getting to the destination?” he asked.
He said there were challenges with generation, distribution, and transmission of power, noting that all the challenges were being tackled.
“There is a roadmap and it is predicated on the president’s assessment of problems in the power sector. We have a major issue with generation, distribution, and transmission of power and bringing in private investment because government cannot bring in funds.
“The issue of investment will require legislation because if you are still subsidising power, nobody will come to invest. Also, we had issue with gas availability but that has been sorted out immediately after that roadmap.
“Today, we producing 300 per cent of what we were producing four years ago,” he said.
On corruption, he said: “Corruption has been with us forever but government was taking steps and looking at institutions and removing the cause of corruption in those institutions.
He promised that with time, Nigerians would begin to realise the efforts of government in that direction just as it happened in the distribution of fertilizer.
SOURCE: THISDAYLIVE
Reviewed by Alexis Abana
on
Thursday, December 18, 2014
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