President
Goodluck Jonathan has said he will open the door for new people, including
those who oppose now, to join his administration and serve Nigeria if he
finally wins the race to return as the country’s president on March 28.
Likewise,
the president pledged to hunt down the Boko Haram insurgents, whose operations
he acknowledged, had caused collateral destruction of lives and property in the
North-east in particular.
The
president expressed the view in a document that emanated from a meeting he held
with Strategy Group, a forum of trusted northerners and southerners on February
14.
As
contained in the document, the president said he would inject new blood into
his cabinet if re-elected, saying the door “will be open for new people to join
me and serve including even those who oppose now.”
The
document addressed diverse challenges currently confronting the North at large,
citing the scary poverty kid, which it acknowledged, had aggravated the
operations of the Boko Haram insurgents.
The
document said: “It is true I lost lot of time in dealing with this problem.
This was because I listened to advice to try several tracks and not just the
military option. We tried the political and negotiation track.
“It
did not work. Now I am going for an all-out assault in conjunction with our
neighbouring countries and other helpers. We shall hunt them down so we can
provide a more secure future for our citizens in these areas. I thank our
courageous men and women in the armed forces for their sacrifice.
“I
understand the poverty problem of the North. I see the destruction of lives and
property caused by Boko Haram. Once we drive out Boko Haram, I shall personally
take charge of a rebuilding programme for the North-east. I have already put
instruments in place and will use them.
“I
have PINE, Save School Initiative, Greenbelt and Victim Fund among others. I
shall use these instruments to improve lives and livelihoods and give our
citizens in these areas a better future,” the document said.
The
document, also, detailed the feat the Jonathan administration in power sector,
noting that his government “has pushed further on power than other government.
We have privatised the sector so that new and better owners and managers can
help us.
“But
I know power has not improved to the extent we want. This is largely due to
lack of gas and pipeline vandalisation. My plan is to tackle this through
employment of technology to help deter and detect vandals.
“I
am also diversifying power sources, already mainly to hydro so we are not
dependent on one source. We are building massive dams such as Kashimbila,
Zungeru and Mambila to help us. I plan to exploit coal as well.”
It
incisively x-rayed the effort of the administration in the fight against
corruption, noting that his administration had convicted more corrupt officials
than any administration since return to civil rule in 1999.
The
document rolled out how the Jonathan administration had been using modern
platforms and technology to fight corruption, which it said, reflected in the
rating of the Transparency International.
“I
am committed to fighting corruption. Contrary to the misinformation you get,
this administration has achieved a lot on this front and the Transparency
International rating for Nigeria is better now than it was a decade ago. I
acknowledge and accept we still need to improve.
“We
are far from where we need to be. But we have fought oil subsidy fraud, pension
fraud, fertilizer fraud and cleaned these up. We are using technology to build electronic
platform to manage our finances and personnel payroll and stop leakages there.
This is the way we must go in the future.
“I
plan to put in place the institutions and systems to stop leakages. The EFCC
has made many more arrests and convictions in this administration than ever
before. I respect the rule of law and people are punished if found guilty,” the
document quoted the president saying.
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