At presidential debate, Jonathan insists on March 28, April 11 polls

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BY OUR REPORTER ON MARCH 23, 2015COVER

Deployment of drones boosts anti-terror war, he says

FROM JULIANA TAIWOOBALONYE AND CHINELO OBOGO

From President Goodluck Jonathan came an assurance yesterday that this year’s general elections will start on Saturday, March 28, as scheduled by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). He also said the governorship, National and state Assemblies elections would hold as scheduled. Jonathan disclosed this yesterday when he took part in the 2015 presidential debate conducted by the Nigeria Elections Debate Group (NEDG) at the International Conference Center (ICC), Abuja where his main contender, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, was absent.

Jonathan debated with candidates of the United Proressives Party, Chekwas Okorie, UDP’s Godson Okoye, KOWA party, Comfort Sonaiya and National Conscience Party’s Martin Onovo. He said: “I want to assure Nigerians that elections would hold on March 28 as scheduled by INEC. The governorship, National and state Assemblies elections would also hold as scheduled. I urge Nigerians not to go backward, but to think ahead and move forward by voting for continuity to complete the good jobs that we have started.”

Debating on corruption, Jonathan said preventive measures were more potent than the enforcement, identifying, prevention, strengthening the institutions, the legal processes and re-orienting the people as key things needed to drive the process.

He said officials would not be given the opportunity to steal what belongs to the public, citing the case of agriculture sector, which before now was a major source of scandal every year, of which the present administration through the e-wallet system has stopped fertilizer corruption by cartels that held sway before now.

He cited the electronic platforms that have eliminated corruption in the government transactions as one of such measures, saying that the institutions must be strengthened.

He said: “The issue of corruption is topical, it is now a major political issue. Sometimes, they look at the issue of enforcement alone and people think that alone will lead to the eradication of corruption.

He said the Victims’ Support Fund, Safe School Initiative, Presidential Initiative for the North-East (PINE) and other programmes were part of a total package to rehabilitate the victims.

Jonathan revealed that drones have been introduced for remote sensing to detect what is happening in the North-East, “and that is one of the reasons we are succeeding because we never had drones in the North-East before. We are no longer limiting our monitoring to the use of aircrafts.”

On his achievements, the President said Nigerians were now more interested in who governs them because of the measures his administration has put in place.

He mentioned progress in health, education, transport particularly railway, promising that every state must be linked with railway in his new administration.

He said power supply must be stable and the key to achieve this was the privatization that his administration has done. He said Nigeria cannot continue to talk of groundnut pyramid, and cotton, but attention will focuse on the processing, because that is the way the country is going and Nigeria could not afford to lag behind in this aspect .

The KOWA presidential candidate, Comfort Sonaiya, said her government would implement triple E model to restore Nigeria to where it used to be.

She said Nigeria was underdeveloped because “we are corrupt “ as money meant to develop society has been diverted for private purposes.

She noted the attraction of the public office because of high remuneration involved, saying that people must earn salaries commensurate with their work.

Chief Martins Onovo of NCP said leadership is Nigeria’s bane and to move it forward, there must be the right leadership.

The candidate of UDP, Chief Okoye, said 2015 was about Nigerians reclaiming the country from a tiny cabal that has held them hostage, saying that the country must take the quantum leap it desires. He said unless a system was built on competency, the system would never work well.

Okoye commended the success of government in retrieving seized territories from Boko Haram, adding that only traitors and cowards would celebrate infringement on the territorial integrity of the nation.