Adepoju Taofeeq Olalekan I‘ll not contest 2015 election – Jonathanon february 01, 2011 at 1:41 am in newsFacebook Share Twitter ShareBY DANIEL IDONORANKARA, TURKEY — President GoodluckJonathan, yesterday, said he has noambition to stay in office beyond 2015,assuring Nigerians in Diaspora that while hewill not contest the 2015 election, he willensure that this year’s election is free andfair.The President promised that if voted in forthe next four years, he would ensuresignifica nt improvement in key sectors ofthe economy — security, power, education,road, health amongst others.“Without security, there is no government.So it is not debatable, it is something wehave to addressed and we are workingtowards that with vigour. But if I’m votedinto power within the next four years, theissue of power will become a thing of thepast. Four years is enough for anyone inpower to make significant improvement andif I can’t improve on power within thisperiod, it then means I cannot do anythingeven if I am there for the next four years.”Jonathan said this while interacting withNigerians mainly diplomats working in theUnited Nations Economic Commission forAfrica, UNECA, and the African Union, AU, inAddis-Ababa.While fielding questions from those presentat the interactive session on whetherNigerians abroad will vote, Jonathan said: “Iwould have loved that the Nigerians inDiaspora vote this year but to be frank withyou, that is going to be difficult now.Presently, the law does not allow the votingoutside Nigeria and so this year Nigerians inDiaspora will not vote but I will worktowards it by 2015 even though I will not berunning for election.”On the issue of security, Jonathan said thegovernment was doing everything possibleto arrest the situation. He disclosed that allthose involved in the October 1 bombinghad been arrested and were beingprosecuted. He, however, said he orderedthe release of the car dealers because theywere just businessmen who could not haveknown that the vehicles were to be used forsuch heinous crime.On education, the President said, the ninenew approved universities were to bespecialised and to be headed by at leastthree Nigerians experts in Diaspora.On the concerns raised of having a databaseof Nigerian experts in Diaspora, PresidentJonathan assured that he was working oncreating a forum for interaction betweenthem and government and also develop adatabase, where experts needed to addressthe various challenges of the economy willbe drawn. He hinted that this was why theDiaspora Commission was being set up asthe bill was already before the NationalAssembly.The President also disclosed that thegovernment is looking towards reviewingthe country’s foreign policy to ensure thatNigeria gets maximum benefit from its rolesand contributions to internationalorganizations like the AU, UN and ECOWAS.He lamented that right now Nigeria’scontributions were not being recognizedadding that “there is need for Nigeria tohave something in return for ourinvestments. We are investing so much butit is not being noticed and there is need toreverse that trend.On the concerns about road network andtransportation in the country, PresidentJonathan assured that the railway systemwill be revamp because presently heavyduty vehicles were destroying the roads.“Why we cannot have continuous roadmaintenance for now because no contractorwants to go into it because of thecontinuous pressure on the road by heavyduty vehicles. That is why we are working toensure that we revamp the rail”.The President also assured that Nigeriansworking in international organization andinstitutions would be issued diplomaticpassports. He directed the Minister ofForeign Affairs, Odein Ajumogobia to submitthe list of those qualified within the shortestpossible time to him.On the 35 per cent affirmative actionimplementation and the domestication ofprotocols signed, he assured that he willpresent before the National Assembly withinthe shortest possible time
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