SUMMARY OF PRESIDENT JONATHANS MEDIA CHAT

President Goodluck Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday hosted another one of his Presidential Media where he tries to explain the policies of his administration to the people by anwsering questions from selected journalist. During the two-hour program which was broadcast live on NTA and Frcn between 7p.m. to 9p.m.


The area of focus during the chat ranged from insecurity to economy, corruption, fuel subsidy, second term, education and food shortage ect. His response to some question were really not satisfactory and in some cases the journalist on the panel did not do follow up to some response from Mr President.

Below are some of the response of President Journathan during the media chat. In fact it can be described as whats trending on the social media.

On the expenditure of the State House on feeding and ancillary services
“There is a lot of misconception about the State House”…. “I even eat two times a day, breakfast and dinner; and the food I eat is not very expensive.”

On Boko Haram
It was earlier reported that the Federal Government had begun dialogue with the sect, however, he said “So far, no dialogue is going on with the government and Boko Haram. Boko haram is operating under cover they wear mask”

 

On whether he would run for a second term in office
He asked for more time for himself and cabinet to work before he is faced with the question of whether he will run for elections in 2015 or not. “Four years is too small to make an impact, the media should give me time please… I don’t want to distract members of my cabinet.”

On Corruption 
“The effort this government has put in in fighting corruption, I don’t think any other person has done that.  This government is fighting corruption and the results are obvious.”

On Fuel Subsidy Removal 
The President said he was misquoted in some instances. “If we want to remove subsidy, we wouldn’t have made provisions for subsidy in 2013 budget.”

On Unemployment
“We are working very hard. You cannot get jobs overnight, we are coming up with programs like #SURE #YOUWIN to develop people…. I never promised to reduce poverty. I promised to create wealth.”

On Constitutional Amendment
The President said he cannot teach the National Assembly their job on constitution review even if he supports a referendum. “It will not be proper for me now to begin to impose my ideas.”

On Fuel Scarcity 
The Presidents said by the time he concludes with “the issue of sanitizing the oil sector,” the issue of queues in fuel stations will be over. “As we are talking today, there is no fuel queue in Benin Republic, and all the fuel are from Nigeria, yet there is fuel queue in Lagos,” he said blaming the human factor for the current scarcity of fuel in Nigeria.
He made some promises:
“Before the middle of next year, we would have stable electricity in Nigeria.”
“I will fix the Benin-Ore road.”

Cleared up some controversies:
Like the first lady's health, the president emphasised that people enjoy feasting on negative news.“The first lady is OK. She was with us in service today. She is fine.”

And said his administration was focusing on progression
“We have set up a committee to identify why none of our Universities are among the top 100 in the world.”
The media chat ended with the president assuring that he, with his vice president and team, will “leave something behind by the end of his four year tenure that Nigerians will be proud of.”
Despite the President’s efforts at reassuring Nigerians of his commitment to the country’s development, the media chat has been greeted with widespread criticism with many having little faith in his words. What do you think about the topics raised and the President’s responses?