President Goodluck Jonathan has assured Nigerians that the polls re-scheduled to hold on March 28 and April 11, 2015, would not be shifted again.
The President gave the assurance in his closing remarks during the presidential debate, which held in Abuja.
The debate was organised by the Nigerian Elections Debate Group. Jonathan and 11 other presidential candidates participated in the debate.
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) was absent.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had shifted the polls earlier scheduled for February 28 and March 11.
The President, during his last presidential media chat, said that the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, never informed him of his decision to postpone the polls after he (Jega) received a letter from the National Security Adviser calling for six weeks postponement of the elections.
Jonathan, on Sunday, thanked Nigerians for showing interest in the electoral process and assured that there would be no cause to postpone the elections again.
The President said, “Let me use this unique opportunity to thank Nigerians today for showing much interest in the electoral process and to re-assure Nigerians that elections will hold as scheduled by INEC . The presidential election and the National Assembly election on the 28th of this month, and the governorship and the state assembly election on 11th of next month.”
The debate, which held in two batches, saw other presidential candidates promising alternative approaches to tackling corruption, the economy as well the problems in the oil, power, security and education sectors.
The four other candidates who debated with Jonathan in the second batch were those of the United Peoples Party, Chief Chekwas Okorie; United Democratic Party, Godson Okoye; Kowa Party, Prof. Oluremi Sonaiya; and the National Conscience Party, Martin Onovo.
Those who participated in the first batch included Tunde Anifowose-Kelani of the Action Alliance; Ganiyu Galadima of Allied Congress Party of Nigeria; Rafiu Salau of the Alliance for Democracy; Mani Ahmad of African Democratic Congress and Ayeni Adebayo of African Peoples Alliance.
Others are Sam Eke of Citizens Popular Party and Ambrose Owuru of Hope Democratic Party.
Jonathan urged Nigerians to vote for him for the second term on account of his administration’s success in agriculture, power and infrastructural development.
He said that if he was re-elected, “Like we take GSM for granted, Nigerians will start taking power for granted.”
Onovo of the NCP, who posited that corruption was at the root of every Nigerian problem, also promised that if elected, his administration “will increase the minimum wage by reducing the maximum wage.”
He said his administration would follow the laid down strategy of the party in its fight against corruption. The NCP candidate, who said he would not privatise any sector of the economy, said the party’s strategy against corruption had been captured as 4Es – Education, leadership by Example, Empowerment and Enforcement.
Sonaiya of the Kowa Party said that, if elected, her administration would restore the task of securing the nation’s oil infrastructure to prevent theft to the traditional security forces, whose duty it is by law to perform.
Okorie of the UPP said his party would show leadership in the fight against corruption.
“If this cankerworm must be fought, it must be fought from the top,” he said.
The UDP presidential candidate, Okoye, said the bane of Nigeria’s problem was the neglect of merit in favour of ethnicity and primordial bias.
Anifowose-Kelani also said Nigeria’s power problems ought to have been solved “with the N300bn released to power companies by the Central Bank of Nigeria.”
Also Galadima of the ACPN said he would ensure that “each state generates its own power”.
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