Indications that President Goodluck Jonathan will seek re-election in 2015 emerged last night with a declaration by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs that the President’s transparent leadership and concrete performance would make Nigerians to ask him to run for a second term.
Okupe, who spoke exclusively with Vanguard, said although Jonathan had not declared his interest in the poll, he was confident that the successful implementation of the various development projects and programmes already put in place by the administration would endear him to the people.
Okupe: Mind my roar
Okupe said: “As an insider I know what he has been doing since he took over as President of Nigeria. I am very certain in my mind that Nigerians are going to applaud him and even if he does not want to run for election in 2015, Nigerians are going to force him to run again because of the level of his performance.”
The public affairs helmsman made it clear that Jonathan had set a 2014 deadline for himself to deliver uninterrupted power supply, tackle unemployment, insecurity and provide infrastructure to enable the economy to blossom.
Okupe said the President was quietly working to deliver on his mandate of bringing fresh air to Nigerians, explaining that it was in a bid to achieve the set goals that he recently committed ministers to endorse performance contract to show deliverable timelines.
According to him, the performance contract is geared at keeping top government officials on their toes and to enable the President to measure their performance and decide on how the best hands to continue to man the ship of state.
He said: “President Jonathan is not a theatrical or show man. He is not a man given to too much speech but action. I am very sure Nigerians will soon come to know more about his level of sincerity and commitment to the transformation of this country.
Okupe also said that it was wrong for Nigerians to continue to chastise the administration for not fighting graft when it was the same government that started the probe and eventual prosecution of those implicated in the subsidy fraud.
He however noted that cynicism of Nigerians towards leadership was borne out of many years of past failures by previous government, promising that the Jonathan administration was out to change things for the better.
“Nigerians have become use very cynical and skeptical about government because of past failures. But they should not judge Jonathan by the failures of the past. Mr. President is an innocent politician who is untainted by the politics of the past and not deeply entrenched in the principalities that have ruled us,” he pleaded.
On the issue of Boko Haram, Okupe noted that the government was dialoguing with the sect and was studying the conditions put down by the sect.
He announced that the government would make its position known on the matter at the appropriate time.