by S’ola Filani

President Goodluck Jonathan, has said those predicting and prophesying doom for the country on the basis of the 2015 general election would be disappointed.

Jonathan stated this at an interfaith conference organised by the Interfaith Initiative for Peace, with the theme: “The Imperative of Interfaith Understanding and Cooperation for Responsible Politics,” in Abuja.

Here are the highlights from his speech:

“I once again assure Nigerians and the international community that the 2015 elections will come and go, and Nigeria will stand stronger.

“The Nigerians I know and interact with everyday are only asking for one thing in the elections; transparency, and I have promised them.

“They want to vote and they want their votes to count; they don’t want to be molested, they don’t want ballot boxes to be hijacked by criminals.

“If they are convinced that the process is free, fair and credible, they have no reason to be angry; nobody can fight against one man, one vote, one woman one vote, one youth one vote and government will make sure that Nigerians are not killed during and after elections,”

“My promise of free and fair election is clear. All governorship elections that have been conducted so far, you can agree with me that they have been free and fair.

“I am from the PDP, the ruling party, but I don’t use that strength to make sure that PDP must win by all means.

“PDP has lost elections in Edo State; we lost in Anambra State, we lost election in Ondo State, of course only two days back, we lost in Osun, but we know and we are saying that this country must change.

“The kind of election we had in the 1960s that led to the crisis in the West and threatened the sovereignty of this country cannot come up again.

“Nigerians must vote and our votes must count. If I was interested in manipulating elections, my party would not be losing all these governorship elections. All what we want is credible elections,”

“Politics is all about serving people and if people don’t want you to serve, then go and stay in your house.

“Our states are not our private estates. This country is not owned by any individual. If you are called to serve, you serve and if it is not your turn, then leave. Whenever it is your time, people will call you to come and serve,” he stated.