Jonathan Slams Ethnic Bigots

In what may be a veiled swipe at proponents of zoning, Pres-ident Goodluck Jonathan yesterday said those who could not compete favourably for positions were the ones playing up all manner of sentiments for selfish motives.

“We are a country where our leaders tend to play tribal sentiments, saying I am from the South-South; I am from North-west; I am North, I am South, I am a Muslim and I am a Christian.

“All these are selfish motives to make people who probably cannot compete with others…to use these sentiments,” Jonathan said in his address to the Nigerian community and friends of Nigeria at the Marriot Easton Centre in Downtown, Toronto, Canada.
The video of the address was sourced by THISDAY, courtesy of the Nigerian Abroad News Magazine.

Proponents of zoning including the 150 Northern Leaders who met last week in Abuja have been insisting that power should return to the North in 2011 based on the zoning formula of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), under which they claimed power had been ceded to the region till 2015.

Among those who attended the meeting were former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, former Finance Minister Adamu Ciroma and former Senate President Iyorchia Ayu.
But only two days ago, former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari, said in a statement that Nigerians should be allowed to make their choice of president freely in 2011 and that zoning is a PDP affair and should not be misconstrued as a position of the entire North.
Jonathan’s meeting with the Nigerian Community came ahead of his attendance of the G-8 Outreach Programme for Heads of States who were invited to the G-8 Summit holding at the Deerhurst Resort, Muskoka, Ontario, Canada.
The President assured Nigerians in the Diaspora that his administration would conduct credible elections next year and that votes of Nigerians at home would indeed count.

He said that the process must begin from within the parties, stressing that “we must present the best candidate as there is no room for manipulation because if you try that, you will lose out at the general elections because there will be no compromise in any way.”
He assured Nigerians that his administration “will begin to sanitize the society because one thing is that how people get into office matters so much and the character of people that come to be governors, presidents and parliamentarians matter so much.”
He warned that if the wrong method was used to get into office, the country would be doomed, stressing “the only way we can sanitize that is to make sure that electoral processes are the ones that can bring out persons that people want and the votes of people must count.”

He lamented that Nigeria was yet to develop to the level where Nigerians in the Diaspora could vote in their countries of domicile, but promised that immediately the country sanitized the electoral process for the 2011 elections, voting by Nigerians in the Diaspora would be the next agenda for the 2015 elections.

According to him, “Immediately we sanitize what is going on at home, we will, at least, come up with a method where Nigerians can go to the embassies and vote.

Source:Here