PRESIDENTIAL MEDIA CHAT: 10 Questions for President Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan will this evening host a televised media chat with some senior Nigerian journalists during which he is expected to respond to questions on a number of topical national issues.

Aso Rock spokesperson, Reuben Abati, says the chat, to be aired live on major television and radio stations in the country, will begin at 7 p.m. Nigerian time.

The president’s assistant on new media, Reno Omokri, said questions would also be entertained from Nigerians via telephone.

So in case you are able to reach the president on the programme, we suggest you put the questions below to him, in addition to others you might have.

We also urge the editors who will interview the president to consider asking him some of the questions we are suggesting.

1. The Boko Haram insurgency seems to have proved intractable for your regime? What do you say to those who consider your administration incompetent following your inability to protect the lives and properties of Nigerians?

2. Now that corruption has finally taken a vivid profile in the land, what dramatic next step can you take to initiate a sea-change?

3. If oil theft is anything up to 200,000 barrels a day, something more than Ghana’s daily production, what is the government planning to do as a way of stemming this?

4.  The Malabu oil deal dredges the shame of a nation directly to the corridors of the presidency. When did you hear and what did you know about this oddity? Why did you as President, without the National Assembly’s approval, authorize the transfer of $1.1bn from the Federation account into the account of Malabu Oil, a company with falsified registration details, and owned by a man convicted in France for money laundering? 

5. The Lagos-Ibadan federal highway has finally become one of our national shames. If Wale Babalakin cannot fix this road in three years since it was concessioned to his firm, when is the federal government going to revoke the contract?

6. With the cabinet change of defence minister and the NSA, is the petroleum minister and other ministers expected to leave soon, especially given the revelations of inefficiency and corruption in the oil regulatory sector?

7. Why is the President reluctant to declare his asset publicly like late President Umaru Yar’Adua did, and what has he got to lose by doing so?

8. Two members of the President’s cabinet, Godsday Orubebe and Stella Oduah, got involved in illegality by registering an NGO, Neighbour to Neighbour, on whose board they sit, and which they then used in campaigning for the President’s election; in contravention of CAC registration guidelines and the CAMA Act. What is the president’s reaction to this?

9. There have been several cases of visitors to the Presidential villa being given huge sums of money after their visits. The Save Nigeria group ($30,000), and the Northern elders (N20 million) rejected the cash gifts given to them by the presidency. Why does the President think he has to give monetary incentives and inducements to visitors to the presidential palace? Under what expenditure subheads are such expenses  put, and who authorises them?

10. Why is Nigeria in debts again? The Debt Management Office puts Nigeria’s foreign debt at $5.9 billions as at March 2012. This is in addition to the soaring domestic debt too. AND… As the leader of the PDP which dominates the two houses of the National Assembly, why has the party continued to allow legislators earn obscene but illegal allowances in the guise of office running cost?