JONATHAN: NORTH HAS MORE RESOURCES THAN N/DELTA

President Goodluck Jonathan has said the north
has more resources than his native Niger Delta.
Jonathan spoke in Abuja yesterday during an
open-door meeting with leaders and members of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the
North-West zone.
He said the Niger Delta has only oil, but that the
land is not good for farming.
However, he said the North has the best
agricultural land, from the "green savannah to
the Sudan Savannah to the Sahel Savannah to
the Mambila Plateau area, we've the best
ecological zone and this is where the resources
are.
"The solid mineral is there. Let's just work
together and you will see how much we can
transform the economy of this country that will
benefit all of us.
"Our strength is in our diversity, not in the oil.
There are small countries that produce more oil
but nobody hears about them. The oil we've in
Nigeria is very small. If you divide the oil you've
by your population, you'll know you've nothing.
"For anything that happens in this country the
whole world is shaken, why? Because of our
diversity, and these are areas we must exploit to
our maximum advantage. What we should be
talking is the next 100 years and I believe then,
we'll not be talking about north and south. We'll
be talking about who is going to the moon, who is
manufacturing what?"
He accused his critics for not thinking before
criticising his administration.
He challenged them to compare what his
administration had done within two years and
eight months to all other administrations in the
country and outside.
According to him, "There is so much noise in the
media whether is electronic and newspapers or
even social media. Sometimes, it seems as if the
world is coming to an end. At times when they
come to me with some of these things, I smile
and say from 1959 down, the story hasn't
changed. Some people call themselves
progressives. They've done that before. Did they
change the system? Today, if you can abuse
Jonathan, you're a progressive, if you can attack
the federal government, you're a progressive,
even if nothing is happening in your state, you're
a progressive. We've seen the progressives.
"By May this year, we'll be three years old and by
May 2014, we'll be four years old. And I challenge
some of those who criticise without thinking to
compare what we've done in the two years eight
months with that of any other administrations in
this country and outside."
Jonathan also boasted that the PDP would remain
the ruling party in the country despite the series
of defections it had suffered, adding that some
were dumping the PDP for another party they did
not know."
"Nobody should come and deceive you to cross
over to the other side that you don't know what is
there. Some people are crossing to where they
don't know.
Jonathan also said that his administration is not
against the north.
The president described the allegation that his
administration was against the north as a
political blackmail.
"Sometimes people say Jonathan is anti-north, he
doesn't want to develop the north, and
sometimes, they sell these ideas to people from
outside, especially those from the United States
of America. You Nigerians believe the West must
say something for us to listen.
"I often use myself as a good example. I grew up
in a peasant home; if I did not go to school there
is no way I would have been here today. What has
made me to be here today is education. They said
I'm lucky. If I didn't go to school, will luck bring
me to be president of Nigeria?"
He said if he were against the North he wouldn't
have set up nine universities and the Almajiri
schools, assigned N10 billion from the ecological
fund to tackling desert encroachment and
approved N14 billion as intervention fund for
some states in the north.