Jonathan to politicians: If your interest is development, you won’t incite violence

President Goodluck Jonathan says politicians who truly have the interest of Nigeria at heart will never make utterances capable of inciting violence.

He was speaking on Sunday at the Christ Apostolic Church, Area 1, Durumi, Abuja.

The president said ‎if every aspirant has the mind to develop the people, “there will be no need to kill or maim people and destroy property… nobody’s ambition was worth the blood of any Nigerian”.

He further said 2015 would be turbulent because  of the elections but expressed confidence that “God will see the nation through”.

He said: “Next year is a tempting year for us. Election year in Third World countries is always a turbulent year with all kinds of predictions.

“I however believe that the God who brought us to this level will see us through.

“All that I will request of you is to continue to pray for us politicians, myself and other politicians from all political parties, for God to guide us in our utterances and what we do so that we will not sacrifice the lives of Nigerians because of our ambitions.

“Nobody’s ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian. Pray to God to give us that wisdom and mind to make sure we conduct ourselves in a way that will not set the country ablaze because of our own personal ambition.

“There are so many good Nigerians that can hold the offices we are occupying or aspiring to occupy. It is by privilege of God that we are here in positions to ask for the mandates of Nigerians.

“None of us should begin to think that he is the best person to be anywhere from state houses of assembly to the president. There are a thousand and one Nigerians that are super qualified more than those people who are even aspiring to occupy offices.

“Pray for us that God should give us the wisdom to conduct ourselves in a manner that at the end of the day, this country will triumph.

“The development of Nigeria is what all of us want. If every aspirant has the mind to develop the people, then you do not need to kill or maim people to get there.

“You do not need to kill the people you want to develop in order to get to the office you want except if you are aspiring for that office for a different reason.

“If the idea is to help the people, grow the economy and make the people happy, you won’t want to kill, you won’t want to maim or burn down houses, vehicles and property.

“Human beings may see things differently but God can guide us.”

Jonathan said but for the fervent prayers of Nigerians ‎the situation would have been worse.

He said: “As a nation, we have not reached where we want to go, definitely not. But we are coming up with a number of policies. Those who are taking pain to look at what we are doing will agree with us that if we progress as a nation steadily in this manner, in the next four or five years, this country will be a better place.

“Only a few days back, the Vice-President was in Port Harcourt to flag off the Eastern railway. The Western one moving from Lagos to Kano has been running. We will start using the modern one from Kaduna to Abuja by the first quarter of next year and the one from Port Harcourt.”

He said despite the dwindling prices oil, Nigeria’s economy was not in danger.

“We have talked about the drop in global price of oil. Of course, if there is a drop in oil price, it will affect us in one way or the other. We tell our people to bear with us. It has happened before in 2008, 2009 that was almost about $40, we survived as a nation.

“This time, by all predictions, it will not even go as low as that, we will surely survive it. The economic team is working very hard to stabilise it and we believe that although there may be temporary inconveniences, it will definitely not bring the economy down,” he said.