2015: We have no anointed candidate –US
United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Terence McCulley, yesterday said that the US has no interest in any individual aspiring to be elected President of Nigeria in 2015.
The US ambassador reacted over the purported request by President Goodluck Jonathan’s Special Assistant on Niger Delta Matters and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, in Washington DC, urging the US to support the President’s re-election bid in 2015, “as security in the Niger Delta is tied to Jonathan’s re-election.”
But the ambassador replied that the US would not support a candidate or party for the 2015 presidential poll. Speaking on “Guest of the Week”, an interview programme of the Kaduna- based ‘Liberty Radio’, Mr. McCulley said, “We don’t have a candidate for the 2015 elections, except that we want credible and transparent elections and a process where all Nigerians can peacefully exercise their right to vote.
We are not going to take a position on any individual candidate. “We are going to help the Nigerian people to ensure that the elections in 2015 are better than the one in 2011. It is up to the Nigerian people to respond to Hon. Kuku’s statement. We don’t take a decision on individual political candidates.
“We believe that Nigeria has made great progress in the construction of its democratic institutions and we hope that in 2015, it is going to be peacefully contested on issues and the Nigerian people will decide on who they will vote for,” he said, He added that Nigeria’s battered international image could be improved upon if the issues of corruption and insecurity would be addressed frontally.
“What Nigeria needs to do to effect a change to its brand is to attack corruption, address insecurity, ensure that there is a levelplaying field for all investors, and ensure that there is an end to the culture of impunity”.
He stated further that corruption stops confidence in government and its institutions, stressing that “fighting corruption is essential part of good governance.
He said the US had been discussing with the Nigerian government on how the former could help in fighting corruption in the country.
“In our discussions with the honourable Minister of Justice and Attorney General, the Chairman of the EFCC, we see the desire to move forward on the fight against corruption and we have had a number of training programmes with the EFCC.
We have confidence that government is serious about combating corruption,” he said.
Also commenting on the recent clashes between
security forces and members of the Boko Haram Islamic sect in Baga, Borno State, the US Ambassador said it would be improper to talk about human rights abuses unless investigations were concluded. McCulley said,
“This is a difficult, systematic war that the Nigerian military is engaging them in the North and there would be incidents where they are excessive.
I think we don’t know all of the facts on Baga and I will certainly encourage investigation of what happened there by government and other organisations like the Red Cross, so that we can be fully informed.
“But as a general principle, in looking at the insecurity in the North, we see terrible, terrible acts perpetrated by extremists who attack some government offices, attack individuals. We saw what happened in Kano.
In January 2012, we saw what happened in Kaduna; we condemned them.”
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