I'll Surely Win Re-election --Jonathan Declares

President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed confidence that he will win
a second term despite the soaring popularity of his main challenger,
Muhammadu Buhari.

With the presidential elections scheduled to take place next weekend,
Mr. Jonathan told the BBC in an interview that he has nothing to worry
about, as his ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, remains the
strongest party in Nigeria despite the seeming nationwide support for
the opposition All Progressives Congress.

"I will surely win it... My party is still the strongest party", the
president said.

The interview was published Friday, a day after the national chairman
of PDP, Adamu Mu'azu, admitted that his party will win the elections
but not with a landslide as believed in some quarters.

Mr. Mu'azu said: "While I do not see a landslide victory coming, I am
convinced that our party will perform creditably in the Southwest and
the North of Nigeria and elsewhere in all the elections this year
because the evidence is clear that despite our travails at the
beginning, we have done very well over the past fifteen years of our
nascent democracy since 1999 to record victory. Those who disbelieve
our resilience will be surprised for victory is ours".

In an interview with the BBC that touched on a wide-range of subjects,
Mr. Jonathan repeated his comments that he believed the abducted
Chibok school girls are alive since the jihadist sect, Boko Haram, has
not shown they had been killed.

"We have not seen dead girls that is the good news. I believe they are
still alive, I believe we will get them", he said.

The president said the Nigerian military will hopefully recover the
remaining territories under Boko Haram control in less than a month.

The president said the group has grown weaker with the government's
renewed drive that has seen the military reclaim several towns and
villages held by the terror group.

"I'm very hopeful that it will not take us more than a month to
recover the old territories that hitherto have been in [Boko Haram's]
hands", Mr. Jonathan said.

"We never expected that [Boko Haram] will build up that kind of
capacity. We under-rated their external influence. Since after the
civil war we've not fought any war, we don't manufacture weapons, so
we had to look for help to re-equip our army and the air force".

On violence during his presidency, Mr. Jonathan said he took
responsibility for "whatever goes wrong".

"Whatever goes right, I take the glory", he said. "Whenever I hear
that somebody dies in Nigeria... I feel pain, because they are all
Nigerians".