President Goodluck Jonathan has given a firm assurance that he will not contest the 2015 election, and promised to ensure free and fair elections starting with this year's April polls.

President Jonathan made this commitment while interacting with Nigerian diplomats working in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Union (AU).

The President also said if voted in for the next four years, he would ensure significant improvement in key sectors of the economy including security, power, education, roads, and health.

In his words, "without security there is no government so it is not debatable; it is something we have to address and we are working towards that with vigor".

He says four years is enough for anyone in power to make significant improvements, and if within this period he is unable to improve the power situation, it means he cannot do anything even if he is there for another four years.

President Jonathan said this while interacting with Nigerians mainly diplomats working in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Union (AU).

While fielding questions from those present at the interactive session on whether Nigerians abroad will vote, President Jonathan said he would have loved that the Nigerians in Diaspora vote this year but to be that is going to be difficult now. Presently,he says the law does not allow the voting outside Nigeria and so this year Nigerians in Diaspora will not vote but that he will work towards it by 2015 even though he will not be running for election.

On the issue of security, President Jonathan said the government is doing everything possible to arrest the situation. He disclosed that all those involved in the October 1st bombing have been arrested and are being prosecuted. He however said that he ordered the release of the car dealers because they were just businessmen who could not have known that the vehicles were to be used for such heinous crime.

On education, the President said, the nine new approved universities are to be specialized and to be headed by at least three Nigerians experts in Diaspora.

On the concerns raised of having a database of Nigerian experts in Diaspora, President Jonathan assured that he was working on creating a forum for interaction between them and government and also develop a database, where experts needed to address the various challenges of the economy will be drawn. He hinted that this was why the Diaspora Commission was being set up as the bill was already before the National Assembly.

The President also disclosed that the government is looking towards reviewing the country's foreign policy to ensure that Nigeria gets maximum benefit from its roles and contributions to international organizations like the AU, UN and ECOWAS.

He lamented that right now Nigeria�s contributions were not being recognized adding that "there is need for Nigeria to have something in return for our investments. We are investing so much but it is not being noticed and there is need to reverse that trend.


On the concerns about road network and transportation in the country, President Jonathan assured that the railway system will be revamp because presently heavy duty vehicles were destroying the roads. In his words"Why we cannot have continuous road maintenance for now because no contractor wants to go into it because of the continuous pressure on the road by heavy duty vehicles. That is why we are working to ensure that we revamp the rail".

The President also assured that Nigerians working in international organization and institutions would be issued diplomatic passports. He directed the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Odein Ajumogobia to submit the list of those qualified within the shortest possible time to him.

On the 35 per cent affirmative action implementation and the domestication of protocols signed, he assured that he will present before the National Assembly within the shortest possible time.