The controversy has been in the air for a while now: many people have questioned the President's personal integrity, saying that he was allowed to contest under the PDP umbrella on the promise that he would only run as president for one four-year term.

One of the accusers is former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the president's erstwhile 'godfather'.

In a recent interview, President Jonathan responded to this by saying:

I did not sign any document with anybody and I am not someone who signs documents carelessly. I don’t even make promises to people. I am not somebody who, if you want to work for me, for example, will promise to make you a minister. Some persons can promise three people they will make them ministers. They can promise another three they will be Secretary to Government, another four persons Chief of Staff and promise another 10 the Minister of Petroleum slot. Some people do that to recruit people. But I don’t do that. I don’t believe in it. I have never signed a pact of one term. I never even mentioned it anywhere that I will do one term. Yes, former President Obasanjo spoke that way, I think the day of our primaries, and he used that to market me and I listened and I kept quiet. It was not proper for me to go there and counter Obasanjo, because I wanted the ticket. I felt that he spoke like an elder statesman and I left it like that.

I think people are misquoting me and I always say that people should play the whole statement that I made in Addis Ababa. Then, I had been elected president. But I told Nigerians in Addis Ababa, when I was addressing them, that I have looked at it that the money Nigeria spends every year on election is enormous, for candidates and INEC. I know what it takes on the side of government to conduct elections; there is the security aspect of the election people don’t even know. Right now, our eyes are red on how to get enough money to meet up the needs of security, especially when you see the way people are behaving and intimidating others and so on. There are some kinds of red spots. So I feel that the nation will benefit more if we have single tenure of seven years for elective position.

When I was Vice-President when the late Yar’Adua came up with the political reforms, I headed the committee where the whole political parties came together to submit memoranda. We advocated a single tenure of seven years. That time, we also agreed that a single tenure would be more productive than double tenure of eight years. Because the president would be focused; he would not be distracted. This four-year tenure, if you are completely new, it takes you almost a year to adjust. Then you work for two years. The next year, you waste on elections. The country is losing.

But if we have a single tenure of seven years, yes somebody who is not good may not make the difference, but some people would want to make names. People like me will want to make a name and concentrate on governance issues. By the time you adjust, you have like six years to concentrate on governance. I know what we have done within this space of time. If we have an opportunity to probably add two stable years to that, and you happily walk away, this country will develop more and the tension we are witnessing today will not be there. People say this election is an ill wind that is coming to this country. If the left wins, there could be crisis. If the right wins, there could be crisis and people are painting all sorts of scenarios. I advocated a single term of seven years. Then I added something that people are misquoting now. I said that I had won the election then. I used one year to complete Yar’Adua’s tenure and I had won election for four years. I said if Nigerians agreed to a single term of seven years, it would not be proper for me to contest. That would mean if I win, I would serve as president for 12 years. I said that people would question that. Why do you want to serve 12 years and incoming presidents would serve seven years? Morally, I cannot defend that. So, if the country agrees to a single tenure of seven years, then I will not contest. I would rather not contest so that Nigerians would know it’s because of my sacrifice, because it is something I believe in. I also believe that the interest of the country is more important to me than my individual interest. And I said five years is okay, and that even if I stay here for 100 years, if I won’t work, I won’t work; that five years is okay, if the country agrees to a seven-year single tenure. I believe it will bring stability, the struggle for power, especially at the presidential level, would be less, and the country will spend less money, because what you spend every four years, you spend every seven years. That means in 14 years, you will spend what you currently spend every eight years. Everything would be better for this country. That was my argument.

They now took off that tape and remove that area where I said if the country agrees to seven years single tenure that I will not contest. They removed that and they are just spreading the aspect where I said I won’t contest.

There is so much propaganda and falsehood that has come to play in our body politics. This is very unfortunate. But like in the game of football, if the referee is not good enough, you can use your hand to score a goal and they would count it for you. That is what is happening on the field and it is quite unfortunate. But we will also not allow that.