President Goodluck Jonathan today assured parents of abducted school girls that were abducted by Boko Haram insurgents from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State and all Nigerians that the girls are still alive, adding that his government was doing everything within its power to get them back alive.

President Jonathan disclosed this when he appeared on Kaakaki, a live Discussion programme on African Independent Television, AIT, hinging his optimism on the fact that if the girls have been killed, the insurgents would have displayed their corpses so as to induce fear.

President Jonathan again, during the programme, admitted that his government under rated the capacity of that Boko Haram sect, a mistake he said explains their entrenchment.

On why the girls are yet to be rescued despite recent successes by the military, the President said it is because “reasonable territories are still in the hands of Boko Haram.

“We promised that we must get the girls. The good story is that they have not killed them because the terrorists, when they kill, they display. They use it to intimidate the whole society. The girls are alive. We will get the girls. Luckily, we are narrowing down the area of their control. So, we will get them” he said.

Continuing, President Jonathan said: “At the beginning, probably we did not really (correctly) estimate the capacity of Boko Haram. It is obvious. Boko Haram started as a non-violent group led by Yusuf, limited to around Maiduguri area and Yobe. They did not even get to Adamawa.

“Just like every group of youths or young people is inclined to criminality, over the period, they expanded their network and linked up with other terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda in the North and other similar brands in the world.

“So, they continued to build their capacity and it got to point to know that for you to tackle them in the kind of environment they operate, you need some specialized equipment to use and we don’t manufacture these equipment now. That is why the movement has changed. So, it is not deliberate,” he said.

On the March 28 presidential election, Jonathan admitted that the opposition he is facing is stiffer than that of 2011 but said he will still come out victorous.

He said: “I agree with you that it was easier (in 2011) but PDP is still the dominant party. There is no polling unit in Nigeria where you don’t have members of the PDP.

“Yes, for one reason or the other, within the party people get angry and may even vote against PDP but in terms of membership of the PDP, there is no party that has that spread.

“So, PDP still has the most formidable structure, PDP has better chances of winning a national election.”

“Even the opposition will tell you this if they are realistic. Who has strengthened the opposition? Are they not the PDP elements? If you remove the PDP elements from the opposition, they will just crumble like a pack of cards.

“Why are people aggressive towards the PDP to the extent that even the presidential convoy is stoned? Why do you show that aggression? If you are comfortable, you will not do that” he said.

Jonathan however said there is nothing unusual about the opposition this time around, saying it is a globally known that second term election is more difficult to win.

“Globally, it is more challenging for a president to secure a second term than the first tenure because people get disappointed when their expectations are not quickly met by those they voted for.

Speaking on the ongoing fuel scarcity in the country, the president said government is on top of the situation, as it has taken necessary steps to end it.

“For the fuel scarcity, we are doing everything humanly possible to ensure it is taken care of. It is very temporary. Of course, there issues of payment being addressed and we believe that within one or two days, this will completely go”.

Continuing, President Jonathan said: “Until we start refining our crude oil to get our own products here within the country, we cannot get out of some of these. It is even really the policy of government. When you continue to export raw materials, you are actually exporting jobs.”

On accusations by the All Progressives Congress, APC, that the recent reduction in the pump price of petrol is politically motivate, the president said: “It is not politically motivated. Pump prices are not constant but are based on changes in the international market.

“When I came as vice president in 2007, the price of crude oil at the international market dropped to about $40, there was a day it dropped to $38 per barrel and we dropped the pump price to N65 per litre. And we had to keep it up to N97 when the price went up to about $111 per barrel at the international market.

 The cushioning gap was because the subsidy became unbearable to government. So, we had to push it up to N97 per litre. Now that the international crude oil price has dropped back to about $60 or so, it would not be fair for you to still ask Nigerians to pay N97 except you want to deregulate completely” he said.