 Good afternoon. Good morning. Nigeria, exactly. I'm yet to get into the time changes. I would like to thank the Center for Strategic and International Studies for inviting me to this forum. And more importantly, I congratulate the Center for its Agenda Setting Program on Nigeria. I believe strongly that current work by CSIS can provide the U.S. people, business, and the Obama Administration the information and analysis required to engage strategically with business, government, and the people of Nigeria. Let me also welcome and thank all of you for coming to this session. And in particular, Steven Morrison, Jennifer, who is not here, and Brian for anchoring and coordinating the session. As you are all aware, the president of Nigeria, Malam Umaru Musa Yaradua, took ill in November 2009 and had to be flown to Saudi Arabia for treatment. According to his prolonged absence, a wave of uncertainty, threats, and near disaster enveloped the polity. And something had to be done to pull us back from the brink. A joint resolution of the National Assembly that was anchored on the doctrine of necessity was passed in the first paving way for Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to ascend the position of acting president and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Since the passage of the resolution, the acting president has taken necessary action to strengthen government capacity to meet key challenges. These actions include the appointment of a presidential advisory council under the leadership of two distinguished Nigerians, Teofilus Danjuma, a retired general, and Ben Wabwizi, a well-known professor of constitutional law. A new national security advisor, General Aliou Guzo, and 24 hours ago, the reconstitution of the Executive Council of the Federation, among several other important changes. The goal, according to Dr. Goodluck, a village Jonathan acting president, is to quote him, stabilize the polity, get Nigeria back to work, and drive the processes upholding our unity, citizenship, and development. Quote, one of my American friends who is seated in the audience here right here, said to me weeks ago, quote, Oron to the news from your country makes my blood pressure to palpitate too dangerously. Well, with Boko Haram Abdul Mutalab, the reoccurring just crisis and car bombs in worry in mind, all I can offer to my friend then and now was regrets, and request that we all work together to avat such unwarranted palpitations. In this wired world of today, bad news of the shocking variety can without mourning be delivered to you without solicitation. How I wish the goodness from Nigeria gets dispatched as quickly too. I have always held the view that Nigeria's political stability and economic prosperity is in Africa's and humanity's interest. Therefore, doing legitimate business with Nigeria and Nigerians in the area of job creation, building peace, protecting the environment and human rights, rebuilding and expanding our decaying infrastructure, and investing in education and health delivery system are critical. The Libyan strong man, Colonel Mohammed Gaddafi, contributing to the discourse on Nigeria, made two suggestions which he has since dispatched top diplomats to clarify and apologize. First, he said Nigeria should be divided into two, what he called Muslim not and Christian south. Then, 48 hours later, he reverse himself to say no, it should be divided along tribal lines. To Mohammed Gaddafi's new dream, present Nigeria will give birth to 250 countries. It is not clear whether Gaddafi's suggestions are only lined with the predictions coming from the United States that Nigeria will disintegrate in 2015. It is this background of festival of bad news that current policy options in the governance of Nigeria are presently directed. In the year ahead, the federal government aims to focus on the following. Electoral reforms to enthrone electoral integrity and strengthening democracy in Nigeria, resolving the Niger Delta crisis and enthroning a sustainable framework for development of the region while accelerating investment, reforming and strengthening the energy sector through a strong and viable petroleum industry act and the collaboration of our approach to eliminating energy poverty in Nigeria. Expand national capacity in the agricultural sector as part of our overall strategy to promote food security and diversify our economy, strengthen the financial services sector, enhance anti-corruption and anti-money laundering initiatives, promote human rights and eliminate impunity. These all flew from the seven-point agenda outlined by President Umaru Yadadua and they will all come, of course, built on the progress that has already been made, particularly in the first three sectors. So there will be continuity with additional vigor, urgency and fresh perspectives. Acting President Jonathan, in a recent address at the Forum on Electoral Integrity, regretted that, quote, in an era of advances in information and telecommunication technology in Nigeria, our young people are yearning to participate in politics and to bring the things that matter most to them into the political arena. Unfortunately, electoral malpractice and violence is keeping them away and breeding frustration throughout the country, unquote. The acting president believes that of all the challenges Nigeria currently faces instituting electoral integrity is the greatest as it has a corresponding impact on all sectors. A few weeks ago, the acting president sent the Justice Oways Committee report on altered the National Assembly to guide constitutional changes that will promote electoral integrity and justice. The National Assembly has already successfully passed changes in the Constitution that will now go through at least two-thirds of the state houses of assembly in the country. We are very confident that these changes will pass successfully. While constitutional and legal changes are important, the acting president holds a view that actual action of the government must reflect the desire for positive change. The unambarrassed state governorship election and the ESAC or Central Constituent Election in a those-state house-per-assembly have already been used by the acting president to demonstrate his commitment to free and fair elections. Most people agree that despite logistical challenges, occasioned by the tiredness of the electoral empire, the elections were free and fair and definitely devoid of government interference. The acting president made sure that everybody understood correctly that the federal government wanted genuine elections. Subsequent elections must follow this trend. Another key challenge that confronts Nigeria today is peace and stability in the Niger Delta. We all know that Nigeria is totally dependent on the Niger Delta for current and future energy needs, including electricity. This means that all national goals in energy self-sufficiency are meaningless as long as the Niger Delta is unstable. Last year, Nigeria failed first shot of the target 6,000 megawatts, mainly as a result of gas supply problems associated with the crisis in the Delta. This had an impact on quality of life all over the country and poor industrial capacity utilization, as well as the effect of diversing investment away from Nigeria. Some of you would have noticed that the acting president has retained a power portfolio in the recent reconstruction of the Executive Council. The acting president is determined to put in place a robust framework to tackle the epileptic power supply that is the bane of our efforts to develop and industrialize our nation. While an efficient and effective oil and gas sector remains anchor of Nigeria's energy output, we must not lag behind the world in seeking to promote alternative sources of energy. Alternative energy will diversify our energy grid, reduce our dangerous reliance on hydrocarbons but above all help to preserve and sustain the integrity of the ecology in the Niger Delta and in the North. The entire national, state, and local government procurement plans are also dependent on the oil from the Niger Delta. The Nigerian economy is totally and helplessly dependent on oil from the Niger Delta. Conflict in the Delta has reduced Nigeria's production capacity over the past three years with an impact on federal, state, and local government budgets and consequently the entire economy. In order to reverse the negative impact of the Delta conflict on Nigeria, President Yeradua in May 2009 offered a non-conditional amnesty to militants in the region. The amnesty was accepted by majority of the militants. A disarmament exercise was carried out as part of the amnesty and currently a few thousand disarmed ex-militants are waiting to participate in the post-amnesty rehabilitation program. The post-amnesty program has been slow and disappointing but a new impetus is now being given to the program which will encompass reorientation, retraining, job creation, and entrepreneurial support for the youths of the Niger Delta, particularly the ex-militants. Also planned are greater infrastructural, social, and economic investment in the Niger Delta. There will be underpinned by the implementation of the 10% community equity ownership of oil assets through community trust. Acting President Goodlock Jonathan will vigorously pursue this vision of President Yeradua. The federal government will accomplish the passage of the Petroleum Bill into law within the year. The acting president wants to maintain a strong balance of foreign investment and local participation. Everyone must understand that Nigeria seeks greater benefit from its oil and gas resources but we still value our partnership with Western IOCs even though the Chinese, the Russians, and others have recently shown a tendency towards competitiveness. We must therefore deepen dialogue but swiftly move to accomplish an oil and gas regime that is equitable, stable, and sustainable and above all community and environment friendly. The year ahead the government will continue to support commercial farming initiatives that are viable but will also ensure that all government agricultural programs are implemented efficiently to minimize leakages, grafts, insider delays that do not benefit the agriculture sector. To this end the government intends to implement an overhaul of the system that delivers hundreds of billions to that sector, investment to be tied directly to results. We are aware that as a result of recent Central Bank of Nigeria's intervention, investors are closely watching the sector. The process of establishing an asset management company is now ongoing. As soon as this is concluded the company will be capitalized to buy toxic asset of the bank's balance sheet and help to reject liquidity into the system. Already the civilian has injected more than four billion dollars into affected banks. This year will be one of economic re-engineering and transformation in Nigeria. To accomplish this we have a world-class economic management team headed by the immediate past managing director of Goldman Sachs International. Good news from Nigeria is beginning to trickle in. Yesterday the Financial Times headline on Nigeria reads quote, Nigeria cabinet reshuffle lifts investors. Other great news of the heroism of ordinary Nigerians who on a daily basis preach peace, non-violently protest unjust policies that deny them their right to survival, or those who insist on a united, strong and equitable Nigeria are yet to be hailed across the world's major news outlets. These citizens, whether from the Niger Delta, the Kamodogu, Ugunwashu, or Nambura Basin, deserve commendation. Hubbled in communities and villages they are the heroes of Nigeria's struggle for what Dr. Jonathan called economic self-sufficiency and political maturity. The fight against corruption at all levels will be escalated. To achieve these anti-corruption structures will be strengthened and remandedated. The recent killing in Jaws have again brought the issue of human rights and peaceful coexistence to the fore. The federal government is determined to effectively put an end to all forms of impunity. To this end, hundreds of suspects in the Jaws case have already been arrested and are currently undergoing trial. Measures have also been taken to reassess and improve the security situation throughout the country so as to safeguard lives and property. The distance between government and civil society has been abridged and it is Dr. Jonathan's desire to work closely with civil society to identify cases of human rights abuse to ensure that they are addressed within the provisions of the law. For the first time in Nigeria, peaceful assembly and protests were not being visited by the ugly specter of violence, tear gas and buttons on the innocent. This momentum will have to be encouraged and where necessary government will pursue the enactment of new legislations to protect all generation of rights for all Nigerians. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the federal government of Nigeria continues to place high value on the relationship with the United States of America. And during the year ahead, we hope that it can be strengthened and particularly in the areas that I've just addressed. The charge given to Dr. Jonathan by 150 million Nigerians is that he must help unlock the many doors of hope to our country and deliver on the promise of good governance. This is an urgent task and it needs the support of us all. I thank you very much for your kind attention. Aronto, thank you so much for that eloquent statement. Let me open with just one broad question and then ask you to respond to that and then we'll open the floor and collect some thoughts, comments, questions from our other members here. I also want to thank Brian Kennedy for pulling all of this together from here at CSIS and neglected to thank you, Brian, at the outset. When you look at the transition that you're describing here and the very ambitious agenda, the acting president's been wise in trying to focus down on three priorities. Of the seven that President Yarajawa had enumerated, he's saying, OK, in this next transition period, make a big push in those special three, which is terribly complicated and difficult. Time is very short in this period. Time is going to be very short. Because of the nature of the transition, the incentives on many of the key players will be to delay, potentially. And there will be resistance from many quarters because of entrenched interest, because of the expectation that you enter the next cycle of competition that may reset the political boundaries or the realities. And the acting president is operating with only a partial mandate in some ways, with an ambiguous authority and mandate in moving this forward. So could you talk to us about what's your strategy to carry forward that as agenda on those three key items and be able to transcend the clear challenges around a very short timeline, a set of incentives that may favor people stalling or resisting, and perhaps less than complete authority and mandate and ability to sort of move that forward? Could you comment on those sort of broad questions and then we can open the floor? I think if you follow Nigeria closely, especially in the last three, four months, no Nigerian leader has received a kind of enthusiastic support that Dr. Jonathan has received. If you were to plot that on an opinion poll, you can say he has maybe 85% approval rating. So people will be his key ally in the processes as he drives those policies for change. The politicians as well will be allies, as you can see from the National Assembly response to getting the new constituted minister to work. It took less than three days for them to pass those ministers that were nominated. It means the National Assembly, despite the initial lukewarm, is now on board the process of delivering on good governance. So if you have the allies, you have the people as allies and you have the National Assembly behind you, the question of time becomes a question of urgent priority, even in Dr. Jonathan implementing the agenda and in the expectation of the people. It's critical that in any political setting there will be those who will resist. If you want to lose a privilege, if you are used to having votes allocated to you so that you can go into becoming a local government chairman or a governor and you now have a process of transparent election where the leadership recruitment processes are based on electoral integrity, then you will want to resist. You want the old order to remain. However, strengthening the anti-corruption institution and insisting that the people's power prevail, I think it would be a positive antidote against those who may want to resist along those lines. If he's narrowing his priorities to three key areas, he's all part of his understanding that he cannot take everything within this short period, roughly 13 months period. You don't want to do everything within this short period. Just deliver on those urgent issues and allow the Nigerians to decide the next line of action as we approach a very important election in the coming months. So that will be my response. Thank you very much.