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Tag: Jonathan

  • Jonathan, Gana, others pay tributes to Dickson’s mother

    FORMER President Goodluck Jonathan and a former  Minister of Information, Prof Jerry Gana were among important personalities, who paid glowing tributes to the late Mrs. Goldcoast Dickson. Others were Chairman of the Bayelsa State  Council òf Traditional  Rulers, King Alfred Diete Spiff and a  former Minister of Environment, Mrs. Lauretta Mallam, Jonathan, Gana, Diete Spiff and others said that the late Governor Seriake Dickson’s mother left behind a legacy of resilience, contentment, uprightness, humility, hard work and selfless service  to mankind and God.

    They extolled the sterling qualities of deceased  on Thursday night while paying tributes during a service of songs held in her honour at the  state Ecumenical Centre,  Igbogene, Yenagoa. They said Madam Goldcoast stood for the place of education as a veritable platform for people to succeed in life. Jonathan  said Mama Gogo, as she was fondly called, was diligent in the service of the Lord, and demonstrated exceptional motherly love as captured in the tribute by her daughter-In-law, Dr. Mrs Rachel Dickson.

    He said that only a Godfearing lover of humanity would give the support Mrs. Goldcoast gave to her daughter in-law as captured in the emotional tribute by the Bayelsa First Lady. Rachael gave a detailed account of how Ma GoldCoast Dickson prayed with her, encouraged her for the 15 years that she battled infertility before the coming of the quadruplets.

    She described Mama Goldcoast  as a jewel of inestimable  value, who did not differentiate between her and her biological daughters. In his tribute,  Gana said that Mama Goldcoast lived an exemplary  life, worthy of emulation as demonstrated by the achievements and integrity of the children she raised. He described  her as a woman of integrity  and lover of children who had nurtured her children  and all those who came her way to achieve  successes in life.

    Also King Diete Spiff, one time  Military  Administrator of Bayelsa State, Col. Paul Edor Obi (Retd) and former Minister of State for Environment, Mrs Sarah Ochekpe described Mama Gogo as a “golden Goldcoast” whose inspiration manifested in Governor Dickson’s approach to governance. They said Mama Goldcoast fought a good cause, stressing that, it is not how long but how well one lived that counts and urged people to emulate her lifestyle by living a worthy  Christian life.

    In a brief exhortation, Bishop God-Do-well Avwomakpa said death is an inevitable end for all mortals adding that it was expedient for people to give their lives to God. Responding, Governor Dickson expressed  gratitude  to Bayelsans, various leaders across the country, friends and other sympathisers who had in one way or the other shown concern and support to him and the Dickson family over the demise of his mother.

    Dickson restated that the remains of his mother would lie-in-state in Toru Orua for a traditional  and Christian all night wake after which she would be interred in her hometown, Toru-Angiama, Delta State. Other family  members who paid tributes include, the grand daughter of Mama Goldcoast,  Miss Peikumo Dickson, son-inlaw, Mr. Wisdom Fafi, saying that her legacies would remain indelible. Former Deputy  Senate President,  Senator Ibrahim Mantu and former Deputy Governor  of  Sokoto State, Alhaji Mukhtar Shagari also graced the event.

  • Obasanjo, Jonathan, Saraki, others honour Atiku at turbaning as Waziri Adamawa

    A CROWD of dignitaries watched yesterday as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar  was decorated as the Waziri Adamawa in Yola.

    Former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara were some of the dignitaries.

    Obasanjo was the chairman of the ceremony, which took place at the palace of Lamido Adamawa Alhaji Muhammadu Musdafa.

    The title was conferred on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate last year.

    Governors Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), Darius Ishaku (Taraba) and Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa), Rabiu Kwankwaso, many other senators and several PDP leaders, led by the party’s National Chairman Uche Secondus, attended the event.

    With the turbaning, Atiku is formally the 7th Waziri Adamawa, following a line of succession that began in 1872 when the first Waziri, Alim Alkasum, was turbaned.

    Obasanjo, who said Atiku deserved the honour, added that the Waziri Adamawa would carry his new office with dignity and respect.

    “Atiku will make you proud,” Obasanjo told the Lamido Adamawa.

    Referring to Atiku, Obasanjo said: “I do know that by every standard, you are a cultural and cultured person. I do know too that when we were in Abuja dealing with national and international affairs, you didn’t joke with cultural issues at home. So, you more than deserve this elevation.”

    In his goodwill message, President Muhammadu Buhari wished Atiku a successful event.

    Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Mohammed Bello, who represented the President, said Buhari appreciated Atiku’s invitation, which the PDP presidential candidate personally signed.

    “He mandated me to convey his good wishes for you to have a very successful coronation as Waziri Adamawa,” Bello said.

    Lamido Adamawa Muhammadu Musdafa eulogised Atiku, saying he was conferring on him the second most important position in the Adamawa Emirate Council due to his contributions to the growth of the emirate, Adamawa State and the country.

    The paramount ruler cited establishment of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Adama Plast, Faro water and juice, Gotel Communication and other companies as some of Atiku’s landmark achievements.

    Atiku thanked God and those who assisted him from a humble background to great heights.

    He said: “I give my gratitude to the Almighty Allah for the opportunity and honour he has bestowed on me from the humblest background to the very venerable position of Waziri Adamawa. Allah has been so kind and generous to me as only He can be. I also thank my beloved country for the education and opportunities it has given me to rise above my circumstances.”

    The PDP presidential candidate said he was grateful to the late Lamido Adamawa, Aliyu Musdafa, for making him Turaki Adamawa some 35 years ago and to his son, the present Lamido Adamawa, for the elevation to Waziri Adamawa.

    He said he accepted the noble traditional title, which is next only to the Lamido Adamawa stool, with gratitude and that he would serve the office dutifully.

  • Jonathan writes into a storm

    FROM the look of things, weeks may be insufficient to quieten the raging storm enveloping ex-president Goodluck Jonathan’s book, My Transition Hours. The controversies began last Tuesday during the book presentation in Abuja. They will intensify in the weeks ahead, perhaps until every gem in the book has been put through the furnace and every poisonous substance drained to its bitterest dregs. Dr Jonathan himself will not help the controversies: he is too serious and defensive to find the mirth and bonhomie to deploy the kind of wit necessary to disarm opponents, and also too full of conspiracy theories to see any altruism in the perspectives of his critics and those who like to needle him for sheer fun.

    Take just one of the controversies, the one that concerns foreign meddling in the 2015 elections. From the temper of his writings on the matter, it is clear that Dr Jonathan has not overcome what he describes as the United States’ humiliating meddling in the polls. Here is how he puts it: “I can recall that President Barack Obama sent his Secretary of State to Nigeria, a sovereign nation, to protest the rescheduling of the election. How can the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, know what is more important for Nigeria than Nigeria’s own government? How could they have expected us to conduct elections when Boko Haram controlled part of the North-East and were killing and maiming Nigerians? Not even the assurance of the sanctity of May 29, 2015, handover date could calm them down. In Nigeria, the Constitution is very clear: No President can extend his tenure by one day.”

    Dr Jonathan’s worst enemies cannot deny that the former president has a fairly plausible perspective on the meddling matter, at least in some ways. The US may have suspected Dr Jonathan’s motives in postponing the polls, but were they right to have come to read him and his government the riot act? When Mr Kerry came to speak strongly to the Nigerian authorities, obviously with Dr Jonathan in mind, the opposition exulted. Even this writer also suggested that the Americans were sensible in intervening in a poll that seemed increasingly, at the time, susceptible to official manipulations. The issue of sovereignty took back seat. But it should not have. The opposition, including their standard-bearer, exulted over the American intervention. It was, sadly, short-sighted.

    But if foreign meddling in Nigerian polls and affairs are to be avoided, the country’s leaders, whether ruling or opposition, have a responsibility to manage national affairs and conflicts in ways that sustain and nurture national sovereignty. Dr Jonathan, from all indications, possessed that understanding and depth of perspective much more than even his opponent in that election, but he lacked the discipline and administrative acumen to embark on actions or enunciate policies that undergird the country’s freedoms. It is true that the opposition were unwilling to grant him any quarter, and foreign powers condescendingly wished to teach ‘lowly’ Nigeria a thing or two about running a democracy, but Dr Jonathan had more than four years in office to set the machinery in motion to defend the country’s independence. He is now wise after the fact, but it is too late. The issue today is finding out whether his successors have learnt any lesson.

    There are enough lessons all over the world for Nigeria to learn from, especially concerning how countries with enormous self-pride fiercely defend their sovereignty. If there would be any meddling at all, as the 2016 US elections showed, it should only be done by influence peddling and cyber subversion rather than by direct and offensive control. In the case of Nigeria in 2015, Nigeria was humiliatingly and forcefully transformed into a vassal, and Nigerians themselves approved of it because they distrusted Dr Jonathan and wished to replace, by all legitimate means possible, a government they concluded had become corrupt in managing the economy and hopelessly ineffective in tackling the insurgency wasting the north-eastern part of the country.

    Undoubtedly, Dr Jonathan has matured after his dizzying spell in office. He has the advantage of possessing a PhD, and so can see and think beyond the superficial. His learning, for whatever it is worth, has enabled him to introspectively look at his time in office. Even though his book is not a biography as he warned, it is certain to contain a few critical perspectives on his presidency and leadership style. It is expected that when his autobiography is published he will be harder on himself than the expiation his new book has appeared to undertake. There may be question marks on whether the book has come too soon; but given the fact that a new election season is upon Nigeria, he probably hopes that Nigeria’s current rulers may learn a few lessons or so. If that is his hope, it is not misplaced.

    Much more, it must warm the cockles of his heart that many former leaders, including his arch enemy at the time, ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, had very kind words about him, not to talk of how thoughtfully they turned out en masse to honour him. Their kind words were neither contrived nor laboured, and were not designed to give the audience the impression that the speakers were merely being kind to him on that occasion. No, from all indications, they were genuinely proud of how he conducted himself in his last months in office, and would recommend such nobility to all African leaders who find themselves facing re-election battles. As a matter of fact, the kind words spoken about Dr Jonathan seemed more like signals to President Muhammadu Buhari to never let the standards of presidential re-election behaviour fall. The leaders who spoke during the book presentation did not give the impression they had full confidence that that standard had not already fallen.

  • Why North dumped Jonathan in 2015

    The controversy generated by the new book launched by former President Goodluck Jonathan continued yesterday with more Nigerians berating him over some of his claims in the book.

    The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) last night berated the former president over his claim that many individuals and groups conspired against his re-election in 2015.

    The group described Jonathan as the architect of his failure for refusing to honour the arrangement of his party which zoned the presidential slot to the North.

    Jonathan on Tuesday in Abuja launched the book titled ‘My Transition Hours’ with eminent personalities within and outside the country in attendance.

    The book contains his views on various issues till he left office on May 29, 2015.

    The former president, among other issues, had indicated that corruption is worse under the present government than it was during his tenure and that the Chibok school girls’ abduction was a product of conspiracy by the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in connivance with the Borno State Government.

    He also accused the Borno government and then President Barack Obama’s administration in the United States of undermining the efforts made to rescue the Chibok girls in 2014.

    In a swift reaction, Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, described the work as an elementary book of fiction which “fell short of the courage required of him to publish findings by his own panel in Chapter Four of his book.”

    Explaining while the North withdrew its support from Jonathan, the ACF National Publicity Secretary, Muhammad Ibrahim Biu, said even though he had not read the book, “it is on record that Jonathan contested the 2011 and 2015 elections against the zoning arrangement of his party, which zoned the presidential slot to the North.

    “Therefore, his assertions that Northern leaders and socio-political groups in the North worked against his presidency is rather odd, considering the circumstances at that time.

    “Yet he won the presidency in 2011 and the ruling party also secured 25 per cent in some states of the North in the 2015 presidential elections.

    ”It may interest you to know that his party has since admitted the oversight in the party’s 2015 winning game plan.

    “This clearly means that leaders should always honour their words with deeds if they want to earn the respect of their followers.”

    In the same vein, former Kaduna State PDP chairman and Northern Elders Forum member, Alhaji Yaro Makama Rigachikun, said two factors were responsible for Northern elites dumping the former president during the 2015 elections.

    Rigachikun, who had defected to the APC prior to the 2015 general elections, disclosed that the first reason the North rose against Jonathan in 2015 was the fact that the former President had taken oath of office twice.

    According to him, “he was sworn in when the late Umaru Yar’Adua died. He was again sworn in in 2011 when he won that year’s presidential election.

    “To the Northern establishment, he was sworn in twice, which was in tandem with the constitution.

    ”So, to allow the former leader to be sworn in for the third time was against the spirit of the constitution, and the Northern establishment would not take that.”

    According to the Northern elder, the second reason was the issue of suspicion and distrust because the Northern establishment believed that the former leader had a hand in Boko Haram.

    “However, event later proved that the former leader was not behind the insurgency. As a former member of APC, we came to realise that Jonathan’s hand was never in Boko Haram.”

    The National Chairman of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Chief Chekwas Okorie, flayed the ex-president for saying that corruption is worse under the present regime than it was under his administration.

    In a telephone chat with The Nation, Okorie said: “I heard him say that corruption is worse now than when he was in office. Many of us don’t think so.

    “We know that millions of dollars were recovered from some of the people that served under him in raw cash.

    “He even boasted that 200 aircraft were flying about in Nigeria. Where are those aircrafts now?

    “Those people just ran away, knowing that they can’t account for those aircraft.

    “He should know better what the foreign reserve was when he left office and what it is now.

    “He has written his book based on his own perspective, according to his own experience and interpretation of things that happened around him as the president of Nigeria towards the end of his tenure.

    “People are free to criticize the book. If somebody feels so strongly about it, he can write his own too to enrich our literature and knowledge.

    “It is for discerning mind to know which one is the truth and the one that is a lie.”

    While calling for caution over the matter, the President of Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC), Okechukwu Isiguzoro, aligned with the former president’s claim that some PDP governors worked against his re-election.

    “Former President Goodluck Jonathan is the one wearing the shoe and he knows where it pinches.

    “There is no lie in his claim that some PDP governors worked against his re-election. We are all living witnesses to what happened in the build up to that election.

    “We saw how many governors and trusted allies of former Goodluck Jonathan betrayed him.

    “We saw how people came up with all manner of propaganda to smear the image of GEJ.

    “I personally believe in GEJ because he has proved to be a man of candour in all he does.

    “He has moved from being a national hero to becoming an internationally respected figure. No amount of mudslinging can bring him down.

    “Many of the reactions to the publication are mere afterthoughts.

    “Be that as it may, I will urge everybody to put the past behind.

    “Let us focus on the future by working together to tackle the humungous problems facing us as a people and as a nation.

    “The brickbats over what happened before and post 2015 is needless, especially at this time that we are approaching the 2019 general elections.”

  • Alleged graft: I never sent Kukah to beg Buhari, says Jonathan

    In his memoirs, “My Transition Hours”, former President Goodluck Jonathan debunked reports that he sent emissaries to President Muhammadu Buhari not to probe his administration. He also suggested ways corruption can be tackled, writes Vincent Ikuomola.

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said that he has no reason to send people to beg President Muhammadu Buhari on his behalf over allegation of corruption.

    Jonathan said if there was any need to speak with the President, he would do so himself.

    Jonathan, who stated this in his book, “My Transition Hours,” in response to the report that he sent the Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah’s National Peace Committee to plead on his behalf. “The dust of handing over to my successor had barely settled when the political smear campaigns began against members of my family, former appointees and aides. The goal was to destroy everything we did and consign our legacy to the bin. The attacks were so intense that Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah asked the government and the ruling party to spare some thoughts for my graciousness in conceding defeat without taking the country through bloodshed as we had witnessed before in many African countries.

    “I remember that after Bishop Kukah and members of the Peace Committee met with President Buhari, propagandists had gone to town with the fable that I had sent the National Peace Committee to the President to plead on my behalf. Let me categorically state that such stories are false. Why would I need anyone to plead on my behalf? What wrong have I committed that I cannot speak to President Buhari myself? I have a conscience that is devoid of bitterness towards any man.

    “Specifically, to those who accused me of sending Bishop Kukah to plead on my behalf in respect of corruption, I have the following response. The premier global agency universally recognised to gauge corruption perception index stated that the last time Nigeria made progress was in 2014 while I was President. The country had moved eight places forward from 144 to 136. “

    He said corruption is as old as independent Nigeria. According to him, that is why all military takeovers of government since January 15 1966 coup had always been justified on the basis of ridding the country of corruption, insisting that every successive administration has fought corruption one way or the other but the surge still remains.

    Besides, he posited that corruption fight cannot be effectively fought and won by the executive arm alone, as it requires the involvement of other arms of government. Throwing light into the phrase attributed to him that “stealing is not corruption”, Jonathan said it was not true. He noted that he never said stealing is good; rather he said since corruption encompasses many things, a thief should be called by his proper name and not the blanket word like corruption.

    On how he went about it, the former President said his administration deployed the use of technology, knowing that it was endemic. He also noted that his government supported the institutional development of secure systems and mechanisms to curb corruption in public places. He cited the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and the Bank Verification Number (BVN).

    Jonathan further posited that the effective implementation of the various policies in the fight against corruption brought positive results as the country made its best improvement ever in Transparency International (IT) corruption perception index. According to Jonathan, “Immediately after the 2011 elections, my administration was repeatedly accused of being corrupt. Despite the blackmail, I remained committed to combating corruption in a systemic way, knowing it was endemic. We vigorously devised and implemented a thorough and strategic plan to fight corruption, using technology, albeit within the context of the rule of law and due process.

    “Before I go deeper into this, let me address a false narrative my detractors have used to besmirch my name. They claim that I once said that ‘stealing is not corruption.’ This is not true. Following the constant stigmatisation of Nigerians as corrupt, I invited the leadership of the legislature and judiciary to a meeting.

    “In attendance were the Senate President and his Deputy, Speaker of the House of Representatives and his Deputy; the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), the President of the Court of Appeal, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court and six States’ Chief Judges from each of the six geopolitical zones. Also invited were heads of the two anti-corruption agencies viz, the Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other related Offences Commission (ICPC). I presided over the meeting with the Vice President.

    “My thinking was that the executive arm of government alone could not effectively eradicate the scourge of corruption, hence the need for that meeting. I personally appealed to them and argued that only an all-inclusive approach could bring about tangible successes in the anti-corruption fight. The judiciary, the legislative and the executive arms of government needed to join forces if we were to end the theft of public resources and stop corruption. I went on to methodically present my case and propose that we work together to curb corruption. When matters of corruption are presented to the courts, there would be no effective results if they were not treated in a painstaking and timely manner. The parliament needs to play a fundamental role in passing strong and effective laws. When laws are weak, the judiciary would not be able to do much.

    “The then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Honourable Justice Dahiru Musdapher, in his contributions acknowledged that he was of the same opinion. He added that because of the perception of corruption in Nigeria, he had to isolate all the case files before the Supreme Court having to do with corruption charges. He said that after reading through those files, he discovered that more than 70% were not corruption cases, per se, but crimes of stealing. The individuals involved were however not charged to court for stealing but rather in preparing the case files, the prosecutors used the term ‘corruption.’

    “It was on the strength of his submission that I expounded to say that we should stop calling a spade an agricultural implement. Corruption does not fully capture the act of stealing. A person can indeed be corrupt without stealing a dime. Those who are incapable of comprehending this elevated thought and the mischievous crowd, go about claiming till date, that I said ‘stealing is not corruption.’ They never bothered to even check the context in which I spoke. If you ask many of those clinging to that falsehood and mouthing the malicious misrepresentation, to quote where I said it, they will tell you ‘they only heard.’

    “Let me categorically state that I have never said stealing is good and that people should steal; neither did the CJN. Stealing is stealing and instead of calling it corruption, let us call the thief by his proper name and not use a blanket word like corruption. Corruption encompasses many things. According to Transparency International, corruption is defined as the ‘abuse of entrusted power for private gain’. The Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines stealing as ‘to take without permission or legal right and without intending to return.’ If a government minister upon a cabinet dissolution takes a vehicle that he is not entitled to and converts it to personal use, then that is stealing.

    “We must not lump everything together and say stealing is corruption. We must isolate stealing and make it as plain as day because Nigerians hate thieves. I abhor jungle justice, but we have witnessed Nigerians show their hatred for suspected thieves by burning them alive. It is important also to note how we supported the institutional development of secure systems and mechanisms to curb corruption in public service and plug revenue leakages. My administration spearheaded the development of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and the Bank Verification Number (BVN).

    “No administration can either be entirely bad or perfect. Good governance is a process. Rather than media hype or arresting and parading suspected offenders on television, my strategy was to strengthen our public institutions and law enforcement agencies to prevent people from defrauding the system ab initio.

    “Let me explain how we went about doing this, using the corruption in the fertilizer sector as an example. My experience as Deputy Governor, and Governor of Bayelsa State, as well as Vice-President and President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria had exposed me to the challenges in the fertilizer sector. We did extensive research and finally were able to establish how the States and Federal Government were spending billions of naira on the fertilizer regime, but only about 11% or less of the fertilizer subsidy benefitted the end users, Nigerian farmers.’

    “It became more apparent that the remaining 90% were either being stolen or siphoned out of the country through clever schemes. It was not easy, but we came in, took action and cleaned it up. Coincidentally, my Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwurni Adesina, did his PhD research work on fertilizer distribution in West Africa. His knowledge of the field came in handy in our quest to curb the fraud. We developed what we called the Electronic Wallet. This was a policy that cut out the middle man and got millions of farmers to register for the e-wallet using their cell phones from which they received text alerts directly from the ministry, telling them where to pick up their fertilizer, and how much to pay.

    “According to Velocity Capital, a Dutch private equity firm, in its independent assessment, showed that the electronic wallet initiative of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development under the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS), had saved the Federal Government of Nigeria over $192 million by 2012, the first year in which it was introduced.

    “My administration developed and implemented the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), which was initiated by the Obasanjo Administration towards the end of his tenure. Through this technology, we arranged for federal, civil and public servants to register their biometrics as a condition for receiving their salaries and as a result we weeded out over fifty thousand ghost workers and saved N15 billion every month which was then equivalent to $100 million.

    “In December 2014, attempts were made to divert monies meant for salaries and emoluments to some other government expenditure. When that happened, the software which had its own defence mechanism shut the system down. Consequently, thousands of workers in some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) could not get their December salaries paid early. They were eventually paid as soon as the anomaly was rectified. I apologised to those families who suffered but I believed that to fight corruption we had to take necessary measures to establish and strengthen our institutions by adopting the best available technology. This is the only way to systematically and successfully fight corruption.

    “The effective implementation of these policies in 2014 brought positive results as Nigeria made its best improvement ever in Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perception Index. Nigeria was ranked the 136th out of 175 nations surveyed; an improvement from the nation’s previous position of 144th in 2013, 139th in 2012 and 143rd in 2011. It is important to note that despite the many sensational stories, dramatic arrests, seizures and accusations, many of them false, since I left office, the fact remains that Nigeria has not made any improvement on TI Corruption Perception Index since 2014.

    “In fact, the 2017 corruption perception index released in 2018 by TI placed Nigeria as number 148, a retrogression in which the nation went 12 places backward. In other words, Nigeria is more corrupt in 2017 than it was when I handed over to the Buhari administration in 2015. Some people may be misled with smoke and mirrors but the TI Corruption Perception Index relies on unsentimental facts and figures.

    “Interestingly, just as I was about to end my work on this book, the Tribune, a newspaper founded by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, one of the founding fathers of independent Nigeria, of blessed memory, on the third year Democracy Day Anniversary of my successor, wrote a very interesting editorial. The newspaper, while coming down hard on all past leaders of Nigeria under the democratic dispensation, including me, said this about its Perception of the anti-corruption fight and gave a verdict that corruption has worsened; ….Nineteen years on, not only is the polity still afflicted by worsening cases of poverty and corruption, the country’s democratic credentials are virtually in tatters. Indeed, it is doubtful that democracy is being practiced in the country let alone being entrenched…”

    “One of the affirmations that my administration fought corruption also came from an unlikely source, Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate (SAN) and one of my unrelenting critics. While speaking on TV, he affirmed that I fought corruption in my own way: ‘Even President Goodluck Jonathan fought corruption in his own way. You will be surprised how he got results. For instance, last year, when the government had to withdraw the charges against Mr. Mohammed Abacha after 14 years, between year 2000 and 2014 that the case travelled between the FCT High Court to the Supreme Court. And when the government was now going to withdraw the charges at the High Court, because the Supreme Court said go back and have your trial, the Office of the Attorney General issued a statement to the effect that the withdrawal was occasioned by  the fact that $970M from the Abacha loot has been recovered by the Jonathan’s government. Under that Government, $458M was also forfeited by the United States Government which has not been repatriated yet; the United States government, the Obama regime simply decided not to. This was from the Abacha loot alone. And from the Halliburton, from Siemen’s scandal and some of them, through some Plea bargain, the government made about $120M. That was the Jonathan government!  So, every government in Nigeria investigates the past, usually the previous regime but for the past 16 years, the PDP government and the Abdulsalami Abubakar junta recovered about $3.2B from the Abacha loot.

    “It is the most successful loot recovery in the world. And it has not ended yet; the government’s not done yet with the Abacha loot alone. Again, to be fair to President Jonathan, he sacked three Ministers one of them on them on the ground of conflict of interest for corruption…”

    “The accusation was made that my body language did not suggest I was willing to fight corruption. What some people wanted me to do was to go around the world announcing that Nigerians are corrupt. I believe that is not what a President should do. A President should fight corruption without stigmatising its citizens. Yes, there are corrupt Nigerians but there are also many credible Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora. This is the case all over the world, albeit in varying degrees.

    “There are two options before us as a nation. We can continue to strengthen our institutions and plug the loopholes like my administration did and come up with reforms as I had earlier enumerated, or we keep parading a few individuals in handcuffs to feed the appetites of those who have entertained negative expectations while leaving intact the architecture of corruption.”

  • Shettima to Jonathan: you lied on Chibok girls

    Even before it lands in book stores, former President Goodluck Jonathan’s book has sparked huge controversies.

    Some of the personalities mentioned in the book, which was presented on Tuesday as part of Dr. Jonathan’s 61st birthday ceremony, are disputing some facts in the work, My Transition Hours.

    The former president says the abduction of the Chibok girls was contrived to embarrass him and make him lose the 2015 election.

    Besides, Jonathan  writes, former Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Attorney-General and Justice Minister Mohammed Adoke, former Aviation Minister Osita Chidoka and former Senior Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs Waripamowei-Dudafa “were recomending sundry alternatives” before he concede defeat to President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Borno State Governor kashim Shettima, Adoke and Chidoka disagreed with the former President yesterday.

    Shettima told Jonathan on the Chibok abduction that his  probe panel’s report was missing in the book’s chapter four

    “In clever attempt to sweep under the carpet, incontrovertible facts surrounding the April 14, 2014 Chibok abduction,  former President Goodluck Jonathan has deliberately omitted in chapter four of his new book, an investigative report submitted to him in June 2014, by the presidential facts-finding committee he constituted in May, 2014, which was mandated to gather evidence-based facts and circumstances on the abduction,”   Shettima has said.

    The former president had indicated that the schoolgirls’ abduction was a product of conspiracy by the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), in connivance with Borno State government. He also accused the Borno government and then President Barack Obama’s administration in the United States of undermining efforts to rescue the Chibok girls in 2014.

    Shettima, in a statement released by his Special Adviser on Communications and Strategy, Malam Isa Gusau, said Jonathan never believed there was ever an abduction until rescue efforts were late, the “the former President’s elementary book of tales fell short of the courage required of him to publish findings by his own panel in chapter four of his book, he said.

    Gusau quoted the governor as saying: “The whole of Tuesday night, I took the pains of reading His Excellency, former President Goodluck Jonathan’s book, My Transition Hours, from the first to the 177th page. I took particular interest in chapter four (the Chibok school girls affair) which has 42 paragraphs written on pages 27 to 36. I was amused that despite  admitting in paragraph 15, that he had (in May 2014) constituted a Presidential Fact-Finding Committee under Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Sabo and many others “to investigate” the Chibok abduction, former President Jonathan refused to mention any part or whole of the findings by that panel which had submitted a highly-investigative report to him on Friday, June 20, 2014 after the panel held investigative meetings with the then chiefs of Defence Staff, Army Staff, Air Staff, the DG, DSS and IGP, met all security heads in Borno, visited Chibok, met with parents of abducted schoolgirls, met surviving students, interrogated officials of the school and the supervising Ministry of Education, interrogated officials of WAEC and analyzed all correspondences.

    “What has become very clear is that the former president decided to sit on facts in his custody while he published, in an elementary standard, a book of fiction designed to pass guilty verdicts on anyone but himself, with respect to the open failures of his administration to rescue our daughters and in tackling the Boko Haram challenges.”

    The governor declared that by refusing to publish any part of his own panel’s findings on the Chibok abduction, Jonathan’s book was nothing short of “a presidential tale by midday”.

    Read also: Jonathan: I was pressed to reject 2015 election result

    Shettima recalled that for  for the records, “on Tuesday, the 6th of May, 2014, President Jonathan had inaugurated multi-agency/stakeholder fact-finding panel under the chairmanship of Brig.-General Ibrahim Sabo (rtd), a one-time Director of Military Intelligence and also appointed a secretary from the Niger Delta. President Jonathan single handedly selected all members of that committee which included  his trustees amongst serving and retired security officers from the Army, DSS and Police; representatives of the UN and ECOWAS, representatives of the Chibok community, local and international civil rights organisations, representatives of the National Council on Women Societies, the Nigeria Union of Journalists, amongst other persons he trusted. For almost  two months, the probe panel undertook forensic assessment of all documents on the entire issues, held investigative meetings with parents of the schoolgirls during a visit to Chibok. The panel held separate one-on-one investigative meetings with myself, the then Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chiefs of Air and Naval Staff, met the then Director General of the DSS and the Inspector General of Police, all of whom were appointees of President Jonathan. The panel interrogated officials of Borno Government, including the Comof Education and the school principal. The panel also held investigative meetings with heads of all security agencies in Borno State, including security formations in charge of Chibok. At the end, the panel submitted its report directly to President Jonathan on Friday, the 20th of June, 2014 in Abuja. President Jonathan has refused to make public the findings submitted to him. I was expecting the findings in his book but he has deliberately swept that report under the carpet. However, I remember that on June 24, 2014, the ThisDay Newspaper claimed to have obtained a copy of the panel’s report and published as its lead, that painstaking findings by the Presidential panel had indicted the military under Jonathan’s watch and completely absolved the Borno State Government of any blame regarding the Chibok abduction. The newspaper went further to say that the panel actually commended efforts of the Borno State Government in its commitment to the fight against Boko Haram as testified by heads of security establishments,” the statement from Gusau said.

    Shettima also said it was clear to him after reading the former president’s book that he still lives with poor understanding of issues under his presidency. The Governor cited that, for instance, Jonathan’s claim on page 31 that Boko Haram wanted a Muslim President rather than him as Christian was laughable since the insurgents actually began their deadliest attacks in Borno under the regime of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, a Moslem from northern Nigeria.

    “We know for a fact that as vicious cycle of evil, Boko Haram fighters do not care about the religion of their targeted victims.  They attack mosques and churches. They are lunatics who regard anyone who doesn’t share their ideology as an infidel. So, I wonder how the former President didn’t take time to understand the biggest challenge under his presidency,” Shettima said.

    The governor advised Jonathan to write another book on account of his presidency which should contain “the facts as have been presented to him, regarding the Chibok abduction rather than the fiction” he made public on Tuesday.

  • How Jonathan conceded defeat, by Adoke

    Former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN) yesterday said he never at any time discouraged  ex-President Goodluck Jonathan from conceding victory to President Muhammdu Buhari in 2015.

    He said he, the ex-Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the ex-Minister of Aviation, Mr. Osita Chidoka and the former Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs to the ex-President, Waripamo Owei-Dudafa, actually prevailed on Jonathan to accept defeat.

    He said having been at the vanguard of protecting Nigeria’s democracy and the Rule of Law as an Attorney-General of the Federation, he could not have stooped low to ask Jonathan to reject the outcome of the 2015 presidential election.

    But Adoke noted that some hawks in the administration actually wanted Jonathan to refuse to accept the results but he, the two ex-Ministers and Dudafa encouraged Jonathan to congratulate Buhari.

    He said:  ”As a patriot, I could not have advised him not to concede defeat. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Osita Chidoka, I and Waripamowei-Dudafa are the real heroes of that historic concession as we ensured that despite pressures from the hawks within the administration, the President conceded defeat by calling President Buhari as at the time he did.

    “We are the real heroes of the concession by Jonathan. We were the ones who made the former President to make the concession call to President Muhammadu Buhari.

    “We are not saboteurs, we are patriots. We actually asked Jonathan to concede. I have impeccable democratic credentials; no one can spoil my records.”

    “I expect that Jonathan will clear the air on the issue as he knows the truth. However, my forthcoming book will address the issue most comprehensively.”

    Another source gave an insight into the last-minute intrigues that preceded Jonathan’s acceptance of defeat.

    The source said: “It is unfair characterization to claim that Adoke, Okonjo-Iweala, Chidoka and Dudafa did not want Jonathan to accept the outcome of the 2015 presidential poll.

    “When the results were trickling in and it was obvious that Jonathan was losing, Chidoka was actually mandated to go and draft the acceptance speech for Jonathan. How can someone who was part of the decision to make concession be assumed to be opposed to it.

    “After drafting the concession speech, Chidoka put a call to Okonjo-Iweala, Adoke for the vetting of the text. Of course, Dudafa has always been insisting on conceding defeat.

    ICYMI: Jonathan: I was pressed to reject 2015 election result

    “It was Dudafa, who actually put a call to President Buhari and handed over the phone to Jonathan to speak with the President who was the winner.

    “I am aware that Adoke insisted that Jonathan must congratulate Buhari before the announcement of the results. He kept on saying: ‘Mr. President, put yourself on the positive side of history, be a statesman and earn international respect for life’.

    “The presence of Adoke, Okonjo-Iweala, Chidoka and Dudafa assisted the President in making his decision to concede defeat.”

    A former government official attributed Jonathan’s concession to “personal factor”.

    He said: “President Jonathan had already given his words to all the security and service chiefs before the election that he would abide by the decision of Nigerians. At the meeting, he also told them to perform their duties professionally during the polls.

    “While we anticipated that he would congratulate his opponent if the result was announced in favour of the opposition candidate, he gratuitously, without the prompting of anyone, conceded defeat  – to the surprise of all.

    “By that singular gesture, he had saved the security agencies and the nation of unnecessary tension and stress in maintaining law and order and curtailing excesses of likely protesters.”

  • Jonathan: I wasn’t pressed to reject 2015 election result

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan denied  yesterday being put under pressure by some of his ministers before he conceded defeat in the 2015 election.

    In a statement signed by his media adviser, Ikechukwu Eze, Dr. Jonathan said: “Our attention has been drawn to a story in the Nation newspaper of Wednesday November 21, 2018 titled ‘Jonathan: I was pressed to reject 2015 election result’ which erroneously claimed that some identified former aides and ministers of ex-President Jonathan advised him “not to accept defeat.”

    “The story which was said to have emanated  from former President Jonathan’s new book ‘My Transition Hours’ mentioned the then Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Attorney-General of the Federation and Justice Minister Mohammed Bello Adoke; Aviation Minister Osita Chidoka, as those whose advice was rebuffed by Jonathan.

    “This is obviously a gross misrepresentation of what was stated in the book which one wouldn’t ordinarily expect to read in a credible paper like The Nation.

    “Although we see The Nation as a well respected paper, we also recognise that even credible organisations with the best of intentions sometimes lower their guard and, sadly, drop the ball. We believe this is what may have happened in this case, as there is no justification for the obvious twisting of the facts that were clearly stated in the book.

    “President Jonathan had maintained that he never consulted anybody over the decision to call and congratulate his opponent while the results of the 2015 Presidential election was still being tallied. Whereas the decision to concede defeat was one he took without any compelling, the former President is however grateful to those who were with him at that moment and many other Nigerians that shared in his conviction to put across the historic phone call.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, the following sentence lifted from the book represented how Jonathan narrated his engagement with the mentioned key appointees of the former President at that critical time in the nation’s political history: “They were recommending sundry alternatives, but I was quiet in the midst of their discussion.” However, this was how The Nation chose to report the narrative: “Okonjo-Iweala, Adoke, Chidoka, Dudafa advised me not to accept defeat”.

    “It therefore beggars belief that the phrase ‘sundry alternatives’ could be interpreted to mean that the former President was advised by the identified personalities ‘not to accept defeat.’

    “We always say that the society will be better served if journalists keep their interpretative reporting within the limits of credible and constructive imagination.”

    My Chibok schoolgirls’ story, by ex-president

    The Chibok girls happened under my watch. As President, the buck stopped at my table and I must take responsibility. However, for the Federal Government to succeed, the cooperation from the state government is paramount but we did not get that from Borno State. How would the state have rejected the request from the Federal Government to relocate the students?

    “At a point, the entire campaign of the opposition was riding on the girls. I thought these people could even pray that the girls stayed wherever they were until they were through with their scheming. It was however not surprising that some leaders of the #bringbackourgitls movement were rewarded with promotions and appointments shortly after the general elections. In fact. Hadiza Bala Usman, one of the co-founders of the #bringbackourgirls Movement was appointed the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority in July, 2016.”

  • @61 and Still ‘Jonathan’

    As he turns 61 – and even as he watches the sordid entrails of his six-year misadventure in governance daily exposed- former President Goodluck Jonathan, still rides on his high political horse, claiming as always that while he was in office, he saw no evil, he heard no evil and he did no evil. He blames everyone but himself. What is ridiculous is not that his blind supporters call him a ‘hero of democracy’, but that Jonathan too carries on as though he is the ‘Ataturk’ of a disputed ‘modern’ Nigeria. And you do not know whether to be amazed or to be amused by this comic display of inanity. Day in day out, revelations of mind-numbing heists involving billions of dollars are uncovered, perpetrated under Jonathan’s watch. And you wonder how even at 61, the man can still carry on so remorselessly. And so on the occasion of the 61st birthday of this man, I thought that we should look back and reflect how we all may have had a hand in the creation of a Frankenstein monster that almost devoured us. If remembering how we got here is all the lesson that we learn, then celebrating Jonathan’s birthday would be worth the while. This six-year-old piece titled ‘Jonathan: From the Divine to the Dubious’ I first wrote in the heat of the zoning debacle –preparatory to the 2011 presidential election. Enjoy it:

     

    Jonathan: From the divine to the dubious

     

    He was, as Shakespeare would say, “sweet Fortune’s minion and her pride”. Without striving, Jonathan virtually had it all. He attained heights un-dreamt even by those who give their all. He rose from a ‘rustic’, ‘shoeless’ beginning to the ne plus-ultra of political achievement: from a local government chairman to deputy governor; from governor to vice president and from acting president to president. All these more by the dint of ‘luck’ than by the hook of ‘merit’. Besides, his name is also ‘Goodluck’ –a perfect doublet of a desirable piece of ‘good omen’. Who would be in our situation and not desire some ‘good luck’ or ‘good omen’? Everyone said that the Zodiacs must be favourably at work in the political affairs of this young Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) –Jonathan. Although he looked and sounded deafeningly vacuous, and notwithstanding he also reeked of and radiated ineptitude, many Nigerians, in faith not in certitude, believed that Goodluck Jonathan could be the talisman we needed to re-jig our worsted situation. Besides, ‘lucks’ and ‘good omens’ don’t come in sachets and parcels of merit and credibility. They alight often from un-comely, sometimes repulsive, packages. Many Nigerians even waxed biblical, asking: ‘whoever thought that anything good could come out of obscure Nazareth? They insisted that Jonathan could very well be our own ‘Jesus of Otuoke’.

    And in our efforts to justify the efficacy of ‘providence’ and ‘good luck’ we were even prepared to turn popular axioms upside down and to walk time-honoured proverbs right on their heads. We said the American abolitionist, Henry Beecher was right, that “God’s providence” cannot be only “on the side of clear heads”; that it can also be on the side of cloudy ones. We said that Edward Gibson was also right, that “The wind and the waves” are not only “on the side of the ablest navigator”; that they can also be on the side of lucky, un-stirring bums. In fact a torrent of so-called ‘men of God’ was soon unleashed on the debate about the possible ‘omens’ inherent in a Goodluck Jonathan as president. Many so-called ‘men of God’ said that they had communed with Heaven and that the Lord had spoken to them, revealing that Jonathan was His ‘anointed’. They said that God had told them that this shoeless man from Otuoke would be our Moses; and that in spite of his seeming vacuity, he would be the one to enact our own parting of the Red Sea -to ‘let my people go!’ Jerry Gana, the one notorious for hunting with the devil while he sups with the ‘divine’, said that Jonathan held the ‘key’ to the gate of our Promised Land. Ethno-centric, rabble rousing, reactionary Clark in fact said that a ‘Goodluck’ Jonathan needed no credentials or antecedent-merit; because where the ‘divine’ stood proxy for a man, earthly paper credentials were ‘like filthy rags’.

    And so even the equitable measure of zoning, (canvassed as panacea for the many sicknesses of a plural society like Nigeria) was assailed and clobbered. Many rose clubs and cudgels, batons and bayonets, to hew down the effigy of zoning and to make way for our newfound romance with the ‘divine’ and with the ‘providential’. The politics of ‘merit’ and those of ‘cause and effect’ were sacrificed on the altar of ‘luck’ and ‘good omens’. And soon, a featherless political upstart-crow, Jonathan, was adorned with the anointed peacock-feathers of our political forebears. We placed this clueless man from Otuoke in a celestial Cherubim chariot of divine fire; and we armed him with the Sword of Damocles to be our avenging angel. And when Jonathan first deployed to work, many said they saw a gush of patriotic enthusiasm in this shoeless child of destiny; an enthusiasm to unleash the ‘divine’ and the providential on this God-forsaken land which no longer brought forth fruit. And there he was, Jonathan, chisel at hand, impatiently waiting to hew the hedgy overgrowth of our socio-economic and political Augean Stable. And for many of us it did not matter if he hit the ground running, ambling or crawling. It mattered only that he was propelled by hands celestial.

    We are a nation eaten hollow by pride and prejudice, bigotry and base pursuit. But by God we are a people driven by faith; -faith in the power of the unknown and faith in the efficacy of the unknowable. We believe that since faith could move mountains, faith would not have any problem moving, especially an already floating ship of state like Nigeria. And so Jonathan needed not to steer the rudders. It was sufficient that he was on board the ship of state. The invisible hands of two angels, ‘Cherub’ and ‘Seraph’, would do all the steering. And so when Jonathan said that he would move Nigeria forward, we needed no more than to say: ‘amen and amen again!’ And when he put us on a long and tortuous road map, the energy road map, which he said would lead to abundant light; and that abundant light would lead to unlocking our potentials, like the meek and humble disciples of old, we could only pick our raiment and faithfully follow him. Goodluck became our Moses and we became his freedom-seeking Israelites.

    We walked across the plains, the swamps and the savannas. We endured the scotching sun and we braved the stormy tempests. We hungered and we thirsted.  Yet our Moses became more distant. Deaf to the bleating of his famished sheep, but all ears to the greedy men of his household, the PDP. And soon we began to question the humanity in this non-provident Moses. He left us a thousand times to consult the ‘burning bush’. But on each return instead of the light of God, what he brought was the heat of Beelzebub. Of ‘manna from Heaven’ we saw none. It was ‘blood, sweat and tears’; ‘weeping, wailings, mourning and gnashing of teeth’. And we asked: ‘could this truly be of God?; -a journey with Moses but without ‘manna’ from Heaven? -a journey with Moses with a thousand ‘burning bushes’ but no soothing word from God? -a journey with Moses where each visit to the ambient presence of God brings no light but wrath? What manner of Moses was this who daily justified himself more by the number of the commandments he allowed to be broken, than by those he enforced? The Jerry Ganas had sold us a false Masih with a dubious anointing. ‘By their fruits’ Jesus said‘ ye shall know them’. But how did we miss the biblical test given by the master himself? It must be our prejudice; -a disease which sees what it pleases and ignores what is plain. We all saw that the Jonathan ‘tree’ was daily bearing evil fruit. But we did nothing! And now that the Jonathan road map had finally narrowed into a thick, dark endless tunnel of uncertainty, it dawned on us that he is not after all ‘divine’. But too late: Jonathan’s old wares of ‘luck’ and ‘good omens’ had left us in the lurch. Our hope for light at the end of the Jonathan tunnel offered no flicker of reprieve. If he had remained in office beyond 2015, the light we sought at the end of the Jonathan tunnel, would’ve been from an oncoming train!

  • Vengeance against my family, govt triggered recession, says Jonathan

    •‘Corruption has worsened after my exit

    There is no hold barred in the book written by former President Goodluck Jonathan. In the book titled: “My Transition Hours”, Dr. Jonathan, reflects on his last moment of decision to concede defeat to his challenger in 2015. YOMI ODUNUGA and TONY AKOWE, who were at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, venue of the presentation in Abuja, present excerpts from the book.

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said that the descent into recession by the country few months after his exit from office was self-inflicted by the APC government which came with a vengeance mission and name-calling rather than build on the gains of his administration.

    The former president said in his book, My Transition Hours, that the clueless tag given to his government was an attempt to denigrate his person and that of those who served under him, stressing that no government in Nigeria’s history has had the opportunity of having such array of person working in one government like he did.

    He said it is on record that several of his ministers and others he appointed into different positions are currently occupying plum positions across the globe, warning that people should stop digging holes for others to fall into.

    He wrote: “Recall that the opposition and their sympathisers and campaigners, both local and international, with their malicious propaganda, tore our economy to shreds, threatened our stability and existence as a nation and intimidated our citizens, all in the bid to take over power.

    “Nevertheless, we conducted ourselves in a manner that allowed a peaceful transfer of power from a ruling party to an opposition party, for the first time since Independence in 1960.

    “Rather than forge a coalition and build on the momentum we had gathered when they eventually took office, they went on a persecution spree and vengeance mission.

    “That the country slipped into recession soon after we left office was a self-inflicted injury caused by misplaced priorities. The narrative of inheriting empty treasury is a blatant lie.

    “Also, the excuse of the collapse of world crude prices does not hold water. This is because the Fourth Republic took off in 1999 with crude oil selling for less than $20 per barrel and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth at 0.58 per cent, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) figures. Yet, the economy maintained a steady growth from that year, peaking at 15.33 per cent in 2002 when the average crude oil price was about $25.

    “It is also instructive that the oil and gas sector constitute about 11 per cent of our GDP. There had to be a wider causative factor than just the fall in world crude prices.

    “It also amounts to standing facts on their heads to continuously claim that recession was caused by so-called mindless looting. The truth is that the opposition, in a bid to undo our government, became its own undoing when it got to power, because of the burden of justifying deliberate misrepresentations.

    “There is wisdom in the saying that if you win a prize and get the crown, don’t go around destroying the person who previously held that prize; it will lose its value. Even after winning the election and forming the government at the centre, the blame game continued.

    “When two brothers fight to death, it is the neighbour that inherits their father’s wealth. And we have seen neigbouring nations like the Republic of Benin and Ghana reaping from the capital flight out of Nigeria.

    “Despite Nigeria’s attainment of Independence from Britain ahead of most other African countries, we have been increasingly conditioned to seek succour in the blame game. It is time for Nigeria to take responsibility. As Gen. Murtala Mohammed said while addressing the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now African Union (AU) in 1976 that ‘Africa has come of age’.

    “I add that Nigeria has come of age. We either live up to that or we don’t. I am convinced that we can, and we should. We must as a nation always strive to improve the quality of life of our citizens and make developmental plans that will focus on the younger generation. That way, Nigeria will not be a liability to the rest of the world. Our population will be an albatross to us and our allies if we do not take the necessary step to tum it into a great opportunity.

    “The sundry accusations by the new administration would appear to have baited the media. Media trials are entertaining, but have little or no effect in fighting corruption and improving the economy. Since I left office, rather than improve on our TI (Transparency International) corruption perception record, the situation has worsened with the nation going 12 places backward, becoming number 148 according to the latest CPI ranking for 2017, from 136 in 2014 when I was president.

    “It was bad enough that Boko Haram insurgents continue killing people and ruining businesses, but what is worse is when politicians downgrade the economy by demarketing the country internationally.

    “You should never try to slander your political opponents by destroying your country’s economy. Capital flight intensified and companies started laying off staff. In all these, I hope a lesson would be learnt.

    “If you embark on digging a hole for your enemy, you better make it shallow, because you might end up in the hole yourself. How do you attract investors you already repelled through your utterances? Investors are an ultra-sensitive lot. Money runs away from unstable societies.

    “Most painful have been the attacks on my ministers, aides and associates and even members of my family. There is an attempt to erase our legacy from history.

    “The good thing is that the unending barrage of attacks, deliberate misinformation and programmed media smear campaigns have failed to sway the opinion of those with a clear view of our beliefs, efforts and achievements.

    “There are millions of Nigerians and others around the world who are still impressed with our modest achievements in consolidating democracy and growing the nation’s economy.

    “They will continue to serve as my strength and encouragement. Sometimes, I laugh when certain propagandists attempt to stand logic on its head by maligning my administration as one bereft of ideas and ‘clueless’.

    “In assessing my administration, it is best to focus on facts. I cannot assess myself. I leave that to history. But I can assess my cabinet and I make bold to say that never in the history of Nigeria, till date, has the nation had such a star-studded cabinet, full of achievers and people who got to the top of their chosen fields by merit.

    “Just consider that my minister of State for Health, Dr. Muhammed Ali Pate, is now a professor at America’s Duke University, as well as a Senior Adviser to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation based in Washington DC. My minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, is now the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB).

    My Co-ordinating minister, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, is the chairperson of the Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and the African Risk Capacity (ARC). She also sits on the board of Twitter and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, just as she is a Senior Adviser at Lazard and a Director at Standard Chartered Plc in the United Kingdom, amongst others.

    My minister of Communication Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson, is currently Chairperson of Custodian and Allied Insurance Limited as well as the Global Alliance for Affordable Internet.

    “And it is not just members of my cabinet. Others who served with me in different capacities are also soaring on the world stage. A good example is Ms. Arunma Oteh, who I appointed the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commissnon (SEC).Under her steady and skillful direction, Nigeria’s equity market grew in metric proportions, and by the time I left office in 2015, the market had tripled in size to $150 billion in value. Two months after I left office, Ms. Oteh was appointed a Vice President and Treasurer at the World Bank.

    “These are reputable individuals who served their country meritoriously and who, on the strength of their performance as ministers in my government, are now waxing stronger and valiantly on the world stage with only the sky as their limit.

    “With such personalities on my cabinet, no one can factually say we were ‘clueless’ or inept. The evidence of performance is simply overwhelming. We gave Nigeria an impressive and steady GDP growth rate at 6.7  per cent per annum.

    “We were officially cited as the third fastest growing economy in the world by CNN Money in 2014. We eradicated polio and guinea worm and became the first nation in the world to defeat the Ebola virus, such that the then richest man in the world, Bill Gates celebrated us for our prowess in the health sector. We reduced our food import bill by 36 per cent.

    “I did the best that I could to preserve Nigeria’s unity and ensure a brighter future for all Nigerian children. This remains my driving force even now that I am out of office. I can hold my head high in my post-presidential life to say that under my watch, no Nigerian was witch-hunted because of his or her views and not one political assassination occurred under me.

    “The momentum we built was a welcome development and a necessary boost which I recommend to other African nations as a means to help the continent expand capacity and reduce youth unemployment.

    “These are some of the positive steps I took to guide Nigeria safely to land during the difficult times she found herself. Looking back, I can say that I have a sense of fulfilment. It is said that a good conscience suffers no accusations.

    “I have served Nigeria with all my strength and God alone is the judge of the universe. I certainly hope that all those who cast aspersions at us can say the same about themselves because the end of a matter is better than its beginning. I had no enemies to fight; I have none still.

    Read also: Akwa Ibom PDP alleges plot to seal off Assembly

    “It is obvious that the world is happy with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda. The country came out of genocide. President Kagame made propaganda his enemy and got to work. Although Rwanda experienced the worst genocide in Africa’s recent history, it is today the toast of the world.

    “My hope is that African leaders must embrace the concept of democracy that delivers purposeful leadership, improves the lives of the people and envision a secure future for the nation. Africa is critical to global progress and for that reason I urge all African nations to work with fidelity and commitment for the greater good of the continent.

    “Looking into the future, I see that our leaders can do a lot to eliminate ethnic sentiments in our societies, enthrone merit and build a system that gives citizens equal opportunities to excel.

    “A country that cannot use its best brains will lag behind in the comity of nations. African leaders should remove key impediments limiting our growth. When we build capacity in the youth, it will unleash the creativity that would catalyse rapid development.

    “Since after my handover, and as part of the dedication of the rest of my life to the cause of peace and good governance, God helping me, I have engaged myself in finding ways of advancing the course of democracy and good governance in Nigeria, Africa and the rest of the world, through my Foundation, the Goodluckjonathan Foundation (GJF). The GJF will partner with all men and organisations of goodwill across the globes who believe in the ideals to which we have committed ourselves. We will seek to prevent conflicts, create conducive environment for businesses to thrive, work to advance the frontiers of education and create employment for the youth as well as encourage them to be self-employed. Millions of our people need help. We need to develop home-grown talents. We must aid educationally-disadvantaged children. Nigeria must become the beacon of hope in Africa.

    “I urge Nigerians and Africans to join me in the effort to create a fresh thinking and enlightenment of the people of this great country and our wonderful continent as we speak out against unrestrained and reckless craving for political office.

    “We have to rebuild our nations but we must start by rebuilding ourselves. So, let us roll up our sleeves and go to work, actualising our dream, hopes and aspirations for a prosperous and peaceful Nigeria and Africa.”