'I've been visiting Buhari at night,' Ex-President says

dimeji akinloye

August 3, 2016 8:28 PM

Jonathan also said that to find lasting solutions to the pipeline bombings in Niger Delta, all stakeholders in the Ijaw ethnic nationality must be involved.

President Muhammadu Buhari and ex-president, Goodluck Jonathan

Former President

Speaking to journalists at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, on the purpose of his visit to the President, Jonathan said he mostly visited Buhari at night as he has become a state property.

“You asked why I came to see the president today; one key thing is that having been a head of government, a former president, you become a state property,” he said.

“That’s the privilege you have but every privilege has its corresponding responsibility, and once you become a state property, most of your international engagements that have to do with public addresses and some international assignments, they become national assignments; you brief the President.

“Even when I was here, the former presidents used to do that and see me. I have been coming; most times I come in the night; that’s why you don’t see me.

“I came to brief the president about some of my engagements. As you are aware, I will leading the AU elections monitoring team to Zambia, I came to brief the president about some of these external engagements. It is the tradition," the former president said.

On the Niger Delta crisis, Jonathan said to find lasting solutions to the pipeline bombings, all the stakeholders in the Ijaw ethnic nationality - traditional rulers, elders and opinion leaders, must be involved.

“We have been in touch to see that peace reigns in the country; those of you that have followed my talks when I was here, my emphasis was always that we need a united Nigeria and I always emphasise that Nigeria is great not just about the oil. So many countries produce more oil than Nigeria but nobody notices them.

“We are great because of our size, the human resources we have, the diversity we have. If we fragmentise the country into small components, we will be forgotten by the world. That has been my focal position and without peace there cannot be development anywhere in the world; we are all working collectively to see that issues are resolved,” he said.

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Jonathan, however, declined comments on Buhari's ongoing anti-corruption war, saying it would be unfair to make statements when too many cases are still in court.

dimeji akinloye