‘I was not a clueless president!’ Jonathan blasts critics

The tag "clueless", stuck to Jonathan like a second skin throughout his reign. Now, the former president is pushing back on that sobriquet.

Jonathan has been telling his story in a book he launched on Tuesday, November 20, 2018.

The book is titled “My Transition Hours”.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar in warm embrace. ece-auto-gen

“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 annum”, Jonathan wrote.

'APC tells blatant lies', Jonathan says

The governing All Progressives Congress (APC) often cites the inheritance of an empty treasury from Jonathan, as one reason why it has under-performed on the job thus far.

Time and again, President Buhari who succeeded Jonathan, has pointed at the slump in the price of oil and the refusal of the Jonathan administration to save for a rainy day, as factors that led Nigeria into a recession soon after he assumed the reins.

But Jonathan says the APC is simply a victim of its own propaganda machine.

“Recall that the opposition and their sympathizers 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,” he wrote.

Senate President, Bukola Saraki, with former president, Goodluck Jonathan ece-auto-gen

“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", he added.

Star names in the cabinet

Jonathan pointed at the caliber of members of his team as proof that his administration was neither clueless nor inept.

“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),” Jonathan wrote.

“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.

“With such personalities on my cabinet, no one can factually say we were ‘clueless’ or inept.

“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 percent.”

A hero and statesman?

Jonathan also blamed the United States and then President Barack Obama for his 2015 trouncing at the ballot.

Former Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan (left) and former United States president, Barack Obama ece-auto-gen

President Buhari was notably absent at Jonathan’s book launch, preferring to send a representative instead in Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha.

Jonathan lost the election to Buhari by more than 2.5 million votes, the first time an incumbent would lose a presidential election to an opposition candidate in Nigeria.

Jonathan conceded defeat to Buhari in a phone call long before the electoral umpire called the vote for the opposition candidate.

That concession phone call earned Jonathan a statesman status nationally and internationally.