Former President Goodluck Jonathan, reflecting on his electoral defeat two years ago, shunned deep introspection and remorse for his five-year reign of impunity. What comes out from him from excerpts of a new book is a potpourri of falsehoods, hypocrisy, lame excuses and blame for everyone but himself. But before Nigerians fall once more for his favourite tactic of playing the victim, they would do well to remember the devastating impact of his bad government.

Words attributed to him in a book, Against the Run of Play, by Olusegun Adeniyi, a well-known journalist, and billed for public presentation in Lagos on Friday, were vintage Jonathan. Posing yet again as the perpetual victim, he blamed former world leaders − Barack Obama of the United States, Britain’s David Cameron, and French president, Francois Hollande − for desperately wanting a change of government in Nigeria. He blamed Attahiru Jega, the former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, for allegedly working with the Americans by insisting on the initial February 2015 date set for the presidential election; he blamed his own former party chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, whom he accused of working against him, and he carpeted the press and civil society for highlighting the pervasive corruption that flourished on his watch.

First, the context: As he left a limping economy and widescale corruption behind, Jonathan’s five years at the helm were an unmitigated disaster for Nigeria, the effects of which 170 million Nigerians are experiencing today. He ran the economy aground, failing like his predecessors to diversify effectively and entrenching what The Economist of London labelled “a rentier state.” His government despoiled all fiscal buffers − foreign reserves hardly rose despite persistently high oil prices until August 2014. In its defence, his finance minister claimed that it was $43.13 billion that was inherited, yet, despite oil prices averaging $90-$103 per barrel up till mid-2014, reserves moved barely perceptively, while the Excess Crude Account had crashed from $22 billion to only $2.2 billion when Muhammadu Buhari took over by mid-2015. Jonathan left no major new signature infrastructure project; only inflated repair projects which are mired in controversy.

Arguably his greatest disservice that ought to have been his major triumph was the badly managed privatisation of power assets that transferred most of the generation and distribution companies to untested, incompetent domestic consortia that have saddled Nigeria with a legal quagmire. But it is in the areas of corruption and security that Nigerians were mostly badly done in by that terrible government. Jonathan’s denial that he dismissed corruption allegations as “mere stealing” is false. He declared this on local and international TV. Corruption ran riot on his watch, as attested to by the latest scandals involving his wife, the suspended spy chief who stashed away $43 million in a Lagos apartment, the missing oil receipts being probed in parliament, as well as the $2.1 billion arms purchase fund that ended up in private hands.

While he is whining that Obama and other world leaders, civil society, the media and the opposition alleged corruption “without proof,” the world is still aghast at a sprawling corruption scandal centred on the abuse of N2.53 trillion petrol subsidy in 2011 when only N248 billion was approved in the budget. His government also signed away N603 billion in less than a year for dubious import duty waivers, exemptions and concessions, according to Customs. The fraud associated with oil swap agreements is still unfolding. Hypocritically, he claimed to have dropped Stella Oduah as Aviation minister when evidence emerged, but said he retained Diezani Alison-Madueke as oil minister “because there was no foolproof evidence.” This same ex-minister is alleged to have withdrawn millions of dollars to finance his re-election bid for which she and many others, including electoral officials, are being tried. He disingenuously discredited the Nuhu Ribadu panel report on the grounds of disagreement among some members, but failed to say that he had appointed Steve Oronsaye and Bernard Otti to the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in an obvious move of brinksmanship.

It is not too late for Jonathan to grow up. He may think Nigerians have forgotten and that it is time to move on. This is fantasy. All the colossal scandals that defined his time in government will live on in the minds of the people who bear the burdens of his misrule. Former president Olusegun Obasanjo, who broke all party rules to make him deputy to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, is quoted in the same book as admitting that from his first days in office, “…he showed that he was too small for the office.” He demonstrated this in his mishandling of the Boko Haram terrorist insurgency. Boko Haram has killed over 25,000 people, displaced over two million and once held 27 local government areas as its “caliphate.” Rather than take full charge, he allowed his generals to turn it into a gold mine for corrupt enrichment, an ATM, according to Obasanjo, for taking money from the treasury.


The influential The Economist once declared that Jonathan ran the most corrupt, most clueless government in Nigeria’s history. We can’t agree more. Indeed, we hold him and his corrupt generals responsible for the failure to rescue the 276 Chibok girls in 2014. His false narrative that he did try to rescue them contradicts reports that he failed to act when initially informed, continuing to view terrorism as a personal conspiracy against him.

Surprisingly, Jonathan has not changed, falsely asserting and boorishly claiming that Boko Haram is being defeated because Buhari is a Muslim, not viewed as an “infidel’’ like he was. But salafist militants view all existing governments as infidels to be violently overthrown. They target the Muslim leaders of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Chechnya, Algeria and Bahrain. Boko Haram has killed emirs and has vowed to kill Buhari, the Emir of Kano and the Sultan of Sokoto, the nominal head of Nigerian Muslims.

Jonathan incorrigibly blamed the media for his electoral defeat. We insist he lost the election because he was a total failure. He cites high figures of votes for Buhari in Kano, but was silent on equally suspicious figures for him from the South-South states, from Rivers or from Akwa Ibom and Delta states where votes recorded for him doubled the number of accredited voters.

But we hold President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian people culpable for providing the leeway for Jonathan to trample on our collective memory. While the Buhari government has demonstrated lack of courage to bring Jonathan to justice, many Nigerians celebrate, instead of rising against corruption. Across the world, people of conscience are marching in their thousands to protest against corruption; in broken, dysfunctional Nigeria, hundreds are, for a few wads of naira, marching, vandalising property, and preaching hate in defence of the corrupt. The officials on trial who have claimed to have been obeying Jonathan’s orders by collecting and distributing public funds provide enough grounds to put him also on trial. The anti-corruption war cannot go far unless Jonathan is confronted in court with his misdeeds. Past rulers who break the law are put in the dock. South Korea, Guatemala, Brazil, Peru, Zambia, Italy, France are ready examples. No one should be above the law.

Buhari should save his reputation by pulling out all the stops in the war on graft. Far too many ex-Presidents have demonstrated this belief that they are above the law. Jonathan failed to bring corrupt past leaders to justice, but Buhari must bust the myth. Nigerians should realise that corruption has ruined their present and rendered the future gloomy for their children and rise up against corrupt leaders − past and present. As for Jonathan, he should be reminded that the history of his administration is already being written and it is neither flattering nor can he remodel it with falsehood and whining hypocrisy.

http://punchng.com/jonathans-pathetic-apologetics/

I actually use to hold reservations and restrain for the personality of GEJ irrespective of his abysmal performance while in office for the simple reason that he rightly conceded a deserved defeat. But not anymore.

Words attributed to GEJ from the excerpts of the new book implies that he conceded defeat not out of heartfelt conviction and genuine concern for Nigerians, but out of external pressure and fear for his position as a person.

My conclusion from his pathetic ranting and rambling is that GEJ is a shameless pathetic weakling who is not responsible and responsive.
Thank God the "affliction" do not rise the second time.

Whoever wrote this shit is a s/he goat.

I think Jonathan's a good man but not a stern one when it came to public office. If he took the anti corruption war head on, he probably would have gotten a special honorary third term and Baba would have been relaxing somewhere far away from Aso Rock

Tazdroid:
I think Jonathan's a good man but not a stern one when it came to public office. If he took the anti corruption war head on, he probably would have gotten a special honorary third term and Baba would have been relaxing somewhere far away from Aso Rock

Jonathan is not a good man. The man is a thief and waster of resources. He is also very inferior . His main defence for being corrupt is that OBJ, IBB and Abdusalami were corrupt.
He plays this underdog victim card to deceive Nigeria's vision less youths
He will be the first Nigerian President to go to prison for corruption and it won't be Buhari that will jail him.

Adminisher:


Jonathan is not a good man. The man is a thief and waster of resources. He is also very inferior . His main defence for being corrupt is that OBJ, IBB and Abdusalami were corrupt.
He plays this underdog victim card to deceive Nigeria's vision less youths
He will be the first Nigerian President to go to prison for corruption and it won't be Buhari that will jail him.

Perhaps so, his inactions have made people see him in a different light. People have been calling for his head.

Almost everyone is waiting for the thread that reads "Former President GEJ arrested by the EFCC"

ALL OUR EX PRESIDENTS ARE NOW AUTHORS OF ONE BOOK OR THE OTHER.

LEAVING BEHIND DIVISIVE LEGACIES.

DIVIDING 9JA WITH CERTAIN LINE OF CRONYISM , TRIBALISM ETC

I think the greatest of Goodluck Jonathan lies in "Stealing isn't corruption". under such outlandish recovery of illicit funds during his regime, GEJ ought to have been living in shame within Nigerian and the international community.

ON OTHER HAND.
I think GEJ govt left some cluelessness behind for Buhari govt to inherit, Buhari govt are still fighting the cluelessness uptill now

Sultannayef:
Whoever wrote this shit is a s/he goat.

.Have you read the poo? This is no poo. Facts being unveiled everyday.

All this bias news media, should park off, they're also part of Nigeria's problems. How many have been bold enough to speak out on Buhari mis rule that have further worsened the nation's economy? By the time buhari is no more in government, you will be shock to see the kind of poos they will vomit. I don't blame them, "he that pays the piper dictates the tune".

Cry me a river. He should wake up and apologize for all the atrocities committed under his administration. All this blaming the rain is not helping.

Adminisher:


Jonathan is not a good man. The man is a thief and waster of resources. He is also very inferior . His main defence for being corrupt is that OBJ, IBB and Abdusalami were corrupt.
He plays this underdog victim card to deceive Nigeria's vision less youths
He will be the first Nigerian President to go to prison for corruption and it won't be Buhari that will jail him.

Oh please, for your information, ALL NIGERIAN POLITICIANS ARE CORRUPT.
People just ride over Jonathan because of his personality. He's not charismatic or a leader, but with regards to being corrupt that's a characteristic of most politicians in developing countries.

That's why we need to automate most of our systems and processes to prevent this. Countries labeled developed don't have more honest or corrupt free individuals, they just have checks and Balances that prevents and punishes violators.

Or didn't you follow the American election, how much one candidate was paid for speeches in exchange for favorable foreign policies.

That's why I urge Nigeria's to vote for Kowa. At least for now they ain't diluted.

Reading through Jonathan's mind from the excerpts I realized that the law of homogeneity is truly strong; A man with victim mentality will also attract like-supporters.

Blaming everyone for his failure except himself .
Thank goodness I've never fall for his hypocritical antics in the past.

GEJ is simply a misfit and a mishap.

DLuciano:
All this bias news media, should park off, they're also part of Nigeria's problems. How many have been bold enough to speak out on Buhari mis rule that have further worsened the nation's economy? By the time buhari is no more in government, you will be shock to see the kind of poos they will vomit. I don't blame them, "he that pays the piper dictates the tune".

Don't mind them, forming deaf and dumb when anything relates to Buhari.
Imagine, NO news agency is taking about the Ikoyi funds, none.

NO news agency is asking why we have a ' work from home ' president who we haven't seen in week, none.

But when it was Dasuki gate, omo see headlines daily.

It just as Trump will say "FAKE NEWS".

Aufbauh:
Reading through Jonathan's mind from the excerpts I realized that the law of homogeneity is truly strong; A man with victim mentality will also attract like-supporters.

Blaming everyone for his failure except himself .
Thank goodness I've never falls for his hypocritical antics in the past.

GEJ is simply a misfit and a mishap.

Gbam

Jonathan had no big gut, had no courage, he is not a brave man who look straight into the eyes of death when the need arised He failed himself in all ramification opportunities. He had no shoes we got him enough ones and he used it to trampled us to our knees through corruption's..

Their favourite piece of cake is back, the man they like to blame, the one everybody feels they can kick around.
Idiotic editorial, you people should face Buhari the dictator now.

rose54321:


Don't mind them, forming deaf and dumb when anything relates to Buhari.
Imagine, NO news agency is taking about the Ikoyi funds, none.

NO news agency is asking why we have a ' work from home ' president who we haven't seen in week, none.

But when it was Dasuki gate, omo see headlines daily.

It just as Trump will say "FAKE NEWS".

Pls stick to this topic. Don't try to derail ok. Am sure there are hundreds of threads on NL criticizing buhari. But this one shows Jonathan childish clueless and corrupt mentality

No truer words have been thus said.

Don Jona! Over to you!

Foolish ramblings.

I don't see this writer making any noise about the current president who is doing a horrible job, yet he has the bravado to write trash about the memoir of a previous one.

Backward people

Let's give the bloody dog a bad name has started again...

This government should stop acting like dogs chasing their tails, we know how much energy and resources they've spent discrediting Jonathan, so let us see them work.

These distractions is just too much, Jona was corrupt; okay, then just prosecute the damn man and save us these media barrage.

Words attributed to him, please are you people not tired of these things; everyone from 1957 till date save for Murtala Muhammad, Azikiwe and Awolowo was a thief except there's concrete proof otherwise.

Propaganda will do Nigeria, Buhari and APC no good; there are institutions of government charged with investigating and prosecuting criminals, let them do their job.

Nice try with your paid advertorials.

So what next? If he apologises for his cluelessness and other shit will that still make y'all happy? We love dwelling in the past a lot in this country. Am not saying GEJ was perfect or anything, but its 2yrs already we should all move on and poke the present government to deliver so as to not end up like the previous administration

I insist that GEJ was not a colossal disaster as sane Nigerians and d world have labelled him.Rather GEJ was a curse.
If God wants to punish a people for years of collective sin, he afflicts them with a terrible curse and that's what Jonathan was to Nigeria.
Our main challenge is for us to find out what we did as a people to be afflicted with Ebele Jonathan so as not to ever witness his likes again,because any further curse,even close to GEJ wud finally sink us as a country.

The question is "Which of the past leaders is NOT corrupt"? Are you scratching your head, don't worry, it's a simple answer, NONE.

If we are really serious about cleaning the Augean table of corruption in Nigeria then we must start probing for leadership accountability spanning from year 1999 till now in both government and private sector. That to me, will help us to reconcile our past and brace ourselves for better future. But as it stands today, I don't see genuine collective interest, support and push to right our wrongs without ethnic, political or religious partisanship and bias.

GEJ disappointed me with his irresponsible leadership and penchant to defend corruption. I have never seen before a democratically elected president defending corruption by all means as GEJ did. EFCC was practically grounded and ministers, governors, directors, perm secs, civil servants, military chiefs etc were competing to steal with reckless abandon while the public are served with lies. Our mumu too much oo.

And Sambo Dasuki's office became a treasure chest for all sorts of withdrawals and wastage in the name of security and politics. I wonder what then finance ministry and CBN was doing with this humongous looting going on under their watch.

And after GEJ reckless govt ended, it seems the masses would finally heave a sigh of relive but NO. Buhari started his own wahala. Almost running the economy aground. Showing gross lack of understanding of complexity of Nigeria and acting in such a manner that creates division instead of building a one Nigeria with less emphasis on religion, political or ethnic affiliations. And the poor masses started losing hope of better future and up till now we don't know what's going on in government.

In fact, I am getting annoyed now let me stop.

Buhary is a disaster upon Nigeria and Nigerians.

PUNCH are shameless liars for claiming that "Jonathan left no new signature infrastructure project"

Let me remind PUNCH:

1) GEJ built 14 brand new Federal Universities in Ekiti, Lokoja, Nasarawa, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Taraba, Gombe, Yobe, Jigawa, Katsina, Delta, Zamfara and Kebbi

2) GEJ built three brand new Federal Polytechnics in Bonny, Kaduna and Ondo states

3) GEJ built all the current best roads in Nigeria

• Benin - Ore - Ijebu Ode expressways

• Abuja - Lokoja expressways

• 10-lanes expressways from National
Stadium - Airport - Gwagwalada

• 10-lanes expressways from AY - Maitama
- Kubwa - Zuba

• Cameroon-Ikom-Abakaliki-Enugu Highway

• East - West road

4) Abuja city rail system

5) Abuja - Kaduna modern rail system

I can go on and on and on . . . .

fallout87:
Foolish ramblings.

I don't see this writer making any noise about the current president who is doing a horrible job, yet he has the bravado to write trash about the memoir of a previous one.

Backward people

In light of the rot left behind including supporters of corruption such as you, the present government is doing a great job.

Suck on it.

The crook wants to rewrite history in our very eyes. It's still fresh in our mind how you stoodup and stood strong in defense of corruption. You were not only corrupt, you encouraged corruption in high places. Alibaba and his gang of 40 thieves that nearly ruined this country.

I will tell my children, and my grandchildren about a one time president that broke the guiness world record in all things relating to corruption.

MaziOmenuko:
The crook wants to rewrite history in our very eyes. It's still fresh in our mind how you stoodup and stood strong in defense of corruption. You were not only corrupt, you encouraged corruption in high places. Alibaba and his gang of 40 thieves that nearly ruined this country.

I will tell my children, and my grandchildren about a one time president that broke the guiness world record in all things relating to corruption.

Chai, yhu be boy-wicked wallahi

GEJ... confirming once and for all that you chose to concede defeat because it was the path of less resistance.
We can't forget your antecedents
*completely clueless.
*no political will. Anybody could pressure u with a small prtoest
*stealing isnot corruption. How can we forget.
*the massive lootings. I know a guy that made bilions from stroking GEJs ego. Today, the dude is abroad
*no control over Allison, Ngozi, FFK, dasuki, service cheifs, PEJ
*you plunged us into full scale religious, ethnic bigotry. Running to churches to campaign. Sharing money thru and to CAN
*international community saw it live, how your ineptitude costed thousands their lives.

How can we forget. Your accusations cant rewrite history

IF A ONCE UPON A TIME MOST HATED CANDIDATE STOOD A CHANCE AGAINST GEJ-THAT WAS MASSIVELY VOTED IN 2011, AND EVEN WON, THEN NOTHING IS LEFT TO BE SAID

Anyone supporting Jonathan on this should just say a big Amen, May your life and the life of your generations be ruled the way your hero ruled Nigeria...

MaziOmenuko:
The crook wants to rewrite history in our very eyes. It's still fresh in our mind how you stoodup and stood strong in defense of corruption. You were not only corrupt, you encouraged corruption in high places. Alibaba and his gang of 40 thieves that nearly ruined this country.

I will tell my children, and my grandchildren about a one time president that broke the guiness world record in all things relating to corruption.

Bar Man!!! Give that guy whatever he want, the bill is on me... You nailed it