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Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board - Politics (2) - Nairaland

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Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by Nobody: 7:21am On Apr 28, 2017
Just take a look at how Jonathan almost ran this country into the ground and yet some wailers regard him as a hero

4 Likes 1 Share

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by OBAGADAFFI: 7:25am On Apr 28, 2017
Shocking, so the Punch believed GEJ said everything in the book
Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by Zeddicuz(m): 7:27am On Apr 28, 2017
Any news coming from d lagos-Ibadan expressway abt Jonathan shud be disregarded.Punch is a very dishonest media misfit,all they do is concoct a mishmash of Fictions,hearsays,and creative embellishments,splashing odious muds on innocent persons, any attempt to rubbish mr jonathan and his family will be an attempt in futility.Jonathan made salient points that shud be countered with proofs,not mere vituperations. by the way,Babangida have explained how Obama Colluded with Northern governors to remove Jonathan

5 Likes

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by Splashme: 7:30am On Apr 28, 2017
Goddex:
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 . . . .



Can PUNCH also mention their darling Buhari's infrastructure projects?

This newspaper likes carrying any GEJ's matter on their head.

3 Likes

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by Splashme: 7:37am On Apr 28, 2017
Goddex:
PUNCH and NATION management will die of heart attack because of GEJ.

These two newspapers hate GEJ and his wife so deeply that they take any matter concerning them personal.

Is Nigeria not worse off today?
Where is President Buhari now?


They will die my brother especially PUNCH. Those guys are beasts when it comes to Jonathan.

NATIONS newspaper even have some conscience in this regard

3 Likes

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by slivertongue: 7:37am On Apr 28, 2017
GEJ is saying nothing new, nigerian politics is a game of interest for the rentier elites and lacks morality.
I have lived long enough to see events in Nigeria. its a matter of time before others will speak up. of the truth Jega was betrayed by those who conviced him that the card reader was near perfect and would detect the finger prints of kids but it failed him. The inccidence form was an after thought, thats after INEC had gone far only to realize that the rate of malfunctioning is high. The combination of the card reader and the inccidence form was the route to rigging the election.

In a forum, i held that rigging cant be proven in court. Because with the form, the card reader wont have records to match what is contained on the form. So what many did in the north is to claim that the card reader was bad thus opening the room for ticking of names in the voters register and casting of ballots without any form of checks and balance. And to prove rigging the records in the card reader would have to match the records on the inccident form. Though that wasnt the angle of the SC. They used Jega, to work against his conviction. The northern elements in general worked to bring GMB because a GEJ victory would engender crisis and war that would destroy the north.
GEJ must accept he did me well, by letting go. Punch is a media outfit and cant claim to have had better security briefs than the president. Years from now other books would emerge to give insights to GEJ's tenure.
Some years ago i gave a first hand account of the events in PDP and the fate that awaits them but my friends laughed me to scorn, sighting accounts of characters that were not at the maiden PDP convention, accounts of revisionists. Some of those folks now agree i was spot on when they read bamaiyi's take on the making of the party called PDP and overnight emergence of Obj. So punch should her peace, time will tell.

4 Likes

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by Chikpat(m): 7:45am On Apr 28, 2017
This is d only reasonable thing i hsve read of late.

Gej was a terrible disaster and Nigeria needs to write the right history by investigating, probing and jailing Mr Jonathan unless posterity will believe this his false ego massaging conspiracy theory.
Dat guy was a wrong man: a good thief n a grt liar.

5 Likes

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by GavelSlam: 8:12am On Apr 28, 2017
Goddex:
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 . . . .

In red you mean fixed.

In green: There were also private universities built such as Are Babalola, Ajayi Crowther we might as well give such administrators OON titles.

3 Likes

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by axeman2(m): 8:18am On Apr 28, 2017
PLEASE IS JAMB FORM STILL ON SALES?
Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by OjukwuWarBird: 8:20am On Apr 28, 2017
The end of Nigeria
Punch a newspaper owned by Afonjas writing this thrash
SS see their enemies
Just laughing my ass out

2 Likes

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by easzypeaszy(m): 8:23am On Apr 28, 2017
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.
n ur buhari is d gud man...yes n I hope everytin continue dis way til dis world ends..

1 Like

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by refreshrate: 8:23am On Apr 28, 2017
Punch newspaper correspondent gets kicked out of Aso rock for talking about the state of the presidency.

Punch newspaper correspondent gets called back to Aso rock


Punch newspaper offloads bullshit about GEJ

Doesn't seem suspicious at all

Nigerian youths start to scream blue murder negating the rot the hopeless APC is laying down

...make una continue. I've always said it, Na jazz this apc people dey use cos how country with such a large amount of intelligent human beings throw caution to the wind at crap such as this will forever remain a mystery.
Something national geographic should investigate on 'taboo' or something

2 Likes

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by ipreach: 8:26am On Apr 28, 2017
The writer is bias and possibly an APC cad-carrying
Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by SBG04: 8:27am On Apr 28, 2017
Splashme:


They will die my brother especially PUNCH. Those guys are beasts when it comes to Jonathan.

NATIONS newspaper even have some conscience in this regard
Those news media you mentioned always propagate the truth. Its people like you who need to reenlighten and reeducate yourself. The editorial even made special mention of your ilk. People who would cheer and praise sing the evil and corrupt instead of protesting against them like the sensible people in South Korea and South Africa. I wonder how and why you would sing the praises of a man who deprieved you of so much and enriched himself with so Much.

3 Likes

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by koladebrainiac(m): 8:28am On Apr 28, 2017
he should kuku blame Nigerians too for voting him out abi what else remain. if US n co rejected u,Obj ur God father rejected u, your party stalwart rejected u,Hausa rejected you,yoruba rejected u,even part of Igbo n south south rejected u,ur friends rejected u, then you should ask ursef why they all did?? Guy enough of ur victim mentality

2 Likes

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by walley21: 8:29am On Apr 28, 2017
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
Buhari inherited a mess.Don't forget crude oil now sells for less than $50 and it's the only thing Nigeria exports. People are used to miracles, there's nothing like that in governance.

1 Like

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by kinibigdeal(m): 8:30am On Apr 28, 2017
PMB destroy Nigeria not GEJ. Is 2years was a waste
Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by tinsel: 8:30am On Apr 28, 2017
I blame Buhari for all these nonsense coming from Jonathan and his key supporters.
Jonathan's place is in jail. If Buhari has no gut to do it, I am sure another leader in future will.

2 Likes

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by Tc17(m): 8:30am On Apr 28, 2017
The writer of this piece analysed the last administration so succinctly. But we haven't made much progress as a nation since then though.
Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by emmasege: 8:31am On Apr 28, 2017
alrahmanonline:
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...
And may your life experience the kind of change Nigeria experiences from change of Jonathan with Buharil
Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by emmasege: 8:32am On Apr 28, 2017
alrahmanonline:
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...
And may your life experience the kind of change Nigeria experiences from change of Jonathan with Buhari.

O ya say a big Amen, and swallow the saliva.
Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by Nobody: 8:33am On Apr 28, 2017
odiks:
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/


Unimpressive. Rather than all this, get him arrested and prosecuted. As if Jonathan is only the problem nigieria has.
Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by MicroBox: 8:34am On Apr 28, 2017
Mr Former President, you are weak and its not your fault. Until you can summon the courage to fire your Generals, Sack your chief of staff ''Designated Survivor'' and re-shuffle your cabinet without interference, then you can come back to politics.
Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by Acidosis(m): 8:34am On Apr 28, 2017
Lmao


Same PUNCH will come back in 2019 to write about Buhari and his kitchen cabinet.



Bunch of paid baboons.

1 Like

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by isoh(m): 8:37am On Apr 28, 2017
Abeg make una tell Bros Mona to pack well first..... I can't forget in a haste when he declared on international television "Ordinary Stealing You people are calling it Corruption" A statement that gave licence to all crooks to steal our commonwealth.

Please someone should inform him that with the current revelations made on how much his lieutenants stole from us, he is not qualify to write a book of justification or victimization.
Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by jericco1(m): 8:38am On Apr 28, 2017
I'm not surprised, the presidency is now controlling the press. Tosh!
Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by Nobody: 8:43am On Apr 28, 2017
Best editorial I've read in recent times

1 Like

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by Nobody: 8:46am On Apr 28, 2017
SOMETHING ABOUT JONATHAN
By Magnus Oraka
In many recent posts I have seen the rather unpalatable narratives that's used to describe the person of Jonathan. Some of which included he was too weak or a political noviciate. They believed Jonathan had a huge opportunity as C in C to turn the already skewed amalgamated Nigeria around in favour of the South but he fluttered it.
I do not claim to be superior in knowledge or possess a higher political IQ, but I believe those who hold this view that Jonathan wasted an opportunity have got it all wrong perhaps because they have on the wrong spectacles.
To understand what is at play here we really need to understand the Political composition of the Nigeria state when Jonathan was President. Some Jonathan's critics just believe being a C in C gives you automatic powers to steer the country towards your whims or that of your region. That is by no means true.
Firstly, Jonathan met a highly northern-ized military that has long lost their professionalism to uphold the ethics of the profession. The military was for the first time answerable to a truly civilian President who was a Christian and from a perceived minority region. If Jonathan had attempted any restructuring with a military that is loyal to northern interest, and knowing that restructuring will cause the North to lose many benefits they enjoyed, Jonathan's administration would have been toppled. Only a foolish President without tact and prudence will do what these critics are asking. Repositioning and neutralizing the stronghold of the North on our military required time and careful planning and support of the rest of the country. Remember Okar's coup.
Recall that during the war on Boko Haram, the Muslim military personnel were sympathetic to the terrorists and we're leaking tactical information out of camp to the terrorists. Take it or leave it, the north's most vital ligament that guarantees their control of Nigeria is the military. One can easily see now why on assuming office Buhari made sure he tightened the grip of the North on the Nigeria military by retiring top Generals from the south.
A lot of Jonathan's critics expected so much from him but they failed to realize that not everyone from the South and East actually supported him fully. Is anyone imagining a Governor of the richest state in the country in the person of Rotimi Amaechi using the full weight of the state's financial wealth to support a northern President against his own brother? You cannot fight your enemy when members of your household are using the resources of your house to aid your enemy.
Jonathan was someone who believed anyone who has attained the summit of academic pursuit puts himself at a pedestal where he exemplifies great moral virtues. That was why he surrounded himself with technocrats and academicians believing these people would portray profound moral standards. It was in the same light he trusted Jega believing he would be upright to conduct a free and fair election. How could he have known that Jega was going to betray him after doing a fair job the first time.
I think the real people to blame for not utilizing the opportunity given to us through Jonathan's emergence as President by a supreme benevolence are me and you. When the North had a foot on the throttle and the effect of the propaganda labeling Jonathan as a weak President, ..As an ATM president where all and sundry had a free for all looting, ...As a vampire that allowed scores of lives to be bombed etc, what did we do? We instead brought in our intellectual magniloquence to sound politically correct while our brother was left in the cold.
When Jonathan made that infamous call to Buhari, it was a smart move because he knew no one was on his side including his own brothers.
Finally, I am one person who will never subscribe that Jonathan is weak. In the first place if Jonathan was perceived as strong he would have been seen as having a propensity to be rebellious and wouldn't have been chosen to deputise Yar'adua. Remember what Atiku as VP did to Obasanjo who was president. His "weakness" was his pathway to becoming the President of Nigeria.
Yes he was a noviciate President who was willing to learn on the job but no one wanted to give him time to perfect the plans he had for Nigeria. Suddenly, we wanted Jonathan to do what his predecessors couldn't do in many years, in five years. For what it's worth, it's almost as if Jonathan didn't achieve anything in his tenure. But I can remember the boost we got in agriculture, Youwin program that empowered the youths, renovation of our railway system, 2nd largest economy as adjudged by international market and many more.
Jonathan is the best thing that has happened to Nigeria. YOU CAN TAKE IT TO THE BANK.

1 Like

Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by Ralphdan(m): 8:48am On Apr 28, 2017
odiks:
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/

Poppycock!
Re: Jonathan’s Pathetic Apologetics - Punch Editorial Board by swiz005(m): 8:48am On Apr 28, 2017
I'm a confirmed Rivers Man But God Bless The Day Jonathan Will be Jailed For Wasting Nigerian's Resources and For Wasting Niger Delta First and Maybe Only Chance Of Leadership.

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