Don't Limit Probe To My Government Alone - Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan last FEC meeting.

President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, said that if the incoming president, Muhammadu Buhari decides to probe upon assumption of office, he should not single out his (Jonathan) administration.

He asked Buhari to extend it to other administrations before him. Jonathan argued that limiting the probe to only his administration would amount to a witch hunt.

In a speech at the valedictory session of the Federal Executive Council, ahead of his handing over to Buhari tomorrow, President Jonathan said his comments followed calls from different quarters for his administration to be investigated, even as he scored his administration high despite the difficult operating environment that prevailed during his tenure.

He attributed the on-going fuel scarcity and strike by some unions in the oil sector to acts of sabotage by some persons who are bent on bringing his administration to its knees “even with just few days” to go.

He said: “Some people are calling for the probe of this government and I agree. In Nigeria, there are a lot of things that will be probed. They ever said all the debts owed by states and this nation from 1960 up to this time are owed by the Jonathan administration.

Probe must go beyond me — GEJ

“I believe that anybody calling for probe must also ensure that these probes are extended beyond the Jonathan administration, otherwise, to me, it will be a witch-hunt. If you are very sincere you will agree that it is not just Jonathan’s administration that should be probed.

“A number of things have gone wrong and we have done our best to fix them. The Attorney-General is aware of massive judgment debts; if we aggregate all of them it is almost $1 billion. But how did we come to this kind of huge judgment debts? These issues should be probed. Do we follow our laws when we allocate our oil wells, oil fields, and marginal wells? All these should be probed and I believe all these and many more areas should be looked at,” he said.

President Jonathan praised his administration for its achievements in various sectors of the economy, noting that even though he operated under very difficult circumstances, he was very proud of his accomplishments.

He said that though the Boko Haram menace predated his administration, his election in 2011 made the sect more vicious and dastardly.

Our achievements

Enumerating his achievements in office, President Jonathan said: “I have always thrown the challenge that those who criticize us should compare what we have done in the various sectors to what others have done. I may not need to enumerate but if you look at the rail system and what we have done within this period, the oil sector where there has been so much attack, one good thing we did was the Nigerian content law that revolutionized the oil industry. There were a lot of fabrication going on in Lagos and other places but it was never like this before. Nigerians are playing key roles in the oil sector, and people sometimes forget this. Even with that, maybe we have offended some people but the Nigerian local content has really helped so many Nigerians, to play big in the oil sector as well as in agriculture and power sectors. In foreign relations like the Minister of Foreign Affairs mentioned, from 1960 to date, we have been member of the security council as non-permanent member five times and two times out of these five times were during the five years of our administration. That shows clearly that the rest of the world appreciate our little contributions to global issue.

“In education, the road system, we have added Kashimbilla to our dams, we have done wonderfully well in sports within this period, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and, of course, the financial inclusion within this period is more than ever before.

“I can go on and on and mention almost all the sectors. So I believe we have done our best and Nigerians will continue to assess us.

“Even though we operated under an extremely difficult situation, maybe because politics in Nigeria is just maturing, we witnessed the longest ASUU strike. I don’t think we have ever witnessed a strike that lasted for six months and we believe that the strike was partially politically motivated, otherwise lecturers cannot troop out for six months.

“There were also the terror attacks. We know Boko Haram predated this administration but immediately after the elections, I believe because of local and external factors, they became very vicious, extremely destructive, killing people and destroying property.

Fuel scarcity and sabotage

“Even this last fuel scarcity issue, to me, one can clearly say it was an act of sabotage. This government has few days to go and that is definitely not the time you should expect massive strikes, using marketers and unions, who are asking for increase in salaries at a time oil price and volumes have dropped. None of the international oil companies (IOCs) is increasing salaries but our unions wanted 11 per cent increase in allowances and so on and then, they went on strike.

“We had products in our reserve that will last 21 days, so it is not as if we had no products. They just refused to lift. Diesel was deregulated long ago, so the issue was not the product but people who felt they must bring this government to its knees even when they know that we had few days to leave. But we thank God we are getting over it and God will see us through,” the president prayed.

While expressing appreciation to members of the council for their various contributions to his administration, President Jonathan said he was satisfied with the performance of all the ministers.

“One thing is clear, I enjoyed working with all of you. I’m very pleased with all of you. I want to thank all of you for your various contributions to the development of our country. I want to thank those that have been with us, the Advisers, Senior Special Assistants, the secretariat, other senior government functionaries, including the media that covered proceedings every Wednesday.

“As a cabinet, we have tried our best, I believe we have done well under a very difficult situation. There are a lot of criticisms, people say different things at different times, some of those who make some statements know they are purely political,” he noted.

He said the involvement of the ministers in his administration was not a waste as they all contributed in a way to move the country forward.

Earlier, all the ministers took turn to speak on their experiences in the cabinet.

Cabinet members react

Minister of Defence, General Aliyu Gusau, who was the National Security Adviser when Jonathan took over after the death of Umaru Yar’Adua commended the President for being a humane and kind hearted person and predicted that, like former President Olusegun Obasanjo and General Muhammadu Buhari, who left office as military heads of state and came back again, President Jonathan may also come back to office after four years.

The ministers eulogised President Jonathan for taking the bold decision to concede defeat even before the results were fully collated.

Senator Musiliu Obanikoro in his speech noted that “all the achievements that this administration recorded would have come to nought but for the singular call you made to the president-elect while the votes were being tabulated”.

President Jonathan, however noted that contrary to popular expectation, he was not dissolving the cabinet and directed all ministers to remain on their seats and attend the hand-over dinner scheduled for this night in their official capacities as ministers of the federal republic.

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