Goodluck Jonathan – I Beg to Disagree
I just read one of ex-President Jonathan’s commentaries at his recent book launch. He said the fact that the country went into recession just after he left was self-inflicted. He said rather than building consensus and pushing positively, those that took over from him went on a persecution spree; attacking his legacy and family and this scared away economic support leading to the recession we saw. Well, my lord, much as I like that level of thinking, let me kindly remind you that the signs were already there almost 12 months before you left. The recession was inevitable and it was not the pursuit of your wife by the EFCC that brought everything crashing. You had laid a firm framework for the collapse of the economy with your weak leadership, inability to rein in spending and the massive looting that occurred under your watch. What your successors did was just to cap it by getting overwhelmed by the situation they found themselves. They did not know the magnitude of the wahala you were leaving for them so when they got in and saw the true situation, they panicked and went into the blame game mode. So as you go around with your bower hat, trying to redefine recent history, kindly note that we are talking of just four years ago. Look, let me tell you very clearly that Nigeria is on auto pilot. All these things, recession, inflation, GDP and other economic indices come and go according to the vagaries of oil prices with which nobody has control over except market forces. You see why some of us are not interested in who rules as long as they don’t go about killing and maiming and disfranchising people. No matter who is there Buhari o, Atiku o, Jonathan o or Charly boy, our economy is on self-drive seriously tied to oil price. So let’s stop gloating and concentrate on our retirement. Mbok, go back to bed.