Adoke’s verdict indictment on Jonathan — Intellectuals

A group, North East Intellectuals Forum (NIF), yesterday, said ex-President Goodluck Jonathan should be worried his ex-ministers have said some of the statements he made in his book, “My Transition Hours”, are not correct.

NIF, a group of academics from North East Nigeria and abroad, gave the advice in a press statement signed by the forum’s Secretary, Dr. Stephen Yunusa.

The forum said ex-President Jonathan should instead focus on addressing grey areas observed in his book rather than indulging in media attacks on President Muhammadu Buhari and Gov. Kashim Shettima.

“While we had thought that the ‘tit for tat’ was over after President Buhari and the Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, reacted to a first launch of attacks by former President Goodluck Jonathan, we have this weekend observed another round of media attacks from the former president against the president and Gov. Shettima.

“After reviewing Jonathan’s book, we think that former President Jonathan should actually be more concerned by a damning reaction from one of his ministers, Mohammed Bello Adoke (former Attorney General of the Federation), who, on behalf of two other former ministers, publicly issued a statement saying Jonathan told lies in his book.

“Adoke wrote on behalf of former Ministers of Finance and Transport (Ngozi Okonjo Iweala and Chidoka) and he said as published in the front page of The Nation Newspaper of last Thursday, that Jonathan misrepresented facts in his book in which he claimed that the three were against him (Jonathan) conceding defeat to then candidate of the APC, Muhammadu Buhari, in 2015.

“Adoke clearly spoke the position of his two colleagues because he mentioned them in his statement and none of the two other ministers has so far distanced themselves from the statement by Adoke,” NIF said.

“We expected President Jonathan to be seriously worried that his own very senior ministers, among his closest appointees, are discrediting his book. In fact, in one media report, Adoke has promised to provide information that will correct Jonathan’s falsehood in his own account when he releases a book soon.

“We think there is no bigger discredit to Jonathan’s book than such a statement by three of his own ministers. The fact is that there are sharp inaccuracies in Jonathan’s claims, especially on page 31, in which the former president said Boko Haram demanded that he denounced his Christian faith.

“We have thoroughly cross-checked and found that at no time did Boko Haram ever made such a demand. Besides, as Gov. Shettima rightly observed, the first attack by Boko Haram in both Bauchi and Borno states took place in July, 2009, under late President Umaru Yar’adua, who was a Muslim from the North West.

“We, therefore, urge Jonathan to do a critical reflection on his book and issue an apology,” the group said.

The intellectuals said they were not interested in getting involved on issues between politicians, but that they were constrained to speak.