Former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, has revealed the real reasons Nigeria slipped into an economic recession soon after he handed over power to his successor, President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in 2015.
The former President, who made the revelation in his new book, “My Transition Hours,” said it was the streams of malicious propaganda created by spin-doctors loyal to the then opposition party (APC) that tore the Nigerian economy to shreds and set the stage for massive capital flight out of Nigeria.
In the Epilogue of the book, Jonathan recalled that in spite of the many odds that confronted his administration, particularly the Boko Haram insurgency, he and his cabinet “professionally managed the economy” and grew it to become the largest economy in Africa with a GDP of over $500 billion.
According to Jonathan, his tenure provided a conducive atmosphere in which all cabinet ministers, government officials and the private sector worked in synergy to build an economy with well-established fundamentals which made Nigeria the fourth fastest growing economy in the world.
“We knew what to do to keep our country afloat even in difficult circumstances. In rough and in good times, it was our duty to keep the hopes of citizens of Nigeria and we were always conscious not to send negative signals against Nigeria and Nigerians to the rest of the world.
“I recall that the opposition and their sympathisers and campaigners, local and international, with their malicious propaganda, tore our economy to shreds, threatened our stability and existence as a nation and intimidated our citizens, all in the bid to take over power.
“Nevertheless, we conducted ourselves in a manner that allowed a peaceful transfer of power, from a ruling party to an opposition party for the first time since independence in 1960. Rather than forge coalition and build on the momentum we had gathered, when they eventually took office, they went on a persecution spree and vengeance mission. That the country slipped into recession soon after we left office was a self -inflicted injury caused by misplaced priorities,” he said.
Jonathan disclosed that the popular narrative by President Buhari and his party that they inherited an empty treasury and that their tenure has been bedevilled by the collapse of crude oil prices in the world market were blatant lies and does not hold water.
The former President said that at the beginning of the Fourth Republic in 1999, the People’s Democratic Party government of President Olusegun Obasanjo came at a time when the price of crude oil was below $20 per barrel and a GDP growth of 0.58 per cent, yet that administration was able to achieve a lot in growing the economy.
“It also amounts to standing facts on their heads to continuously claim that recession was caused by the so called mindless looting. The truth is that the opposition, in a bit to undo our government, became its own undoing when it got to power, because of the burden of justifying deliberate misrepresentation.
“There is wisdom in the saying that if you win a prize and get the crown, don’t go around destroying the person who previously held that price; it will lose its value. Even after winning the election and forming the government at the centre, the blame game continued. When two brothers fight to death, it is the neighbour that inherits their father’s wealth and we have seen neighbouring nations like the Republic of Benin and Ghana reaping from the capital flight out of Nigeria,” he said.
The former President said the Buhari administration also embarked on media trials of members of the previous administration in the name of fighting corruption. He said that though media trials could be entertaining, they were neither effective in curbing corruption nor avenues to improve an economy
“You should never try to slander your political opponents by destroying your country’s economy. Capital flight intensified and companies started laying off staff. In all these, I hope a lesson would be learnt. If you embark on digging a hole for your enemy, you better make it shallow, because you might end up in the hole yourself.
How do you attract the investors you already repelled through your utterances? Investors are an ultra-sensitive lot. Money runs away from unstable societies,” Jonathan mockingly admonished.
The former President expressed pain that since his exit from office, the current administration had continued to launch attacks on his ministers, sites, associates and members of his family. These attacks, he said, were orchestrated through deliberate misinformation and smear campaign to rubbish his legacies but said they have all failed to obliterate the truth
