A former Governor of Edo State, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, has said
Nigeria would have been in danger if ex-President Goodluck Jonathan had
continued in office as President.
The former governor, who stated this in an interview published in the current edition of The Interview magazine, said Jonathan was incompetent.
Recalling the 2014 recruitment into the Nigeria Immigration Service,
which claimed 20 lives, Oshiomhole stated, “Those people didn’t just
kill poor applicants, they extorted and defrauded them, and as far as I
know, no step was taken to deal with those involved in it.
“So, I was convinced that Nigeria was in danger if Jonathan continued in office.
“Once I concluded that Nigeria was not in good hands, I also had to
do everything possible to ensure that he (Jonathan) was not re-elected
and I played my part in the formation of the APC (All Progressives
Congress).”
But the Peoples Democratic Party said Oshiomhole should not be taken
seriously, stressing that the former governor spoke from both sides of
the mouth.
Oshiomhole, a former President of the Nigeria Labour Congress,
recalled that when ex-President Umaru Yar’Adua died in 2010, he played a
key role in ensuring that Jonathan succeeded him.
The ex-governor said as a member of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum,
headed by the former Kwara State Governor and current Senate President,
Dr. Bukola Saraki, he was one of those that ensured that Jonathan was
made the acting President.
Explaining what happened at a meeting he attended before the 2011
elections, Oshiomhole said he was not in support of Jonathan contesting
the 2011 presidential poll.
He stated that the meeting, which was convened by Jonathan’s Chief of
Staff, Mike Oghiadomhe, was also attended by a former Governor of
Gombe State, Dajuma Goje, and an-ex Federal Capital Territory Minister,
Bala Mohammed.
According to him, Oghiadomhe said the purpose of inviting them was to
seek advice on whether or not Jonathan should contest the 2011
election.
He stated, “I think Goje was the first to speak that night. He said
it would be a problem for Jonathan to contest because the North would
feel short-changed.
“After eight years of Obasanjo, power rotated to the North based on
the PDP principle of zoning and Yar’Adua didn’t even enjoy it for two
years before he took ill and eventually died.”
He added that Mohammed believed that he didn’t think it mattered whether Jonathan ran or not.
Oshiomhole said, “They asked me and I said they knew I was not in the
PDP; so, I was not in a position to offer advice as a PDP member. I
said based on Nigeria’s geopolitical reality and sentiment, Jonathan
could make huge political capital which he could reinvest later in the
future by saying to the country that ‘I have become the president by
accident.’’
He said that he advised that Jonathan should complete Yar’Adua’s tenure and hand over to a northerner.”
Dismissing Jonathan’s administration, he said under the former President, basic things were not properly done.
He stated, “It was clear that even the most basic things were not
properly done, competence that was expected was not there. The level of
fairness was not there. And even if you were to talk about the sentiment
of servicing the geopolitical zones, the South-South had nothing to
boast of. Even the road to Yenagoa didn’t show that a President came
from that area.”
The ex-governor said security assumed a frightening dimension,
causing elections to be shifted because the armed forces confessed that
they were unable to guarantee the safety of the polls.
Oshiomhole added that when he complained about massive oil theft, he was made a member of a six-man committee of governors.
He stated that he was shocked that for about two consecutive weeks
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s records showed that over
400,000 barrels of crude were stolen every day.
The ex-governor said he noted that the theft must be state-backed because big vessels were carting away our crude.
He explained what transpired between him and Jonathan after the tragic NIS recruitment.
Oshiomhole stated, “I remember very well I met President Jonathan a
week after the incident and he said, ‘Adams, why are you comrades like
this? Just killing people?’ I replied, ‘Comrade, how?’ Jonathan said,
‘Look at what Comrade Abba Moro did, look at the number of deaths’. I
said, ‘No, Mr. President, if it is that one, I am also shocked that the
man is still in your cabinet and that nobody is in court as we speak
because that is state murder.’
The former Edo State governor recalled that after publishing an
advert, which showed how the applicants were duped, Jonathan expressed
his reservation about it.
Oshiomhole stated, “In the advert, I said, ‘Vote for Change, vote for
Buhari all over Nigeria.’ I used my voice and portrait for the
concluding part of the political advert. Jonathan called me and said,
‘What have I done? Why would you do an advert like that even when other
APC governors will not put their faces, saying they should vote me out?
Haba Adams! You are supposed to be my brother.’ I said, ‘Sir, with all
due respect, there is nothing personal. This is purely a partisan thing.
I have to campaign for my party the way you are campaigning for your
party and I didn’t mention your name. The only name I mentioned in the
advert is my own candidate’s name; I did not mention your name’.”
Oshiomhole said President Muhammadu Buhari was fulfilling his promises on security and the anti-corruption agenda.