Tomorrow, General Buhari is due to be sworn in as Nigeria's fifth democratically-elected president having defeated President Jonathan in the March 28 general elections. General Buhari was elected on an anti-corruption platform and is now going to have to decide how to deal with the Jonathan administration that is believed to have stashed away billions of dollars of Nigeria's oil wealth.
With the prospect of a probe looming, members of President Jonathan's cabinet face interrogation, prosecution and possible imprisonment. However, yesterday, President Jonathan said that if the Buhari regime wants to probe his regime, the same treatment should apply to previous governments like those of President Obasanjo and Generals Abdulsalam Abubakar and Ibrahim Babangida.
Speaking yesterday at the valedictory session of the Federal Executive Council at the State House in Abuja, President Jonathan said that his administration recently uncovered huge judgment debts accumulated by previous regimes. He added that a lot of things had gone wrong in the country which was all ascribed to his administration.
President Jonathan said: “Some people are even calling for the probe of the government. I agree that in Nigeria there are a number of things that will be probed, very many things, even debts owed by the states and debts owed by this nation from 1960.
“Up to this time they say it is the Jonathan administration that owes all these debts but I believe that anybody calling for probe must also ensure that this probe is extended beyond the Jonathan administration. Otherwise, to me, it will be witch hunting because if you are very sincere, then it is not only the Jonathan administration that you probe."
He added that among the issues that need to be looked at include massive judgment debts and how oil fields and marginal fields were allocated. According to President Jonathan, the cabinet had tried very well under very difficult political circumstances.
“I have always challenged those who criticise us to compare what we have done in the various sectors with what others have done. In fact, even in the oil industry that received so much attack, one thing that we have done was the Nigerian content law that has revolutionalised the oil industry.
“In the agriculture and power sectors, even in foreign relations, from 1960 to date, we have been members of the United Nations Security Council as a non-permanent member five times and out of these, two have been within these five years. We have been an independent nation for 55 years and been in the UN five times as a member of the Security Council." President Jonathan added.
He said that his administration witnessed the longest politically-motivated strike in the education sector as well as Boko Haram insurgency. President Jonathan said the current fuel scarcity was politically motivated as the nation had 31 days reserve but those who wanted to bring the administration down refused to lift petroleum.
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