Buhari, Jonathan’s war gets messier

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari on Friday told his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, that he failed as president because Nigerians did not trust him.

The former president had, on Thursday, taken on the administration at the centre being led by the All Progressives Congress (APC), accusing it of running a government based on lies and propaganda. He also wondered why Nigerians who protested against his withdrawal of subsidy on petroleum products in 2012 kept quiet when Buhari did worse in 2015.

Replying Jonathan, however, Special Adviser on Media and Strategy to President Buhari, Mr Femi Adesina, on his Twitter handle, @FemAdesina, on Friday, said Nigerians did not protest the increase of fuel pump price by President Buhari because they trusted him.

“When petrol went to N145 under PMB [President Muhammadu Buhari], Nigerians held their peace, unlike when they shut the country in 2012. The difference is trust. Simple,” Adesina wrote.

Also reacting, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi, said the statement by Jonathan was simplistic and insulting to the generality of Nigerians.

He also said the former president had only succeeded in exposing himself to reactions that would not edify his status as a statesman.

“To say that APC won the 2015 presidential election simply by deceiving the people would be too simplistic and may even be interpreted as an insult to the millions of Nigerians that voted APC into power.

“I doubt that President Jonathan actually said these words you have reported, because he would be exposing himself to reactions that would not be edifying of his status as a statesman by doing so.

“Secondly, I know the former president to be of even temperament. Only a few days ago, I read that he was counselling his party on the choice of chairman and publicity secretary.

“Statements like these wouldn’t represent an example of the kind of attitude he was canvassing.

“But if he truly said that, I will say, with due respect, that he may need to commission a more dispassionate study of how and why APC won the 2015 presidential election,” the APC spokesman said.

Speaking in Abuja while receiving in audience one of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairmanship aspirants, Professor Tunde Adeniran and his campaign team, Jonathan had claimed that the PDP, which led his administration, did well from 1999 to May, 2015, adding that since the change of baton, the APC administration had nothing to point as its achievement.

Rather, he said the party had been ruling through lies and deployment of what he described as hi-tech propaganda to cover its misrules, more than two years after taking over and challenged the APC administration to a public debate over his submission.

“PDP administration for 16 years did well and will continue to do well. But this administration has done nothing. The administration is full of lies and propaganda.

In the power sector, we did well to revive it. A state governor criticised our government, saying any serious government should be able to fix the power within six months. Today, APC has been in power for how many years? Fortunately, the then governor is in APC as a minister,” he said.

Jonathan also observed that his administration was criticised for increasing fuel pump price from N67 to N97 at a time the global crude price was over $100.

He said those who criticised him then have remained quiet now that the pump price was raised to N145 per litre and at a time the global crude price is about $53 per barrel.

Jonathan said: “My government was severely criticised for increasing the pump price of petroleum from N67 to N97 at a time that global crude price was going for over 100 dollars.

“The pump price was later reduced to N87 when the price of crude oil dropped and they attacked us that it was supposed to be lower. Those who criticised my administration are not talking again now that the global crude oil is about 53 dollars per barrel and the pump price of petrol is N143.”

The former president had expressed optimism that with the way people were embracing PDP, it was still an acceptable political platform, adding, “With the number and calibre of the people coming out to vie for the seat of the national chairman and other offices of our party, it shows that our party still has another chance.”