Don’t single me out for probe, Jonathan tells Buhari

President Goodluck Jonathan on
Wednesday advised the President-
elect, Muhammadu Buhari, not to
single out his administration in any
probe he may want to carry out
after his inauguration on Friday.
He said all those advising Buhari to
probe his administration must also
advise him to extend his probe
beyond his regime or else, the
probe will be seen as a witch-hunt.
Jonathan made his position known
at the valedictory session of the
Federal Executive Council which he
presided over at the Presidential
Villa, Abuja.
He also said those calling for his
administration’s probe should add
that the probe should be extended
to the way oil wells and fields were
allocated in the past.
A former Minister of Defence, Gen.
Theophilus Danjuma, had over the
weekend joined the growing
number of persons calling on
Buhari to probe the Jonathan
administration.
Jonathan said, “Some people are
even calling for the probe of this
government. I agree that in Nigeria,
there are a number of things that
we will probe; very many things.
“Even debts owed by states and
this nation from 1960 up to this
time. They are saying it is
Jonathan’s administration that is
owing all the debts.
“I believe that anybody calling for
probe must ensure that these
probes are extended beyond the
Jonathan administration, otherwise
to me, it will be a witch-hunt. If you
are very sincere, then it is not just
the Jonathan’s administration that
should be probed.
“A number of things have gone
wrong and we have done our best
to fix them. The Attorney General is
aware of the massive judgement
debts, if we aggregate all of them,
it is about $1bn. How did we come
to this kind of huge judgement
debts? These issues should be
probed.
“How do you allocate our oil wells,
oil fields, marginal wells and
others? Do we follow our laws? All
these should be probed. I believe
all these and many more areas
should be looked at.”
Jonathan said regardless of what
critics might say about his
administration, he and his team
had done well under a difficult
situation.
He advised those who criticise him
to endeavour to compare his
administration’s performance with
those of the administrations before
him on a sector-by-sector basis.
The President listed some of the
daunting challenges faced by his
administration to include the
prolonged industrial action by the
Academic Staff Union of
Universities, terror attacks and the
ongoing fuel scarcity.
Jonathan described the ongoing
fuel scarcity as an act of sabotage.
The president claimed that those
who felt they must bring his
government to its knees were the
ones behind the scarcity.
He wondered why marketers would
choose to go on strike a few days to
the end of his administration.
“Even this last fuel scarcity, to me
one can clearly say it was an act of
sabotage. This government has few
days to go, that is definitely not the
time you expect massive strikes,
using marketers and unions. Unions
asking for increase in salaries at a
time oil prices have dropped and
volumes have dropped,” he said.
The President made it clear that he
had not dissolved his cabinet as all
ministers were expected to attend
the inauguration dinner on
Thursday in their official capacity.
Earlier, the Vice-President, Namadi
Sambo, had thanked Jonathan for
finding him worthy to be his
running mate in 2011 and 2015. He
said he did not at any time lobby
the President for the position.
He promised to remain a member
of the Jonathan family and his
ambassador anywhere he found
himself.
The Attorney General of the
Federation and Minister of Justice,
Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), said
the administration had impacted
on the lives of millions of Nigerians.