Jonathan Deserves No Apology, He’s The Reason We’ve A ‘Dictator’ As President – Activist

Zik Gbemre, a rights activist and environmentalist, on Thursday, says former President Goodluck Jonathan deserved not to be apologize to by anybody, saying that his failure gave birth to the dictator that Nigerians have as president.

BIGPENNGR.COM reports that the Gbemre made the assertion in reaction to recent video of Dino Melaye, rendering a supposed apology to former President Goodluck Jonathan during a book launch for the way he was supposedly treated and voted out of Government by the majority of Nigerians.

According to the activist, former President Jonathan does not deserve any sort of apology from any Nigerian or for any reason for that matter, especially if such an apology is coming from someone like Dino Melaye supposedly on behalf of the group of other Nigerians.

“Perhaps, Nigerians need to be reminded that, it was as a result of the gross mis-governance of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan that the majority of Nigerians voted in President Muhammadu Buhari because they needed a change from the Jonathan administration.

“Nigerians were tired of Jonathan’s misgovernance that they opted for the only worst choice they had at the elections by voting in Buhari.

He said that Jonathan’s failures led to the choice opportunity given to President Buhari, “who today, has ended up becoming a dictator and a thorn in the flesh of the Nigerian people”.

“In other words, it was Jonathan’s maladministration and misgovernance that made it possible for President Buhari to be given the opportunity to enter Aso Rock, which many Nigerians are regretting today.

“Except for those who seriously benefitting from the present Buhari Government either as appointees, party affiliates, close associates, his fellow kinsmen, fronts and allies. These set of persons will never see anything wrong with, or say anything bad about President Buhari administration that has left Nigeria on the verge of becoming a totally failed State.

In a statement made available to BIGPENNGR.COM, Gbemre asserted that President Buhari remains the worst thing that has ever happened to the country’s political history.

“Buhari has so-failed this country to the extent that the nation’s security situation has not only moved from bad to worse, but is practically non-existent.

“Who would ever thought that a retired Military General like President Buhari, would be in Government while Boko Haram terrorists would abduct over 300 males school children from his own Katsina State, while he was on a visit the same day? And up till now, President Buhari have not thought it necessary to visit and show empathy with the parents/families of these children, neither has he done anything, like sacking the obviously incompetent Service Chiefs, to suggest that he is serious about addressing this insecurity situation in the country.

“In other words, Jonathan should be blamed for bringing Nigeria to the present deplorable state we all are in”, he added.

Gbemre said that it is agreed that Jonathan might be seen as a simple man and known as head of a democratic government that allowed freedom of expression “than what we have under Buhari but the fact still remains that under Jonathan, a lot of things actually went really bad and wrong in the nation’s economy and political structure”.

Reeling out some of the former president’s sins while in office, Gbamre said; “Jonathan could not even address the all-important East-West Road linking most of the States in the South-South region.

“But President Buhari, though selfishly, has been able to connect Nigeria via road and rail, with the Republic of Niger – his allegedly new found love.

“So, if Buhari could achieve this, even when it is not in the interest of Nigeria, what excuse does Jonathan have to not have addressed the major infrastructural challenges in the Niger Delta areas?

He said that SPDC Oil and Gas Assets Divestment that was well managed under former President Olusegun Obasanjo with the original buyers of some of these Divested Assets like OML 31 left to managed/operated by the owners like Seplat, could not be managed under a president of Niger Delta origin.

“But under Jonathan, all the Divested Assets/Interests of Shell (SPDC) were taken from the hands of the original owners/buyers and donated to the NPDC/NNPC in a supposed Management Joint Venture.

“It was alleged then that Jonathan, and his Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke did this so as to enable them to have unrestrained access to oil and gas funds for their re-election agenda.

“If Jonathan had not allowed his political ambition and personal interests to becloud his sense of reasoning, he would have relocated NNPC subsidiaries’ Headquarters like the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to the Niger Delta areas.

“As well as relocate the Headquarters’ of all the other oil and gas companies from Lagos and Abuja to the Niger Delta areas. But it never happened.

“Jonathan also allowed former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, to kill about eight (8) of the Banks owned by South-South persons like Oceanic Bank, Intercontinental Bank, etc. Sanusi, as the then CBN Governor, with his reforms, strategically targeted banks owned by people he had branded his enemies.

“Then there was the evident undertone of some powerful interests in the country’s Banking sector under Sanusi’s reign as CBN Governor with his reforms. All of this happened under Jonathan’s watch.

“Succinctly, I repeat that former President Goodluck Jonathan does not deserve or worth any apology from anyone. If Dino Melaye likes, let him render his own personal apology to Jonathan, but certainly not on behalf of anyone else. All I can see here is Dino Melaye is already preparing/watering the grounds to be in the good books of those, which include Jonathan, whom are already eying the Presidency come 2023.

He, however, noted “as for Jonathan, the only good thing about his reign in Office was that he was not a dictator like we have today with President Buhari”.