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| Former president Goodluck Jonathan lost to Buhari in the 2015 presidential election. |
Former Governor of Rivers State and Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has described former President Goodluck Jonathan as a terrible leader who left almost nothing for his predecessor in the nation's purse when leaving office in 2015.
Amaechi who featured on Channels Television’s programme, ‘Hard Copy’, said the money Jonathan left behind for Buhari was so small that it could not even sustain Nigeria for three weeks.
The Minister also said the current security challenges facing the country especially the issue of banditry, is strange and difficult to really understand.
He however, attributed the problem to poverty, saying it is the main cause of banditry and some of the challenges confronting the country.
“When you talk about bandits and all these people that kill. It is a question about poverty. And that poverty didn’t start in this regime. Don’t forget that oil was sold at $110, $114, $115 per barrel. When this government came into power, oil fell to $28 per barrel and since then it has not gone above $80 per barrel.”
“As former Chairman of the Governors’ Forum (Amaechi was a two-time governor of Rivers), I was told by the security in a meeting chaired by the former President including the former minister of finance that at every point in time, the government must leave money behind in case Nigeria goes to war that would last for six months.
“By the time we came, they didn’t leave money behind that could last us for three weeks. And I was speaking at that time as the Chairman of the Governors’ Forum.”
Amaechi previously described the challenges facing the country as the result of collective failure of leadership both past and present, in making sure Nigeria works for all.
He said, “In recent days, we have begun to hear loud voices of disunity from various sections of the country.
“In response to current economic difficulties and the problem of insecurity, some have insisted on the now familiar argument for restructuring of the federation.
“Let me say without any fear that the concerns being raised by Nigerians about the future of our country are legitimate. They are indications of great patriotism and love,” he added.
“For the avoidance of doubt, let me state that the desperate poverty that we have today has its roots in dispensations that came before the Buhari administration.
“Specifically, our epidemic of mass poverty dates back to the return of civil rule in our country. It is unfair to heap the responsibility for the prevalence of poverty and inequality on this or any one administration in the history of the country.
“I have a personal conviction that of all the challenges facing our nation’s actualisation, none is more urgent than the scourge of increasing poverty and the threat of massive inequality.
“We must attack and conquer inequality and extreme poverty or the poor will overrun Nigeria.
“Let us take the threat of mass poverty seriously and elevate inequality to the status of a perennial national emergency in the years ahead.
“Nearly all the troubles that confront us as a nation can be traced to either direct poverty or the fear that the scourge of poverty could rise one day to devour the fortunes of the rich and prosperous,” he said.