The immediate Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has said that it was not possible that he left an empty treasury for the government of Muhammadu Buhari.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Jonathan said: “it is not true; there is no way that he (President Buhari) would have inherited an empty treasury and at the same time give bailout to the states. It’s not possible.
“Nigeria is a fairly robust economy, but sometimes, we over politicize some issues and make it look so bad. It was not that bad. Some people ask questions like I was the president of Nigeria since independence; I was the president for 5 years.”
He said that he was not surprised that Buhari’s government is currently emphasizing the fight against corruption, adding that eaxh government that came since independence had always took refuge in fighting corruption.
“It is routine in Nigeria from the collapse of the first republic, people blamed corruption. When the second republic collapsed, the military blamed corruption. If there is a major change in government, one political party taking over from another one, there must be issues.”
Former President admitted however that his government could not tackle the corruption in the oil sector because of certain people but that he was able to clean up corruption in fertilizer.
“In the area of fertilizer subsidy, we cleaned up and the corruption was removed. I wanted to do the same thing in the oil industry but the same people who are accusing us of corruption are the very people that were frustrating it.” [myad]
