Book Launch: Yoruba Ronu disagrees with Jonathan over state of economy

The Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum says it disagrees with former President Goodluck Jonathan on his assessment of the current state of the nation’s economy in his book ‘My Transition Hours’.
The forum says the economy is better under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The Yoruba Socio-Cultural group expressed its reservation to Jonathan’s allegation in a statement signed by Akin Malaolu, its Secretary-General on Wednesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that ‘My Transition Hours’ by Jonathan launched on Tuesday in Abuja contains his views on various issues till he left office May 29,2015.
According to Malaolu, such claims should be completely ignored.
He said: “Ex-President Jonathan’s claim that the present leadership of the country under Buhari has worsened the condition of things for Nigeria and Nigerians should be ignored completely because they are false and inaccurate.
“During the last administration, our foreign reserve stood at 22 billion dollars when the price of a barrel of crude oil was above 100 dollars per barrel.
“That is a clear indicator that Ex-President Jonathan was present but wholly absentminded in savings.
“Today, our foreign reserve stands at almost 50 billion dollars even at a time the price of crude oil was below 50 dollars per barrel.
“As crude oil recently appreciated in price, there is positive desire on the part of Buhari government to make the nation better and steady by bringing back investors who fled the country.”
The group alleged that investors fled Nigeria due to several bombings and spasms of communal bloodlettings of Jonathan era.
He said: “It was commonly known to all Nigerians that under Jonathan, Nigeria suffered several reversals in fortunes.
“Frauds and stealing were the only conditions for greatness and for fortune getting.
“The nation’s military suffered from poor supervision that made mockery of our capacity to hold insurgents at bay.”
Yoruba Ronu said such misfortune had been addressed by putting the military in better hands.
He said: “We urge Nigerians to remember a former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s open letter to Jonathan wherein he wrote:
“When the guard becomes the thief, nothing again is safe in the house”.
“Such remarks painted Jonathan as lacking in probity and character, it had been proven to be true if we recall the several probes and recoveries made by the Buhari administration.”
Malaolu said that Nigerians today appreciated the government of Buhari, who not only took millions back to the farms, but had made remarkable improvement in other sectors.
He added: “The nation’s infrastructure development is on the upward swing. First standard gauge rail line was witnessed in the country within three years of this administration.”
He listed power, mining, education, health and transport management amongst other sectors that have been boosted.
NAN recalls that Jonathan recently said “since I left office, the fact remains that Nigeria has not made any improvement on Transparency International Corruption Perception Index since 2014”.
NAN also reports that Buhari, represented by Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Federal Government, as well as Obasanjo, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar and political leaders across party lines graced the book launch.