President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday declared that anybody contemplating a probe of his government should be more thorough to extend such to the previous administrations.
Jonathan reasoned that such probe would only make sense if it covers areas like how oil blocks were allocated by successive administrations, huge judgement debts that had accrued over time and sundry issues.
The outgoing President made the declaration during the valedictory session of the Federal Executive Council held at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
At the session, the FEC members took their turns to eulogise him.
Jonathan spoke in reaction to the various calls on the incoming administration of Muhammadu Buhari by some Nigerians to probe the outgoing administration.
According to him: “Some people are even calling for the probe of this government.
“I agree.
“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 say it is Jonathan’s administration that is owing all the debt.
“I believe that anybody calling for probe must ensure that these probes are extended beyond the Jonathan administration, otherwise to me it will be witch hunting.
“If you are very sincere, then is not just the Jonathan 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 massive judgments debts.
“If we aggregate all of them, it is almost going to $1 billion.
“How did we come to this kind of huge judgment debts?
“These issues should be probed.
“How do you allocate our oil wells, oil fields, marginal wells and all that?
“Do we follow our laws?
“All these should be probed.
“And I believe all these and many more areas should be looked at.”
The President pointed out that in spite of the fact that his administration had so much issues like terrorism and industrial actions to contend with, it was able to raise performance and accomplishments comparatively.
Jonathan dismissed the persistent criticisms of his government as unjust and politically motivated.
He advised that his critics should compare what his government had done with those of his predecessors.
His words: “As a cabinet, we have tried our best.
“I believe we have done well under a very difficult situations.
“There are a lot of criticisms, people say different things at different times.
“Some of those who make some statements know there are purely political.
“I always insist that we have been here for five years and some months, including the time I was an acting president.
“I have always thrown the challenge that those who criticize us should compare what we have done in the various sectors to what others have done.”
Jonathan went further to list some achievements of his administration in various sectors, including transportation, petroleum and agriculture.
His words: “I may not need to enumerate but if you look at the rail system and what we have done within this period, the oil sector where there has been so much attack.
“One good thing we did was the Nigerian content law that revolutionized the oil industry.
“There were a lot of fabrications going on in Lagos and other places but it was never like this before.
“Nigerians are playing key roles in the oil sector.
“People sometimes forget this.
“Even with that, maybe we have offended some people but the Nigerian local content has really helped so many Nigerians to play big in the oil sector.
“The agriculture, power sectors and maybe in foreign relations like the minister of foreign affairs mentioned, from 1960 to date we have been members of the security council as non-permanent member.
“We have been in the United Nations Security Council as non-permanent members five times, two within this administration.
“That shows clearly that the rest of the world appreciate our little contributions to global issue.
“In education, the road system.
“We have added Kasambilla to our dams.
“We have done wonderfully well in sports within this period.
“Micro Small and Medium Enterprises and of course the financial inclusion within this period is more than ever before.
“I can go on and on and mention almost all the sectors.
“So I believe we have done our best and Nigerians will continue to assess us.
“Even though we operated under an extremely difficult situation, maybe because politics in Nigeria is just maturing.
“We witnessed the longest ASUU strike.
“I don’t think we have ever witnessed a strike that lasted for six months and we believe that that strike was partially politically motivated, otherwise lecturers cannot troop out for six months.
“There were the terror attacks.
“We know Boko Haram predates this administration but immediately after the elections, I believe because of local and external factors, they became very vicious, extremely destructive, killing people and destroying properties.”
Speaking on the issue of the current fuel scarcity, the President attributed it to sabotage, as he wondered how oil workers should be asking for pay rise under a situation of falling oil prices and production.
Jonathan insisted that the whole crisis relating to fuel shortage was orchestrated by those who had vowed to ensure that his government was brought on its knees even at its twilight.
According to him: “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 price have dropped and volumes have dropped.
“None of the International Oil Companies is increasing salaries but our unions wanted 11 per cent increase in allowances and so on and so forth and went on strike.
“There was 21 days reserve in this country.
“It’s not as if we had no products but they just refused to lift.
“Diesel was deregulated long ago, so the issue was not the product but people who felt they must bring this government to its knees even when they know that we had few days to leave.”
The President told the cabinet members to be grateful to God that they were not leaving government as a result of any threat to democracy other than that their party lost an election.
He said the cabinet, which has less than 48 hours, would be dissolved at a later date, urging the ministers to remain on their posts in the mean time.
Members of the cabinet in their individual contributions at the valedictory session, earlier, hailed Jonathan for being a visionary leader through whom peace had prevailed in the country.
Vice President Namadi Sambo; and the Secretary to Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, led the ministers at the session that lasted over three hours.
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