Arms probe: I'll definitely speak - Jonathan, former Nigerian president

A confident looking former President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday in Switzerland  gave a robust defence of  his administration and stated why he would not comment on the current arms probe scandal alledgedly involving his National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, and some top politicians in the country

Speaking at Geneva Press Club on Security, and Development in Africa, the former President said he would not like to comment on the arms probe matter now because his comment could affect witnesses and the judicial proceeding that had been initiated by the current administration

He said: " I would not like to comment now because the matter is in court. I cannot comment. Definitely, I will speak. My Comment now may affect witnesses and the judicial process.

"When I was President, I tried to build institutions like the Judiciary and separation of power and the electoral bodies. I should not be the one undermining the process."

The former President fielded questions on a host  of issues such as the Chibok Girls, Boko Haram the Economy and corruption also  spoke on why he did not challenge his electoral defeat in court.

Pressed to comment  on the huge amounts of money allegedly embezzled by some members of his administration, the former President said: " I have an idea about  some of the corruption cases you are talking about. The amount being mentioned in some cases are so huge, sometimes people think I was Nigeria's President since independence. Sometimes, people just bandy figures. I remember somebody said we lost $49 billion in 18 months.

''The  same man who made the allegation reduced the figure to 12 billion. I got forensic experts to probe the books of NNPC to ascertain the veracity of the allegation. I even remember asking the German Chancelor who said if that amount of money was missing in her country, it would be a big issue.

''The truth of the matter is that if we lose such amount of money within 18 months as the allegation said, the country will collapse.''

On the allegation that his government negotiated with fake Boko Haram members, Dr Jonathan said it was not true.

"People come up with all sorts  of allégations . The truth of the matter was that we realised that the epicentre of the terrorists activities were in two states - Borno and Yobe, we decided to set up a committee of influential people in those two states to interact with their people to see if they can help in tackling the problem.

''We did not negotiate with Boko Haram. The people we negotiated with were militants in the Niger Delta  and it was successful.

''Even the current President said recently that if they see credible members of Boko Haram, they would be willing to discuss with them. If somebody said we negotiated with fake members of Boko Haram, the person is just playing politics..

Asked to comment on the statement that his former service chief who said the Army knew where the Chibok girls were being held and till the end of his administration, the girls were not rescued, the former President said when he heard the comment, he was surprised, adding he invited the service chief for a chat.

He said he would someday make public what they discussed.

In his paper, he said one of the ways of tackling terrorism was through education.

"My policy was to fight insecurity in the immediate term using counter-insurgency stratégies and for the long term, I fought it using education as a tool

''As I always believed, if we do not spend billions educating our youths today, we will spend it fighting insecurity tomorrow. And you do not have to spend on education just because of insecurity. It is the prudent thing to do.

''It is no coincidence that the North east epicentre of terrorism in Nigeria is also the regio0n with the highest rate of illiteracy and the least developed part ofNnigeria.

''In Nigeria, the federal government actually does not have a responsibility for primary and secondary education but I could not in good conscience stomach such a situation,'' Jonathan said.

Source- Vanguard Newspapers