$2.1bn arms scandal: I will speak in due course — Jonathan

Former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Wednesday, said the time was not right for him to comment on the $2.1 billion arms purchase scandal which has seen the indictment of chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by a probe panel constituted by President Muhammdu Buhari.

Fielding questions from the Geneva Press Corps and other international journalists, Jonathan, who was in Geneva, Switzerland, to receive an award from the Circle of Diplomats said the time has not come for him to speak on the controversy.

“When issues are before the court the law demands you don’t comment on it. Definitely I will speak on it but let’s allow the law to take its course.”

The former Nigerian leader who dismissed the recent claim by Information and Culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that 55 Nigerians stole over N1 trillion of government funds between 2006 and 2013, referred to similar allegations by erstwhile Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Lamido Sanusi Lamido, said: “One day the then Central Bank Governor woke up and said $48 billion dollars was stolen. Two days later he said it was $12 billion few days again he said it was $20 billion and the opposition started trumpeting it. Now, the same people are saying it was $5.6 billion. What are we going to believe? Well, they said some individuals and 20 governors; why don’t they name them?”

On why he built 12 new universities, he said: “If we don’t spend billions in educating our youths we will spend billions fighting crime.”

Asked why he handed over power to Buhari without going to court, he replied: “It takes a sacrifice to build a nation.”

On the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Jonathan said: “I tried to build institutions in Nigeria, including the one that conducted the last election and others. As a President it was within my prerogative to sack (then INEC Chairman Attahiru) Jega if I had bad intentions. But I tried to establish institutions and lived by the example of my conviction.”

On electricity power, he said: “I am happy that Nigerians today are enjoying improved power supply. We did the biggest privation in Africa, if not the world.”

On some people blaming him for so many things, the former President said: “I was only president for five years but some people talk as if I have been president since independence.”