A former Nigerian minister of
justice, Mohammed Adoke, has revealed how his former boss, President Goodluck
Jonathan, confronted him with allegation that he was sympathetic to then
opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.
In a new book on his office years
as the minister of justice and attorney general, Mr Adoke listed that
accusation among the prices he said he paid for “insisting on rule of law and
safeguarding the Nigeria’s constitution”.
The book, Burden of Service:
Reminiscences of Nigeria’s Former Attorney-General, was released to the public
at the weekend.
Mr Adoke wrote that the former
president was poisoned by alleged gossips who wanted to blame him for Mr
Jonathan’s loss of the 2015 election.
Mr Jonathan was defeated by Mr
Buhari in the historic poll which ushered in a transition from a sitting
president to an opposition candidate, the first in Nigeria’s history.
The former minister recounted how
Mr Jonathan’s wife, Patience, raised similar accusations against him, following
the defeat of her husband.
He said following his advice to
the former president to refuse assent to controversial constitutional
amendments giving sweeping powers to members of the National Assembly, Mr
Jonathan was made to believe he (Mr Adoke) acted to save Mr Buhari who was then
awaiting inauguration.
“On 12 May 2015, we held the last
National Security Council meeting under the Jonathan Administration. After the
meeting, the president asked me to see him in his office,” Mr Adoke wrote.
The reason for the summon,
according to the former minister, was Mr Jonathan’s request to know the
veracity of Mr Adoke’s alleged loyalty to Mr Buhari.
“There, he confronted me with the
accusation that he was told I had prevailed on him to withdraw his assent to
the amendments because I was a ‘Buhari boy’.
“I found the allegation
ridiculous. I was being accused of disloyalty by the very president to whom I
had given my total and unalloyed loyalty,” Mr Adoke wrote. “I was devastated
and sad.”
Mr Adoke continued: “I had
suffered the indignity of being accused of disloyalty by the First Lady, and
now the president was confronting me with another allegation. I felt
humiliated.”
The ex-minister said he stood by
Mr Jonathan throughout and refused to budge in to promptings to jettison the
former president by supporting Mr Buhari.
“For instance, I was approached
by one of the principal officers of the current National Assembly to contribute
to the Buhari campaign election fund, but I refused to, reiterating I would
swim and sink with President Jonathan.”
Mr Adoke said the person who
approached him told him that other officials of the Jonathan government were
donating for the Buhari campaign.
“To that person, I was on a
suicide mission as many cabinet colleagues, including those known to be close
to the president, had made donations to the Buhari’s campaign.”
Another instance of prompting to
support the Buhari campaign Mr Adoke cited was one from a foreign diplomat in
Abuja.
“Similarly, one of the frontline
ambassadors in the country had attempted to prevail on me to consider working
for President Buhari,@ he said. “But I declined instantly, insisting that I was
a frontline member of the outgoing administration, and I was also too close to
Jonathan to consider serving under Buhari.”
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