US officials say Jonathan’s minister stole $6bn – Oshiomhole

Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, on Monday took a swipe at the Peoples Democratic Party government of former President Goodluck Jonathan, saying the party destroyed Nigeria.

Oshiomhole, who was a member of President Muhammadu Buhari’s delegation to the United States, expressed delight that Nigeria now has a President who talks with confidence unlike “a President that is blabbing and is not sure of what the issues are.”

The governor spoke with State House correspondents shortly after meeting Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said he had decided not to bother about anything the PDP says about the present administration because he did not expect the party to be praising a government that is doing better than it did while in charge.

He claimed that so bad was the situation under Jonathan that members of Buhari’s delegation were told in US how a minister under the President stole $6billion.

He said the PDP succeeded in supervising Nigeria’s liquidation.

He said, “The PDP destroyed the country. I mean from the lips of American officials; senior officials of the State Department said one minister under PDP cornered as much as $6billion.

“The man said even by Washington standard, that is earth-quaking.

“So, PDP is a party that presided over the liquidation of our nation, destroyed all our institutions, converted the Armed Forces commanders to use them as if they were political thugs, converted NTA to a party megaphone, destroyed the SSS, went after opposition as if we were rabbits to be pursued into our holes, compromised even student unions and destroyed everything that you can think of and elevated religion to a state affair.

“Under the party, Israel became a place you visit every week; they placed pastors against mallams, placed North against South, East against West just to retain power; elevate Obas and Obis with dollars.

“You guys were reporting dollars that were changing hands; when NNPC was spending much more money than is available to the Federation Account.

“We are a very patient people. If we were not a patient people, anybody wearing the tag of PDP ought to feel very unsafe because you are all victims – all of us here.”

Oshiomhole claimed that under the PDP, there was no law as the party members were law to themselves.

He claimed that Jonathan did not know what the issues were and everybody was frustrated.

He added, “Mr. Carson, who was the Assistant Secretary of State, when we visited him in company of Senator Saraki, then as chairman of the Governors’ Forum – that was at the eve of President Obama’s first visit to Africa – and we went to complain, ‘why is Nigeria not on the list?’

“What he said for me was quite instructive compared to what he said last week. Then I was present when he said ‘you know, we who see ourselves not just as friends of Nigeria, each time we think there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is time to encourage Nigeria to build on it, you would wake up the following day under President Jonathan to find out that even the tunnel had been removed.

“Those were the words of Mr. Carson. Now last week, this same Carson chaired the President’s address at the Institute of Peace and he said ‘we now have a man of enormous integrity; one that has shown so much faith in the democratic process; one that refused to be frustrated even in the face of massively rigged elections. He submitted to the judicial process and even when that was compromised he never gave up.

“‘America has done its check and we are convinced that this President is the one that Nigeria needs at this time to regain its leadership of the African continent.

“‘America now has a partner worthy of relations because they believe that every dollar that America provides to support Nigeria whether in the area of security, in the area of education, or encouraging American investors to invest in Nigeria, there is an enabling environment because what had been destroying the country is corruption.

Oshiomhole added that “If PDP doesn’t condemn it then they are no longer PDP. Don’t forget, people deceiving people has been a way of life for 16 years.”