Former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel has
accused ex-President Goodluck Jonathan of failing to use his power as then
President to move Nigeria forward.
Daniel asserted that Jonathan’s failure arose from the fact
that he was trying to be “nice.”
He claimed that Jonathan’s failure could also be seen in his
lopsided appointments.
Daniel alleged that Jonathan was “narrow minded” in the way
he put his government together.
The former Ogun governor also accused Jonathan of using the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to persecute him, despite many
seeing them as friends.
Speaking with Vanguard, Daniel said, “Here was a man people
believed was my friend because I worked hard for him only to receive the short
end of the stick via EFCC et al, but let’s not judge him with personal issues,
as we all knew he was under tremendous pressure to punish Daniel for his
stubbornness from high quarters.
“It’s common knowledge that this was what the EFCC
‘prosecution’ was all about.
“The fact of the case is that it does appear that one of the
accusations against him was the fact that he was narrow-minded in the way he
put his government together.
“No! That is not an accusation. That is a perception that is
as good as reality because the records are there?
“Okay, let us call it perception and people came out with
statistics of how he has populated the government with people from a particular
ethnic group and he was seen as being unfair to the people of the South West.
“In addition, people also perceived that for Jonathan, in
trying to be nice, he failed to use power when he could use it to move the
country forward.
“A lot of lapses became noticeable – yes, there may have
been challenges. Nigerians are not interested in challenges because once
they’ve elected you to do a job, they expect to see the results.
“The reality, again, is that things didn’t happen the way
they were supposed to happen and that is just it.
“The lopsided nature of his appointments too, none of them
could beat Obasanjo.”
By Seun Opejobi
