Niger Top News

Seven Cabinet members who failed Jonathan

In the next five days, President Goodluck Jonathan will hand over the nation’s mantle of leadership to the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari. The five-year tenure of the President was topsy-turvy because of the motley crowd in his cabinet. In this piece, BELLO IMAM takes a look at cabinet members who actually failed to deliver, which later rubbed off on Jonathan as he lost the goodwill of Nigerians.
THE reality of leaving the posh Aso Rock Presidential Villa has finally dawned on President Goodluck Jonathan. Before stepping aside, the President has spent the past few days on retrospection climaxing in an emotional thanksgiving service last Sunday at the Presidential Villa chapel.

 A penitent Jonathan asked for forgiveness and specifically admitted that “we should not have done certain things we did.” In a rare spirit of sportsmanship, Jonathan decided to bear the liabilities of his administration, some of which he never knew; some he inadvertently ignored; and some he did not imagine could cost him a return ticket to office.
While the President recedes into a solitary retirement, having been abandoned by some friends and associates, the activities of some of his cabinet members remain in the realm of public discourse on how they failed Jonathan. Jonathan’s troubled mandate has led to a $60billion debt for his successor, Muhammadu Buhari. It is inconceivable in Nigeria’s history that the nation will run into another debt trap because his predecessors, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, left the economy in a stable condition. While Obasanjo secured debt relief for the nation, Yar’Adua left about $40billion in foreign reserve. Yet, some members of Jonathan’s team failed him. These powerful cabinet members wore a larger-than-life image and were actually untouchable. More importantly, their latitude placed the majority in servitude.