Jonathan finally opens up on why he didn't declare his assets

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– Ex-president says he did not declare his assets publicly while in office because it is not right

– He says a president declaring his assets will not end Boko Haram insurgency

– The former president says he declared his assets under Yar Ádua when he was VP because Yar’adua forced him to

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has disclosed why he shunned appeals to make his assets public while in office between 2011 and 2015.

According to Jonathan, whose action is captured in the new book, ‘Against the Run of Play: How an incumbent president was defeated’ by Segun Adeniyi, he did not believe that declaring his assets publicly could stem the tide of corruption or degrade the level of terrorism in the country, Vanguard reports.

Jonathan said: “It is not the President declaring his assets that will end Boko Haram and whether I am criticised from head to toe I will not declare my assets publicly; it is not right; I did not even want to declare my assets as VP but was forced by the then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

“The law is clear. A public officer should declare his asset, and if there are issues, then the relevant agencies would have a basis to assess whether you have amassed wealth or not.

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Jonathan says declaring his assets won’t have ended Boko Haram

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Magu

Asked further to make public his assets in the spirit of the anti-corruption war and moral basis, the book quotes Jonathan as saying, “The law is clear about it and so, making it public is not issue and I will not play into the hands of people. I have nothing to hide.

“I declared under Yar Ádua because he did it, but it is not proper; it is not the president declaring assets that will change the country.”

The book noted, “By refusing to make public his assets declaration, Jonathan easily played into the hands of the opposition that had started to define him as a corrupt leader.

“That characterization hounded him throughout his tenure and would become a major campaign point in 2015.

“But if there was any corruption scandal that did incalculable damage to the credibility of his government, it was the mismanagement of the fuel subsidy funds.”

It added: “And with that, critical stakeholders, including organised labour unions and civil society groups-responded with anger and condemnation, vowing to challenge the Federal Government by calling for a nationwide strike.”

Meanwhile, Watch this ZENITHBLOG.com video as a Nigerian says Jonathan wasn’t a bad president

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