Former President Goodluck Jonathan has debunked claims by Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai that his administration spent 64 billion naira to organize independence anniversary celebrations.
El-Rufai had alleged that
Jonathan spent N13 billion in 2011, N15 billion in 2012 and N14 billion in 2013 and N22 billion in 2011, bringing the total to N64 billion.
However, Jonathan has described El-Rufai's claim as false. He said that only N332.6 million was spent during his administration and chided el-Rufai for deliberately lying to confuse the public and give his administration a bad name.
He described the billions quoted by El-Rufai as the figments of his own imagination.
Speaking through his former Minister for National Planning, Dr Abubakar Suleiman, Jonathan said ;
“For the record, a breakdown of our anniversary spending between 2012 to 2014 amounted to N332.6 million.
“We challenge the Office of the Government of the Federation to publish these details for the consumption of the public.
“A breakdown of our spending for this event between 2012 and 2104 goes thus: 2012, N107.6 million; 2013, N45 million and 2014, 180 million. So, the question here is where did the billions, as claimed by el-Rufai, emanate from?”
He cautioned government functionaries against trading lies to get cheap popularity or curry favor from certain quarters.
“It is high time government functionaries desisted from abusing their immunity by destroying history and trading on lies just to gain cheap popularity or curry one favour or the other from certain quarters.
“Perhaps former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, was right in his assessment of el-Rufai when he said in his latest memoirs,My Watch, that his vivid recollection of el-Rufai is his penchant for lying,unfair embellishment of stories and inability to sustain loyalty for long.
“That exactly is what el-Rufai has done with his ungodly fabrication of lies against Jonathan’s government.
“One hopes that President Buhari would be on guard against being misled by the likes of el-Rufai, who are hell bent on misinforming Nigerians.”
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