The reality of life has dawned on out-going President
Goodluck Jonathan as he lamented, yesterday, that his so-called friends have
deserted him having lost the last presidential election to the opposition All
progressives CongressAPC, candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari.
Speaking at a thanksgiving and farewell service in his honour
at the Cathedral Church of the Advent, Life Camp, Gwarinpa, Abuja, President
Jonathan said, however that he expected more of his friends to leave him. The
president declared that he was ready to pay the price for his refusal to
interfere with the electoral process which he ensured was carried out to its
logical conclusion.
He also said his decision to concede defeat at the election
did not go down well with some of his ministers and aides and jokingly
expressed the hope that his wife, Patience will not follow the example of the
wife of former South African Apartheid leader, F W De Klerk, who divorced her
husband for his decision to end the minority rule in the Republic of South
Africa (RSA).
He then expressed appreciation to Nigeria and Nigerians for
giving him the opportunity to serve in various capacities, reiterating his
willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice in the interest of the nation.
He said :
“I believe there are reasons for everything. Some hard
decisions have their own cost, no doubt about that. I ran the government in
such a way that stabilized certain things like the electoral process and other
things that brought stability to this country and took very costly decisions
which I must be ready to pay for.
“Some people come to me and say ‘look at this person or that
person, is he not your friend who benefited from you, has this person not
benefited from your government ? Imagine what he is saying’? I often tell them
that worse statements will come. If you take certain decisions, you should know
that those close to you will even abandon you at some point. And I tell them
that more of my so-called friends will disappear.
