Why I travelled abroad for 6 weeks - Jonathan

Former President Good­luck Jonathan on Sunday opened up on his just-concluded foreign trips and visit to President Muham­madu Buhari at the State House, Abuja.

Why he refuted media reports that he was on self-exile in Cote d’Ivoire, Jonathan said that he was away from Nigeria for six weeks on international engagement.

Through his media aide, Mr. Ikechukwu Eze, the former Pres­ident in a statement, said that his attention had been drawn “to a spurious publication in ThisDay of Saturday, June 4, 2016 entitled ‘Buhari Holds Secret Meeting with Jonathan, Niger Delta Tops Agen­da’. We had thought that the news­paper only set out to report a rou­tine meeting between the former President and President Buhari, while speculating on the agen­da just as newspapers are wont to freely do, especially as no state­ment was issued by either of the parties.

“We are however dismayed that ThisDay, unlike other news­papers, went beyond this brief and turned the report into a veil for its vain and futile attempt to justify its earlier ‘exclusive’ report, on a speculated Jonathan’s self-exile to Cote d’Ivoire.

“We are inclined to proclaim straightaway that this claim or any insinuation to Dr. Jonathan’s con­templation of exile is not only false and tendentious, but inciting. Isn’t it reprehensible that the only truth in the ThisDay publication is that former President Jonathan paid a visit to President Buhari, while the rest of the content are bogus insin­uations and fabrications?

“It is surprising that, rath­er than apologise to the former President and the nation for an obvious gaffe, ThisDay contin­ues to pursue this illusory line of thought, which achieves nothing but mislead its readers, even after the former President had clearly stated that he never, at any point in time, considered going into ex­ile.

“We are persuaded to believe that the newspaper is pursuing a yet-to-be-declared agenda, espe­cially after a call earlier made, out of respect, to the newspaper by the former President, to offer a clarifi­cation, was deliberately misrepre­sented, to agree with this premed­itated conclusion.

“We are disappointed that a serious newspaper like ThisDay could carelessly wager its repu­tation and encouraging percep­tion, by submitting itself to such recklessness and needless sensa­tionalism.

“We therefore seek to make the following assertions, as a means of stating the facts:

“We maintain as Dr. Jona­than has himself stated, that the former President has no inten­tion of turning his back on Ni­geria, a homeland he served dil­igently as President, to the best of his abilities.

“It is instructive to note that while ThisDay continues to insist that Jonathan came from Cote d’Ivoire, the former President ac­tually returned to the country last Wednesday evening from Lon­don, after visiting many coun­tries including the United States, United Kingdom, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire on a six-week long international engagements and speaking tour.

“As a former President, Dr. Jonathan should be obliged the freedom to visit President Buha­ri, anytime he likes, to brief him on his international engagements and other commitments.

“We will like to advise media houses to desist from this fruitless predilection of Jonathan bashing, just because it is convenient, and in tune with the disposition in some quarters,” Eze said.