President Goodluck Jonathan has challenged the United States account of the events that took place in the turbulent period leading up to his assumption of the presidency last May, calling the account of Ambassador Robin Sanders "essentially third party narratives, and are largely inaccurate."
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In a WikiLeaks cable on Nigeria which SaharaReporters broke yesterday, Ms. Sanders, reported to Washington on her meeting on February 26, 2010. The cable portrayed a troubled Jonathan who seemed unsure of himself and where the country was going, with the US ambassador offering advice on how to proceed on such issues as Umaru Yar'Adua's incapacitation, the military, electoral reform, and Olusegun Obasanjo.
In Jonathan's response to our story, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ima Niboro, dismissed Jonathan's meeting with Ambassador Sanders as having been no more than one of countless meetings with different groups and people with different suggestions, stating that the account in the cable was "largely silent on these suggestions." Jonathan did not say what suggestions he received from those other groups and individuals.
He seemed particularly irritated by the suggestion that he was not equipped for the position in which he had found himself. In the cable summary, the US ambassador wrote of Jonathan as follows:
He said he is "not a politician" and had very limited experience as an administrator, but concluded, "I will not tolerate a brawl." Jonathan said he will dissolve the Cabinet once he knows people are more comfortable with him being the Acting President or if the current strategy to convince Yar'Adua surrogates and family members to allow the ailing president to resign.
In Jonathan's response to that characterization, he said, "how can it be said that a man who had been a Deputy Governor, an Acting Governor, a governor, a Vice President, and then Acting President could have described himself as "lacking in administrative experience". That the President holds a Ph.D, was a lecturer for 10 years, and was an Assistant Director at the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, do not make the statement less rankling."
Despite this outrage, Mr. Niboro's response was silent on the fact that Jonathan did tell the US ambassador:
"I was not chosen to be Vice President because I had good political experience...I did not [have such experience]. There were a lot more qualified people around to be Vice President, but that does not mean I am not my own man."
He was even more silent on the bigger picture, which includes running for the presidency in 2011. The leaked cable shows that, just as he would later tell President Barack Obama when he visited the White House in April 2010, "his sole focus is to leave a legacy of both electoral reform and credible elections, including changing the entire Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)."
At that time, at the end of February, Jonathan seemed keen to convince the United States he saw his mission as simply to clean up Nigeria's electoral process, a point that was repeated again and again to Ambassador Sanders:
WikiLeaks: Jonathan Responds To The United States (http://www.saharareporters.com/news-page/wikileaks-jonathan-responds-united-states)