According to him, the book showed that the Jonathan regime was its own worst enemy, adding that it took a lot of hard work to lose the election but not from the opposition.
Specifically, he listed some of the reasons Dr Jonathan lost the election to President Muhammadu Buhari as: mismanagement of political forces, seeing former House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal as an enemy instead of as a power centre, fighting many PDP governors and leaders and forcing them to leave the party, obstacles mounted by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a litany of unforced errors and spat with Rev Father Ejike Mbaka, a wave of conspiracies, and too much visibility for Mrs Patience Jonathan among others.
I will write my memoirs — Tinubu
Also speaking at the event, Mr Tunde Rahman, who represented the All Progressives Congress, APC National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, picked holes on the emphasis being laid on how Tinubu lost the vice presidency slot, adding that soon the former Lagos State governor will write his memoirs to tell the story of the roles he played in the 2015 polls.
His words: ‘’Tinubu is not in town now but he knows about the book. One of the major characters interviewed in the book is Tinubu. The account of what transpired is not about Tinubu losing the VP slot as the reviewer said. If you said Tinubu lost the VP, how did the VP emerge? Who nominated the VP? The VP himself has told us how he was nominated. Tinubu is working on his book to tell us how he helped found a party that defeated an incumbent president.’’
At a stage, the event panned out as a gathering of presidential spokesmen – Akin Osuntokun (Spokesman for Obasanjo), Olusegun Adeniyi (Spokesman for Yar’Adua), Reuben Abati (Spokesman for Jonathan) and Femi Adesina (Spokesman for Buhari).
Osuntokun, who was the master of ceremony, told General Abubakar, jocularly, that he would not write a book on Boko Haram because the government said that Boko Haram ‘’has been technically defeated.’’ Rather, he applied to write General Abubakar’s biography,which the former leader rejected.
Femi Adesina said as spokesmen, he and the author faced similar challenges when their principals became ill.
However, unlike Adeniyi, he said he did not go underground and switch off his phones when President Buhari went for medication in United Kingdom, recently.
He said: ‘’Segun passed through a path as Special Adviser, Media to the President, which I have passed through. When late President Yar’Adua was ill, Segun switched off his lines. His secretary, who is also my secretary, said that Segun went underground. When President Buhari was on medical vacation I wanted to switch off my phones but I was advised that it is a mistake to go underground. So, I never switched off my phone. I put the message across, according to the information at my disposal.’’
Also speaking, Dr Reuben Abati commended Adeniyi for being a pacesetter in doing such books and added that he has been inspired.
However, he jokingly threw some jabs at the book reviewer, Dr Okey Okechukwu, saying: ‘’Dr Okechukwu worked for the Dr Jonathan government. I am surprised about some of things he said. He was in our team. Maybe he was doing his job as a reviewer.’’
