Jonathan Fears Election Loss Might End His Marriage

If this is the uppermost worry and fear on the mind of outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan, then the love he has for his wife definitely supersede what the average Nigerian sees or thinks!

Jonathan was reported to have verbally expressed his fears that election loss to Muhammadu Buhari might cost him his marriage to Dame Patience. The President made the shocking statement while addressing the audience/congregation on the next phase of his life at a Thanksgiving and send forth programme at the Cathedral Church of the Advent Life-Camp, Gwarinpa, Abuja, organised in honour.

The president who will be handing over to the president-elect General Muhammadu Buhari on 29 May, used as an example, the former South African Apartheid leader, F.W de Klerk whose wife divorced him for ending minority rule in South Africa.

In his rather lengthy speech, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan said: “I believe there are reasons for everything. Some hard decisions have their own cost. That I have ran the government this way that stabilized certain things, the electoral process and other things that brought stability into this country. They were very costly decisions which I must be ready to pay for.

“Some people come to me and say this or that person, is he not your friend? Is it not your government that this person benefited from? But this is what the person is saying. But I used to say, 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. When F.W de Klerk took the decision to abolish minority rule in RSA, even his wife divorced him. I hope my wife will not divorce me. But that is the only decision that has made RSA to still remain a global player. If we still had minority rule there, by this time, nobody will be talking about RSA.

“If you take certain decisions, it might be good for the generality of the people but it might affect people differently. So for ministers and aides who served with me, I sympathize with them, they will be persecuted. And they must be ready for that persecution,” he said.

President Jonathan, however, made it known that although some of his ministers did not like the fact that he conceded defeat, he is however grateful that “the ordinary people appreciate what we did.” He further thanked God Almighty and Nigerians as a whole for giving him the opportunity to serve them at various levels.

“Very few of those in my age brackets have been that lucky. All my education was on government scholarships. I have not suffered lack, not because I’m hard-working but by God’s grace.”

The President also reveals that despite the various misgivings that ended his tenure and marred him in the face of many, he believes he did his best for the Nation and would confidently say he has lived a fulfilled life.

“As long as live, I will continue to do my best for the state because the state has helped me as a person. “I have to thank Nigerians especially, my state for giving me the opportunity to serve as deputy governor, and the whole country gave me the opportunity to serve as Vice President and then President, first was to complete the tenure of the late president and later serve as president from which I am exiting now as a very happy and fulfilled man.”

Meanwhile, during his meeting with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) committee set up to assess the party’s loss in the recently concluded elections, Jonathan declared that although the party would be in the opposition in the next four years, he would direct all his efforts to return the PDP to its winning ways by 2019.

On whether, he is wary or afraid of the incoming government, especially the President-elect, Jonathan says he is ready to be probed by Buhari if the need arose!