Former President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has
debunked claims by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of
Kaduna State that his administration spent N64
billion on Independence anniversary
celebrations in five years, describing it as “a
tissue of lies.” In a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja, the
Jonathan Administration explained that it spent
only N332.6million in the three years covering
2012 to 2014, “for which records are readily
available.” The statement signed by former Minister of
National Planning , Dr Abubakar Suleiman on
behalf of the Jonathan Administration,
challenged the Office of the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation( OSGF) to publish
the details of the allocation for the events in the affected years. Giving the breakdown of the expenditure in
those years, the statement said:  “ For the record,
a breakdown of our spending for this
event between 2012 and 2014 goes thus;
2012-107.6million; 2013-N45million and 2014
had N180million. So, the question here is where did the billions as claimed by el-Rufai emanate
from?” The statement added that “even though that of
2010 and 2011 are not handy now, it should
be known that they all fall within the same
bracket as the ones stated, except that the 2010
anniversary was a golden one when the
country marked her 50 years of independence. But even then, no such outrageous sum was
either budgeted or expended.” The Goodluck Jonathan team further explain
the increase in the 2013 anniversary spending
for the purpose of accountability, stressing that
“the National Honours Award Investiture was
incorporated into the celebration, thus making it
two events in one, hence the N174,800,000.00 budget. We also want to add that the said award
investiture could not hold in 2013 and
the approved budget rolled over and was
utilized to organise the investiture in 2014.” “Perhaps President Olusegun Obasanjo was
right in his assessment of el-Rufai when he said
in his latest memoir, My Watch that his
vivid recollection of him is penchant for lying, for
unfair embellishment of stories and his inability
to sustain loyalty for long. That exactly is what el-Rufai has done with his ungodly fabrication
of lies against Jonathan government,”  the
statement added.