By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA: National Coordinator of the Goodluck Jonathan Legacy Project GJLP, Engr. Juan Amechee, has fired back at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over remarks in which Atiku attributed governance failures during the Jonathan administration to inexperience, describing the comments as “unfortunate and revisionist.”

Amechee in a statement on Thursday, rejected the claims by Atiku, arguing that Jonathan’s pre-presidential career, spanning roles as Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice President and Acting President, made the allegation of inexperience impossible to sustain.

“To describe Dr Jonathan as ‘inexperienced’ is a flight from reality,” he said, adding that if such a record qualified as inexperience, one would have to question what standard Atiku himself considered sufficient.

The GJLP coordinator turned the argument back on Atiku, pointing out that the former Vice President has pursued the presidency repeatedly without ever being entrusted with it, and is widely expected to try again in 2027.

“If ‘experience’ is defined by being a serial presidential candidate, then one must ask why such experience has failed to translate into national leadership,” Amechee said.

He also took aim at Atiku’s political character, describing him as a figure of division who has left a trail of discord across every party he has belonged to, and questioning whether he possesses the temperament required to lead at the national level.

On Jonathan’s record, Amechee pointed to a string of measurable achievements, including Nigeria’s rise to become Africa’s largest economy, the continent’s highest Foreign Direct Investment inflows, and a single-digit inflation rate.

He cited World Bank data showing the country’s poverty rate fell to 35.8 percent during Jonathan’s tenure — the lowest since 1999 and the best performance of the Fourth Republic.

He further noted that two of Nigeria’s five non-permanent seats on the UN Security Council since independence were secured under Jonathan, and that it was Jonathan who facilitated Dr. Akinwumi Adesina’s historic emergence as the first Nigerian president of the African Development Bank ADB in 2015.

Amechee praised Jonathan’s peaceful transfer of power in 2015, describing it as a democratic standard that remains unmatched.

“That singular act, born of his far-reaching electoral reforms, did more to strengthen our democracy than decades of political rhetoric,” he said.

He also drew a contrast between leaders who have governed and delivered, and those who have spent years seeking power while offering retrospective criticism.

“No amount of convenient revisionism can erase it,” he said of Jonathan’s record.