"I Am Nothing Without My People" - Goodluck Jonathan On His 59th Birthday Celebration

Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has thanked Nigerians, world leaders who have extended felicitations to him on the occasion of his birthday on Sunday. 

The former president writing on his Facebook page yesterday, while appreciating the free flow of emotions extended to him said,

“What am I without my people? I thank you all and as you remember my birthday with me, my prayers are that God will also reward you.

“I thank my God who has enabled me live up to age 59. To Him alone be the glory. Let me also appreciate those world leaders and statesmen who have wished me well on this day as well as my beloved Nigerian people who have shown me a great outpouring of love.”

Meanwhile, tributes have continued to pour in for the ex-president, as the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while congratulating him said, “President Muhammadu Buhari has done nothing better since he assumed office on May 29, 2015.

Prince Dayo Adeyeye, the spokesman of the PDP Caretaker Committee, in a congratulatory message to Jonathan, said the electoral reforms for free, fair and credible elections for which the All Progressives Congress (APC) rode to power has been eroded by the present administration.

The PDP said the APC has replaced the electoral reforms done by Jonathan’s administration with inconclusive elections, electoral apathy, voter inducement, intimidation, harassment and unfair incarceration of judges and squeezing of opposition members at all levels by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The PDP, which said at 59, Jonathan’s legacies and achievements in academia, politics, governance and social life remained indelible and worthy of emulation by well-meaning Nigerians, added that the APC-led government has failed Nigerians.

“Your Excellency Sir, in less than two years of leaving office, Nigerians are yearning and crying for your return especially as your successor who won the 2015 presidential election on the altar of propaganda and lies against your administration has done no better since he took over from you on May 29, 2015.

“This reversal of your achievements is also visible in all sectors of our economy as the vibrant and largest economy you left behind in May 2015 is today in great recession and near depression.“This is your 59th Birthday Anniversary, and so let us allow you celebrate rather than bothering you with the sick and comatose state of our economy.”