Former President Goodluck Jonathan has disclosed that members of his cabinet were consumed by trepidation and anxiety after he lost the presidential election in 2015.
Jonathan said their fearful disposition was engendered by the thoughts that the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari would jail them without a fair hearing.
He said some of the ministers that worked with him were apprehensive immediately Buhari assumed power thinking he would be hostile to them.
The former president made the disclosure during an interview on Arise TV on Monday, saying some of his cabinet members even felt he would run away, but he stayed in the country.
Jonathan said, “In my own time especially in the 2015 elections, my ministers, my senior officers, people who worked with me; there was this fear that having lost the election, what would be our fate?
“Would the new government just throw all of us into jail without giving a fair hearing? Because government is next to the court and can decide to do anything.”
Jonathan said the “tense atmosphere” his lieutenants encountered during the transition period in 2015 was not faced by the outgone government of Buhari.
When asked how Nigeria could come out of electoral controversy through reforms, he said, “The problem we have is INEC and security. And I used to give an example; if two soccer teams are playing and the referee decides to look the other way, they will injure themselves.