AN X user, Wale Adebayo(@Mari09ja) has claimed that former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan inherited a foreign reserve of over $50bn when he assumed the position of president in 2010 but spent it all before he left office.
He posted, “If Jonathan and his mismanagement team did not happen to Nigeria, we should be on about $200bn foreign reserves by now. Man inherited over $50bn and blew it away without any concrete thing to point to.”
The claim has generated over 161 reposts and more than 600 likes as of October 30, 2024.
CLAIM
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan inherited over $50bn as foreign reserve
THE FINDINGS
Goodluck Jonathan became Nigeria’s president in 2010 following the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, under whom Jonathan had served as vice president. When Yar’Adua fell ill and was unable to govern, Jonathan was appointed acting president. After Yar’Adua’s death on May 6, 2010, Jonathan was sworn in as president to complete the term.
In 2011, he contested and won the presidential election. In 2015, Jonathan sought re-election but lost to Muhammadu Buhari. After losing the 2015 presidential election to Muhammadu Buhari, he officially handed over power on May 29, 2015
The FactCheckHub reviewed the data recorded by the Central Bank of Nigeria over the years and the result showed that Nigeria’s foreign reserve stood at $40bn [$40,101,372,983.21] when Jonathan became the President on May 6, 2010, lower than the figure quoted by the X user. The figure is as of May 5, 2010.
Meanwhile, when he was leaving the position, he handed over $29.6bn [$29,595,2847,88.81] as gross foreign reserve to his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari. The figure is as of May 28, 2015.
When he was named acting president on February 9, 2010 the gross foreign reserve was $43bn [43,090,686,356.03] as of February 8 and was $42.8bn [42,823,046,920.17] as of February 9.
THE VERDICT
The claim that Jonathan inherited over $50bn as a foreign reserve and squandered it all is FALSE as findings showed the ex-president met $40bn when he assumed office on May 6, 2010 and left $29.6bn when he left office on May 29, 2015. The foreign reserve when he was named acting president was also less than $50bn. It was $43bn.
Update: a paragraph was added to note how much was the foreign reserve when Jonathan became the acting president.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
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