Mr. Russel Brooks, the spokesperson for the US Embassy has debunked the news that the US had its warship stationed in Nigeria to frustrate the re-election of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. He said this when he paid a courtesy call on the Executive of the Nigerian Guild of Editors at Editors’ House in Lagos, Wednesday.

Mr. Brooks accompanied by Darcy Zotter, Public Affairs Officer at the Embassy and Mr Temitayo Famutimi, Information Specialist at the Public Affairs Section, said “there was no US warship in Nigeria during the election”.

While commending the Nigerian media for its robustness and resilience, he noted that cases of unsubstantiated stories being bandied as real stories still abounds. He attributed this to the pervasiveness of new media which has opened the media space for more players including persons who may not be as thorough as conventional media practitioners. He said there is evidence of existence of press freedom in Nigeria compared to some African countries.

He said the US is a promoter of press freedom because it believes that press freedom is fundamental for the grooming of democratic norms. He said the US Embassy was ready and willing to partner with the Nigerian Guild of Editors to promote ideals that would foster professionalism in the practice of journalism.

The President of the Guild, Mrs Funke Egbemode, told the visitors that the Guild and indeed the Nigerian media would be willing to partner with the Embassy to encourage more professionalism among journalists. She advocated for exchange programmes between US journalists and their Nigerian counterparts in which US journalist would actually work briefly in Nigerian newsroom to have a first-hand knowledge of the peculiar challenges “we face here”.

Former President, Goodluck Jonathan, had spoken on the loss of his Presidency. He said he lost the 2015 elections   to local and international conspiracies. He named the United States, Britain and France as the conspirators.

He blamed it all on former United States President Barack Obama, ex-British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande for aiding President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory.

Jonathan reminisced on his defeat in a new book, “Against The Run of Play”, which is authored by the Chairman of ThisDay Editorial Board, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi.

Jonathan revealed that he was betrayed by those he relied on to defeat Buhari.

He said: “President Barack Obama and his officials made it very clear to me by their actions that they wanted a change of government in Nigeria and we’re ready to do anything to achieve that purpose. They even brought some naval ships into the Gulf of Guinea in the days preceding the election.

“I got on well with Prime Minister David Cameron but at some point, I noticed that the Americans were putting pressure on him and he had to join them against me. But I didn’t realise how far President Obama was prepared to go to remove me until France caved in to the pressure from America.

“But weeks to the election, he had also joined the Americans in supporting the opposition against me.

Asked of Obama’s grouse against him, Jonathan added:  “There was this blanket accusation that my body language was supporting corruption, a line invented by the opposition but which the media and civil society bought into and helped to project to the world. That was the same thing I kept hearing from the Americans without specific allegations.”

Photo: Mr Brooks and Mrs Egbemode at Editors’ House