Journalist and author of the controversial book, ‘Against the Run of Play’ Olusegun Adeniyi has denied ever distorting the views of former President Goodluck Jonathan in his book.
In the controversial book, some political actors in the 2015 presidential election made shocking revelations on the real reason Jonathan was ousted.
Jonathan in the book also revealed how the then United States government under the leadership of Barrack Obama contributed to his removal.
However, Jonathan who was not apparently comfortable with the backlash he has been getting for his claim, took to twitter to claim that many of his views were distorted.
Jonathan however said he will soon be coming out on what actually transpired during the election.
According to him, “I have just read Segun Adeniyi’s new book, ‘Against the Run of Play’ which has so far enjoyed tremendous reviews in the media.
“My take on it is that the book as presented contains many distorted claims on the 2015 Presidential election by many of the respondents.”
“There will obviously be more books like that on this subject by concerned Nigerians,” Jonathan had tweeted.
Reacting however, Adeniyi, a former presidential spokesman said Jonathan never said he was misquoted.
“The respondents President Jonathan was referring to are the people who spoke to me and whose claims he apparently disputes or disagrees with.
This should be clear enough to those who did not choose to read his statement with a tendentious accent,” he said.
“President Jonathan did not say I distorted his views and the fact that others may have presented him in ways he doesn’t like cannot be taken as an indictment of me or of my work.
“For the record, after my first conversation with President Jonathan, I asked for his email address and promised to send him the raw text of our conversation which he could then amend as appropriate.
“I sent it to him that very day. When I went for a second meeting, I took along a printed copy which we both went through line-by-line. Whatever he wanted removed, reworked or rephrased was done while in some areas he provided further context to what he said.
“Incidentally, a few hours after our second conversation, President Jonathan called me that he felt uncomfortable about a certain response he gave to a particular issue. He told me what to do and I reflected it immediately.
“I went into all that length because he is a man for whom I have tremendous respect and my intention was/is not to embarrass him or anybody. I just wanted his side of the story told in a way he is comfortable with.
“I went through this same process with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Senate President David Mark, APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, former NGF Chairman and current Transportation Minister, Mr Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, former Niger State
Governor, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu and a few other principal actors who all have in their emails the raw text of our conversations.”
Adeniyi said he went through a thorough vetting process with all the respondents so he would not misquote or distort their statements.
“The reason I did that was so I would not misquote, misrepresent or distort the views of any of the people who spoke to me on trust,” he said.
“My intention was not to ambush or set up anyone. This is why I gave them the opportunity to go over what they told me again before putting it in print.
“Fortunately, none of them has come out to say I distorted their views. Besides, I left out so many things in my book so as to avoid unnecessary controversies.
“Therefore, I did not distort President Jonathan’s view and he did not say I did. Now that he has reaffirmed what he told me that he is writing his own account, I will enjoin Nigerians to wait for his book.
