Former President Goodluck Jonathan has recounted how northern Muslim power blocs opposed the transfer of power to him following the death of his late principal, ex-President Umaru Yar’Adua, in 2010.
Jonathan made the disclosure in an interview with the Rainbow Book Club, which trended on Saturday, as he reflected on Nigeria’s electoral and political history documented in his memoir, My Transition Hours.
Yar’Adua was sworn in as President in 2007 but died on May 5, 2010, after an illness.
Jonathan, who was Vice President at the time, assumed office to complete the four-year term, after which he sought a fresh mandate as the country’s president in 2011.
Speaking in the interview, Jonathan revealed that the northern Muslims wanted Yar’Adua to complete a two-term of eight years before power would return to the South. But the late president’s health issues dealt them a big blow.
“There’s always balancing between North and South, Muslims and Christians. Yar’Adua, a northern Muslim, was the President, and he took over from a southern Christian, Obasanjo, who ruled for eight years.
“Definitely, the northern Muslims wanted Yar’Adua to at least do eight years before it could come back to the South for another, probably a Christian, to take over.
“But the health issue came up and it was the problem, and that was why even to allow me to act was an issue,” Jonathan said.
He noted that possibly due to the northern Muslims’ resistance, when Yar’Adua was leaving for a medical check-up, his aide refused to submit the letter to the National Assembly that would have formally transferred power to him as the vice president.
“When Yar’Adua was going for the medical checkup, actually a letter was written. Of course, the constitution says that for the vice president to act, the president will send a letter to the Senate and the House of Reps informing them.
“That letter was written. Well, the person whom the letter was handed over to was one of the aides of Yar’Adua and he refused to submit the letter to the National Assembly,” Jonathan said.
The former president emphasised that the refusal to transfer power created a huge political vacuum, which eventually pushed the National Assembly to invoke the Doctrine of Necessity.
“Yar’Adua became so ill that he had no control of issues. So, we had the country where the president was not available and there was no acting president.
“But we stayed for some time, and that led to what they call the Doctrine of Necessity. When the National Assembly felt that the country was in a situation where it was not expected, they had to initiate this Doctrine of Necessity, and they made me to act as the president without the letter from Yar’Adua.
“The country was tense, and under this North-South divide, Christian-Muslim divide, it was really tense,” Jonathan recalled.
He further disclosed that shortly before he took over, there were growing fears of a military coup, and one of his close allies even advised him to flee the State House for his safety, an idea he rejected.
The ex-President said, “Every day, I was hearing about coup, coup, coup. I remember one day, someone said to me, ‘You don’t have to sleep here. You have to come and sleep in my guest house.’ I said, ‘No, I would stay in the State House. If somebody wanted to kill me, it’s better you kill me in the State House, so Nigerians would know that they assassinated me in the State House.
“They knew I had not committed any offence. If I decided to go and stay in their guest house, security people would know, and if people go and kill me there, they would say, Indian girls brought apple to kill me.
“I don’t even want those kinds of stories. It is better that I die here in the State House than being assassinated outside the State House, because all kinds of stories would come up,” he added.
