– A former governor of Niger state, Babangida Aliyu has revealed why the North opposed former president Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid in 2015
– Aliyu said the North backed out because Jonathan reneged on his promise to govern for only one term of four years
– Aliyu was the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum at the time
A former governor of Niger state, Babangida Aliyu has revealed why the North opposed former president Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid in 2015.
Aliyu said the North backed out because Jonathan reneged on his promise to govern for only one term of four years
The former governor, who was then the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum made the revelation in the new book by the chairman of the Thisday editorial board, Segun Adeniyi titled: “Against The Run of Play.”
Babangida Aliyu says Jonathan reneged on his promise to contest for only one term
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In the book, Aliyu said: “If Jonathan had been clever enough to say he would not run and had stuck with the Peoples Democratic Party’s zoning formula by supporting a young northern candidate, I am almost certain Buhari would have shed his ambition to contest in 2015 knowing there was no way he would win.”
The book noted that one major issue of contention that rocked the PDP leading up to the election was that by seeking a second term, Jonathan was reneging on his much-talked about pledge to spend only one time in office.
But Jonathan disagreed, saying that he was misquoted. According to him, his pledge to stand election for only one time was based on the suggestion that if the constitution was amended to make for president to spend seven years in office.
Aliyu said that with suspicion mounting that Jonathan was contemplating changing his mind on the one-term deal, PDP governors held meetings with him individually and as a group.
Jonathan had a poor outing during the 2015 elections in the north
His words: “As chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, I recalled having to remind him of the commitment he made to us in 2010 before we supported his bid to contest. I know that other governors were also meeting him while a few were seeing themselves as potential candidates.
“In one of my meetings with him, I suggested he could even choose any credible PDP man he wanted from the North and such a person did not have to be among the governors. One day, he would agree to the idea, on another day he would say something else.”
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Aliyu however hinted at an agreement with Jonathan on the involvement of the United States of America in the outcome of the general elections that ousted the former commander-in-chief.
According to him, he and 11 other governors from the northern region of the country were invited to the United States to know if they were willing to remove Jonathan from office.
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