Ex-Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State has said some governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) worked against former President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term bid.
Reacting to his purported suspension by the PDP in Chachanga Local Government Area of Niger, the former governor said some PDP governors worked against Jonathan in 2015 because the immediate past president reneged on an agreement not to seek a second term.
The PDP in the LGA had said Aliyu was suspended for anti-party activities, including working against Jonathan in 2015.
Jonathan, the presidential candidate of the PDP in the election lost to President Muhammadu Buhari. He is the first incumbent Nigerian president to lose an election.
But Aliyu, a former chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, said the north would have lost out completely if Jonathan got reelected.
He said after northern governors supported Jonathan to complete the tenure of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the former president was still allowed to contest in 2011.
“Following the sudden passage of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on May 5th, 2010, the leadership of the then governing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) along with the state governors under the flagship of the party had series of meetings on the presidency and the future of our great party.
“All the governors in the North under the PDP supported the then Vice President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to complete the remaining years of Yar’Adua’s tenure and to contest the next presidential election as a sole candidate of our great party.
“However, midway, President Goodluck Jonathan insisted to run for the office in 2015 against the grain of our earlier agreement,” Aliyu said in a statement.
Aliyu said since the governors in the North felt their region would been shortchanged if Jonathan had succeeded, they rose stoutly to insist on the enforcement of the agreement.
“On that premise, we opposed Jonathan. But all along, Goodluck Jonathan had enjoyed every support from the governors in the north and the entire region.
“As chairman of the 19 Northern States Governors Forum, the task was on my shoulders to voice out the position of the North which stood disadvantaged by the demise of Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua and the insistence that Jonathan should run for the office of president in 2015.
“We acted in good spirit and argued our points based on principle and on the subsisting agreement we had with Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. That agreement was written and accepted by all. It is, therefore, wrong for anyone to erroneously say that I, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu had opposed Goodluck Jonathan,” he said.
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