Ex-Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State has revealed that some governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) worked against former President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term bid.
The former governor said some governors from the PDP worked against Jonathan during the president’s reelection campaign in 2015 because, according to him, Goodluck 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 would eventually lose the presidential election to current President Muhammadu Buhari, in a historic defeat that saw the former Bayelsa governor become the first incumbent President to not be re-elected.
However, Aliyu, a former chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, has now 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.
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“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.
According to Aliyu, the Northern Governors felt the region would be shortchanged if Jonathan succeeded, hence, they resisted the ex-President’s second-term bid strongly based on their initial agreement.
The ex-NGF chair said that the north had been firmly in the corner of Jonathan before their fallout.
“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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