- Claims Obama Met 12 Northern Governors In 2015 Over Regime Change
Immediate past President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has lashed out at former Governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, describing him as a “pathetic and unpatriotic fellow”.
The former president who was reacting to the allegations made by Aliyu that he broke a purported agreement made with some Northern Governors under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), described the former governor as a pathetic fellow who resorted to telling lies in a bid to remain politically relevant.
Aliyu had earlier stated that the Northern PDP Governors withdrew their support for Jonathan in 2015 because he broke the purported agreement he made with the governors by insisting to contest in the presidential election of 2015.
The former Niger Governor had claimed that the Northern governors fulfilled their bargain of the agreement by supporting Jonathan to complete the tenure of the former president Musa Yar’Adua, who died while in office on May 5, 2010, and also in 2011, during his first term as the President. However, the former president allegedly breached the said agreement by contesting again in 2015.
However, Jonathan, who spoke through his former media aide, Mr Reno Omokri, asked the former Governor to provide evidence of the allegations he made against his principal.
According to Omokri, his principal had no agreement with any northern governors, adding that everyone knows that Aliyu is a betrayal and an unpatriotic fellow.
Recall that Aliyu was suspended in 2014 by the Niger State chapter of PDP in 2014 over allegations of anti-party activities.
Omokri also questioned the former governor on the reason Jonathan lost the presidential election of 2011 in Niger State.
Jonathan lost Niger State to Buhari who contested under the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), in the 2011 presidential election, during the administration of Aliyu as the governor of the state.
According to him, “General Muhammadu polled 652,574 votes to then President Jonathan’s 321,429 in Niger State in 2011…so, even if we want to say for argument’s sake that there was such an agreement, of which there was no such agreement, wouldn’t Governor Babangida Aliyu have been expected to have kept to his side of the bargain?”
This was contained in a statement issued by the former presidential aide.
The statement reads, “Babangida Aliyu is a pathetic fellow. He has become a broken record and, sadly, he feels that is the only way to remain relevant. Let me break his claim down for you in a way that it will be so crystal clear that he is lying.
“There was no such agreement, whether written or oral. Since he says it was written, then let Mr. Babangida Aliyu produce it. If he changes his statement and says it was not written after all, but actually verbal, then I challenge him to name witnesses.
“Mr Aliyu says the agreement the northern governors had with former President Jonathan was for him to finish off President Yar’Adua’s first term between May 6, 2010 and May 29, 2011, and then contest for only one term between May 29, 2011 and May 29, 2015.
“If this is true, then how come former President Jonathan lost the votes of Niger State at the Peoples Democratic Party presidential primary of January 13, 2011?
“How come, also, that former President Jonathan lost the actual presidential election, which held on April 16, 2011 to the candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, Muhammadu Buhari, in Niger State?
“General Muhammadu polled 652,574 votes to then President Jonathan’s 321,429 in Niger State in 2011. He got more than twice the number of votes secured by former President Jonathan.
“So, even if we want to say for argument’s sake that there was such an agreement, of which there was no such agreement, wouldn’t Governor Babangida Aliyu have been expected to have kept to his side of the bargain?
“The truth is that not only was there no such agreement, but Babangida Aliyu is such a perfidious character that does not even know that his current disposition contradicts his earlier statements.
“For example, in Mr. Segun Adeniyi’s book, Against the Run of Play: How an Incumbent President Was Defeated in Nigeria, published in 2017, Mr. Aliyu gave a completely different reason for working against former President Jonathan.
“According to Mr. Aliyu, the Obama administration had invited 12 governors from northern Nigeria to sound them out on their commitment to the plot to unseat the then President of Nigeria. In that book, the former Niger State governor said, ‘The Americans had resolved not to support Jonathan. They just wanted to size us up for the level of commitment to regime change.”
“Mr. Aliyu revealed in that book that he was an unpatriotic individual, who held meetings with a foreign government to undermine his own home government. He basically admitted to treason. Now, how can such a fellow be taken seriously by people who believe in the unity of Nigeria?
“Witnesses at that meeting revealed that the statements made by then governors Aliyu and Murtala Nyako were so dangerous to Nigeria’s unity that it prompted a strong rebuttal from Gombe state governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, who was also present.”
Recall also that The New Diplomat had reported that Former Governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang had also reacted to the allegations, stating that he was not aware of any agreement between Jonathan and Northern PDP Governors as he said he never worked against Jonathan in 2015.
Jang has since dissociated himself from the claims made by his former counterpart, Aliyu.
