A former governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, has revealed the reason northern governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) failed to support the re-election bid of former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.
According to the PDP chieftain, Governors in the North worked against Jonathan in 2015 because he failed to honour an agreement he made with the PDP governors.
Aliyu made this revelation in a statement he signed titled, ‘Why We Opposed Jonathan’s Second Term Bid –Babangida Aliyu.’
According to him, Jonathan broke the agreement he made with some northern chieftains of PDP by contesting for a second term.
He said, “President Goodluck Jonathan insisted to run for the office in 2015 against the grain of our earlier agreement.”
According to the former governor, Jonathan had made an agreement with the Northern Governors to only contest for a term following the death of former president Musa Yar’Adua.
He stated that the northern governors supported Jonathan to complete the tenure of Yar’Adua, who was a president of northern extraction and also supported him to contest for the President seat in 2011.
However, according to the statement, the governors withdrew their support following the declaration of Jonathan to contest again in 2015.
According to him, “the North would have lost out completely”, if they had supported Jonathan in 2015.
Aliyu also made this revelation in reaction to his purported suspension by the PDP in Chachanga Local Government Area of Niger State for alleged anti-party activities, including working against Jonathan in 2015.
The statement reads, “All the governors in the North under the PDP supported the then Vice-President Goodluck 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.
“Since this was against the grain of our earlier agreement in the party, and which we, the governors in the North felt the North would have been short-changed if Jonathan had succeeded, we rose stoutly to insist on the agreement we all had.
“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.
“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.
“We didn’t oppose Jonathan but we were opposed to his insistence on a second term in office because the North would have lost out completely.”
“It is, therefore, wrong for anyone to erroneously say that I, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, had opposed Goodluck Jonathan,” he added.
Jonathan lost the election to the candidate of the All Progressives Congress and incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to the official result of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Jonathan only won in three northern states, Nassarawa State; Plateau State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Buhari officially polled 15,424,921 votes to defeat Jonathan who scored 12,853,162 votes.
